Research Experiences for Undergraduates Department of Computer Science Binghamton University

Why an REU in CS at Binghamton?

In its 60 year history, Binghamton University has evolved from a four-year liberal arts college with a reputation for superb undergraduate education, into an excellent doctoral research university with a range of liberal arts, engineering, and professional programs that carefully seek to preserve and build upon its traditional undergraduate excellence. This reputation is being maintained and improved in an environment that has recently placed an increasing emphasis on graduate programs and research excellence.

Binghamton's Computer Science (CS) Department is participting in, and by many significant metrics leading, this march toward becoming a top-flight research institution, while maintaining excellence in undergraduate education. Over the past eight years, the Department has hired twelve new tenure track CS faculty. This has approximately doubled the size of the faculty, and has infused vigor into the department's research activity.

Binghamton's success in mixing undergraduate excellence with strong research, especially within the CS Department, constitutes fertile ground for an NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) Site. In a sense, over the past several years, Binghamton University and its CS Department have forged a path analogous to the ones being pursued by prospective undergraduate REU participants. That is, we have built on a solid foundation of excellence in undergraduate education, and have become world-class researchers. We believe that participating in our REU program will significantly help undergraduate participants to achieve similar intellectual growth and success.

• From insideBU: Students sample life of a researcher
  (this article was also picked up by ACM Technews, August 24, 2007