Foundations of Computer Science are not redundant

As a professor who is working on programming languages, I strongly believe that the foundations of computer science area are essential in all the other areas of information technology.

Absurd proposal. Whichever administrative numbskull came up with this one should be the one to get laid off

Professor at SJSU (research area: machine learning/data mining). Shifting the hiring of new faculty and curriculum development to whatever is "hot" at any particular time (right now AI) is one thing. Prioritizing funding could also be an option. But purging an entire research area (and associated professors) so core to Computer Science is unheard of!

I am an associate professor at the University of California, Riverside and an ACM Distinguished Member. The proposed ceasing of research in FoCo is shortsighted and I am strongly opposed

Doing a PhD at Leicester was a life-changing experience for me, which is thanks to the people of (then) Computer Science department, and not their past research directions. Mainly my supervisor of course, but also other staff and students who helped me along the way. Reducing people to past research directions is only going to destroy the department. (Alexey Bakhirkin, PhD student 2012-2016, now Mathworks).

Academics are highly sensitive to job security because an academic cannot like a worker in industry just go next door and apply for a job. Making lecturers redundant will have a significant impact on future recruitment of academic staff. I would not recommend to anybody to apply at a university which makes permantent academics redundant, except maybe for a short time until a better position is found.

Foundation of CS is important.

It is such a shame if the valuable work and staff have not been recognised valuable.

A worrying trend undermining core aspects of the field, let alone the immediate human cost of such a move.

Carnegie Mellon University

Not another Durham!

University of Würzburg, Germany

Absolutely not.

There is no royal road.

This is disgusting

Low-Foundation/No-Code-Foundation

This is manifestly short sighted, since without the foundational work there would be no applications.

I think the proposed narrowing is dangerous. For instance, there has been much theoretical research on quantum computing, before "real" quantum computers were built. Quantum computers undermine the most common forms of cryptography that are fundamental to online privacy. So it is prudent to be ready for the moment when they become practical, which will happen extraordinarily suddenly. Although a focus on a few specific research areas makes sense, it would be dangerous to lose the link with foundations, which of their nature, prepare for the unexpected.

This is terribly misguided and will only succeed in destroying productive units, prematurely ending several faculty members’ careers, and in the end produce a unit that cannot possibly attain the recognition or stature of the existing mathematics or computer science departments. As just one example, it’s impossible to the fundamentals of AI without a strong mathematics faculty; the same is true of computational modeling and data science. You need strong groups of probabilists, statisticians and computational scientists (who are mathematicians) to underpin such efforts. Likewise, such a narrowly targeted program in computational science cannot offer credible degrees, or develop a stable program. And in the process you plan to destroy recognized researchers who bring positive attention to the university. I personally just spent 10 years building a new computer science department from scratch, and I can tell you what you plan is sheer folly. Michael Mislove Professor and Chair, Computer Science Pendergraft Herbert Buchanan Professor of Mathematics Tulane University

I already signed the mathematics petition, as a theoretical computer scientist I am even more concerned by this... Absolutely startled by how provincial and short-sighted the direction of this University can be.