Creating World-Class Computer Science at Stanford: 60 Years of Innovation

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Abstract/Contents

Abstract: The seeds of Stanford’s currently most popular undergraduate major, computer science, grew from the university’s administrative needs, and those of science and engineering research. Provost Fred Terman’s prescient vision of an emerging discipline—the science and engineering of computation—led to the 1957 hiring of George Forsythe to fill a Math Department position specifically created for computer science (CS). In 1961, Forsythe launched a graduate CS program—a division of the Math Department—and recruited key faculty. Four years later, it was spun off as a separate department. CS expanded to include an undergraduate major after it moved, in 1985, to the School of Engineering. A half-century after it began, the Computer Science Department still ranks at or near the top in international ratings.

Sponsor	Stanford Historical Society
Speaker	Aiken, Alex
Speaker	Feigenbaum, Edward
Speaker	Knuth, Donald
Speaker	Nilsson, Nils
Associated with	Sahami, Mehran

Subject	Stanford University
Genre	Lectures

Finding Aid	Title Stanford Historical Society Program Recordings (SC0683)
Location	https://purl.stanford.edu/rc200wt2318
Location	SC0683
Repository	Stanford University. Libraries. Department of Special Collections and University Archives

Use and reproduction: The materials are open for research use and may be used freely for non-commercial purposes with an attribution. For commercial permission requests, please contact the Stanford University Archives (universityarchives@stanford.edu).

Stanford Historical Society program recordings, 1997-2022

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