DALLAS, Texas (Aug. 31, 2004) – The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) awards more computer science degrees — bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees combined — than any other university in the United States, based on the results of the latest Survey of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE).
UTD’s Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science, which was founded less than two decades ago, awarded 592 such degrees in the 2002-03 academic year, the latest year studied, according to the ASEE database, compared with 466 for the University of Texas, Austin, 453 for the University of Southern California (USC), 371 for the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and 318 for Stanford University.
The Jonsson School ranked fifth in the total combined number of electrical engineering and computer science degrees with 757, behind engineering schools at North Carolina State, 983; USC, 973; Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 883; Virginia Tech, 797; and ahead of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 746; and Stanford, 701. (U. T. Austin’s computer science department was not included in this group, since it is not part of that university’s engineering school.)
According to the ASEE’s latest edition of Profiles of Engineering and Engineering Technology Colleges, U. T. Dallas ranked 38 th in the nation in the number of electrical engineering bachelor’s degrees conferred (77).
The Jonsson School ranked 15 th in the nation among engineering schools in the percentage (30.3) of bachelor’s degrees awarded to women during the period surveyed, which included the fall semester of 2002, and the spring and summer semesters of 2003, and 16 th in the percentage (33.1) of master’s degrees awarded to women. Furthermore, according to the Survey of ASEE data, the Jonsson School also ranked first in the number of female tenured/tenure track computer science faculty members (six) within an engineering school.
Dr. Bob Helms, dean of the Jonsson School, said UTD’s number one ranking in computer science graduates and his school’s strong showing in its percentage of women graduates and tenured/tenure track faculty were “further evidence that we are really on the move and beginning to get noticed nationally.”
Helms, who joined UTD in 2003, has set a goal that Jonsson will achieve tier–one status as one of the top 50 engineering schools in the country by 2008.
The Jonsson School is known for its innovative programs. It was the first school in the U. S. to have an accredited telecommunications engineering degree, and it is one of the few schools to have a software engineering program.
About UTD
The University of Texas at Dallas, located at the convergence of Richardson, Plano and Dallas in the heart of the complex of major multinational technology corporations known as the Telecom Corridor, enrolls more than 14,000 students. The school’s freshman class traditionally stands at the forefront of Texas state universities in terms of average SAT scores. The university offers a broad assortment of bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree programs. For additional information about UTD, please visit the university’s web site at www.utdallas.edu.