New Department of Computing and Information Systems

News, News for Students, Slideshow — By Jennifer Thomas on January 16, 2012 9:31 am

The Melbourne School of Engineering welcomes its newest department, the Department of  Computing and Information Systems (CIS), which officially commenced on January 1, 2012. Bringing together the staff, students and programs of the Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering at the Melbourne School of Engineering and the Department of Information Systems at the Faculty of Science, the new department creates a unified home for IT education and research at the University of Melbourne.

Along with work required to create the new department, significant effort is going in to the review and redesign of IT courses to streamline the program suite. At the undergraduate level, new majors in “Computing and Software Systems” and “Informatics” will be introduced in 2012. The graduate programs to be offered by the new department are currently under review for changes to phase in from 2013, but all currently enrolled students will be able to complete their courses as planned.

In mid-2012, CIS will move to a new home in the Doug McDonell building (Building 168 on the campus map). This refurbished building will become the hub of IT research and study on campus and will be renamed to reflect its new purpose.

Professor Justin Zobel, who has recently been appointed as the Head of the new Department, said that CIS will continue to build on the long history of creation and discovery in IT at the University of Melbourne.

“IT is increasingly a component of every aspect of our society,” Professor Zobel said.

“The Department of  Computing and Information Systems will provide a platform that ensures all students have the opportunity to understand how these technologies work, what their limits are and how they can best be exploited in any domain of human endeavour, ” he said.

In addition, the merger will strengthen the long tradition of research collaboration between the two departments and open up new opportunities, such as the recent ARC linkage grant project “Growing old and staying connected: touch screen technology for ameliorating older people’s experience of social isolation”.

Dean of Engineering, Professor Iven Mareels, said that the IT disciplines at Melbourne have a distinguished history, achieving numerous Australian ‘firsts’ and performing strongly in national and international rankings.

“Computing and Information are the keys that will unlock a whole new wave of technological advancement in the 21st century, and it is critically important that we provide programs that encourage enquiring students to capitalise on these dramatic advances,” Professor Mareels said.

Information about IT programs is available from the Melbourne School of Information; the gateway to IT course, career and industry information at the University of Melbourne.

Tags: computer science and software engineering, computing and information systems, Melbourne School of Information, MSE, research