News

Portland State University (PSU) and Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) announced that 10 computer science and engineering faculty members will move from OHSU’s OGI School of Science & Engineering to PSU’s Maseeh College of Engineering and Computer Science, effective today.

According to PSU and OHSU officials, this change enables each institution to concentrate on its own unique areas of expertise within computer science and engineering while underscoring the growing collaboration between PSU, OHSU and OGI.

Portland State Computer Science Chair Cynthia Brown and Maseeh College Dean Robert Dryden welcome new professor James Hook

Under this arrangement, nationally recognized OGI computer science programs in networking and systems, programming languages and formal methods, and data-intensive systems (databases) will transition to PSU’s Maseeh College, where they will be consolidated within PSU’s existing computer science research and education programs, which include research clusters in the area of software engineering, theory and algorithms, learning systems, high performance computing and computer security. The move of 10 tenure-track faculty members also includes 20 Ph.D. students and research programs generating $2 million in annual research expenditures.

“This move will enable the Maseeh College to advance its mission to be both regionally relevant and nationally prominent in disciplines that are very important to the current and future success of the region,” said Dean Robert D. Dryden. “This is the computer science department that Oregon and the region urgently need.”

OGI School of Science & Engineering‘s 14 computer science faculty will now be focused primarily on computer science and engineering research with viable health applications in such areas as speech recognition, adaptive systems, biosensor development, human-computer communication, software engineering, systems design and digital imaging. OGI will continue to offer degrees in computer science.

Ed Thompson, Ph.D., OHSU vice president and dean of OGI, sees the transition as a positive step for both institutions and one that will allow OGI to accelerate its ongoing process of shifting its research focus onto issues of human and ecosystem health—a transformation that began three years ago upon OGI’s merger with OSHU.

“The change in research focus is a natural outgrowth of the merger and changes in federal funders’ priorities,” Thompson said. “Recognizing that research funding agencies are increasingly committed to multidisciplinary projects in health, information technology and the environment, we have been encouraging our scientists and engineers to incorporate an element of health and wellness into their work across all disciplines.”

The Department of Computer Science at Portland State currently has 20 faculty members, 450 undergraduate and 120 graduate students, 20 of whom are Ph.D. candidates, and $1.3 million annually in externally funded research. PSU’s research funding in the Department of Computer Science is expected to grow to $5 million annually by 2007.

“Achieving a critical mass of computer science talent will serve to attract the best undergraduate and graduate students and to provide an outstanding educational resource for working professionals,” said PSU Computer Science department chair Cynthia A. Brown. “We are excited to have this opportunity to propel computer science at Portland State to a position of national prominence.”

Increasing the number of computer science faculty and students, as well as funded research, moves the Maseeh College closer to its goal of creating a nationally ranked computer science program—a vision shared by the college and by Dr. Fariborz Maseeh, founder and president of The Massiah Foundation, whose recent $8 million gift is the largest in the University’s history. In recognition of this investment by Dr. Maseeh, the college became the Fariborz Maseeh College of Engineering and Computer Science.

Portland State University’s Maseeh College of Engineering and Computer Science is uniquely positioned to deliver progressive engineering and computer science education. By teaming with regional industry and government, faculty members keep the curriculum current and prepare PSU students to make an immediate contribution to the workforce through participation in Senior Capstone design projects, internships and research opportunities. During the 2003-04 academic year, the Maseeh College had a total enrollment of 1,987 students in its undergraduate and graduate programs, a 57-percent increase since 1999.

The OGI School of Science & Engineering, located on OHSU’s West Campus in Hillsboro, was originally chartered by the Oregon Legislature in 1963 as the Portland area’s first provider of graduate-level education in science and technology. Primarily federally funded, OGI expects to conduct $9 million in research in 2005, about one third of which will be focused on health-related problems.

Sources:
Pamela Gesme Miller (503-725-8135)
PSU Maseeh College of Engineering and Computer Science

Michael MacRae (503-748-1042)
OGI School of Science & Engineering