Abstract
In the spring of 2002, I was focused on my new position at NSF that was due to begin in May. I did not spend much time looking back and assessing where the College of Computing was, even though I cared deeply about its status (and still do). I knew that things in the College were on an even keel albeit with some developing problems and needed changes, it was moving forward with a good cohort of maturing leaders, and I was not worried. However, two people at Tech had been watching and assessing the College’s place at Tech and in the wider world of academe—President G. Wayne Clough and Provost Jean-Lou Chameau. It soon became clear to my successor that they believed the College had a great future and were prepared to support that, not only in the interests of the College, but as a strategic driver for Georgia Tech.
You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.
—Buckminster Fuller
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
The fact that I had been considered seriously in the late 1990s for provost at several good schools (and turned down one offer at the last minute) would certainly have been known to them––clear signals that I probably would not stay at Tech forever.
- 2.
Transcription of interview of Richard DeMillo by William Aspray on June 29, 2020. Transcription available in College of Computing Archives, Georgia Tech Library.
- 3.
“Charge to CoC Working Group,” Richard DeMillo, January 2003, available in College of Computing Archives, Georgia Tech Library.
- 4.
DeMillo, op. cit.; Interview of Richard Fujimoto by William Aspray on September 3, 2020. Transcription available in College of Computing Archives, Georgia Tech Library.
- 5.
Interview of Ellen Zegura by William Aspray on July 31, 2020. Transcription available in College of Computing Archives, Georgia Tech Library.
- 6.
After I stepped down, the Provost formed a campus-wide search committee for a new dean. There is no public documentation, but Furst was probably considered by them as a possible candidate.
- 7.
From Internet to Robotics: A roadmap for US Robotics, http://www.us-robotics.us/reports/CCC%20Report.pdf, accessed May 20, 2021.
- 8.
Squeak -- Object-Oriented Design with Multimedia Applications, Mark Guzdial, Prentice-Hall, 2000.
- 9.
‘Media computation’ means manipulating the individual pixels of a picture or bytes of a sound sample by means of a program, not ‘computation by media.’
- 10.
A number of years later in 2016 I was teaching a senior course at CoC and one of the top students on campus (and in my class) was a Computational Media major. I doubt she would have majored in computing without the B.S. in Computational Media (her sister chose CS at Stanford instead) and upon graduation took a position as an assistant to Steven Colbert, the creator and host of a popular, late-night TV show—not the usual type of position for a computing graduate (!) and a small example of the usefulness of the Computational Media degree to a broader selection of students.
- 11.
“The most gender-balanced computing program in the USA,” Mark Guzdial, bit.ly/477SPMq. Accessed 11/10/2023.
- 12.
Threads™: How to restructure a computer science curriculum for a flat world,” Merrick Furst, Charles Isbell, and Mark Guzdial, SIGCSE Conference Proceedings, March 2007, Association for Computing Machinery; Abelard to Apple: The Fate of American Colleges and Universities, Richard A. Demillo, MIT Press, 2011, prologue, Chapter 12; “Threads™: A Better Way to Learn Computing,” College of Computing Website, https://b.gatech.edu/47s6j5t. Accessed 11/11/2023.
- 13.
Thomas L. Friedman, The World is Flat, 2nd Edition, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006.
- 14.
Fujimoto, op. cit.
- 15.
Ashok Goel, Director of the HCC Ph.D. from 2012–2019, kindly provided the basis for this description.
- 16.
“Ph.D. in Human-Centered Computing,” College of Computing Website, https://b.gatech.edu/3svSfJr. Accessed 11/11/2023.
- 17.
Interview of Aaron Bobick by William Aspray on August 24, 2020. Transcription available in College of Computing Archives, Georgia Tech Library.
- 18.
Interview of Mustaque Ahamad by William Aspray on December 29, 2020. Transcription available in College of Computing Archives, Georgia Tech Library.
- 19.
“CERCS: Center for Experimental Research in Computer Systems,” http://www.cercs.gatech.edu/www.cercs.gatech.edu/index.html. Accessed October 8, 2022.
- 20.
“Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines,” https://research.gatech.edu/robotics. Accessed October 8, 2022.
- 21.
C21U, Georgia Tech Website, https://c21u.gatech.edu. Accessed February 8, 2023.
- 22.
“Achieving and Assessing Service in Computing Service Learning: Lessons from Computing for Good,” Ellen W. Zegura, International Journal for Service Learning in Engineering Special Edition, pp. 424–438, Fall 2014.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2024 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Freeman, P.A. (2024). Strategic Expansion (2002–2010). In: Vision and Actualization in Academia. History of Computing. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-43930-8_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-43930-8_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-43929-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-43930-8
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)