The University's Computer Science department has experienced a boom in undergraduate course enrollment in the past six years.  

The introductory course for the major, "COSI 11A: Programming in Java and C," has almost tripled in enrollment since fall 2007. The course, which is only offered in the fall, enrolled 68 students in 2007. This semester, it has split into two sections with a combined enrollment of 203 students, with one course exceeding the enrollment cap of 100 students. Similarly, in spring 2008, "COSI 21A: Data Structures and the Fundamentals of Computing," a required course for the major, enrolled 26 students. This fall semester, the course enrolled 104 students, more than a fourfold increase.

According to a survey that the Justice administered to students in COSI 11A and COSI 21A in cooperation with Prof. Antonella DiLillo (COSI), 70 percent of students in COSI 11A who responded were first-years or sophomores.

Meanwhile, the number of Computer Science graduates in the past five years has remained largely consistent, ranging from 22 to 26 students. The total number of students majoring in Computer Science, however, has grown during that time, suggesting a large number of students with degrees in computer science slated to graduate in the future. Every March 15, the Registrar collects data on the total number of majors and minors enrolled in every department. On March 15, 2009, only 36 students had declared a major in Computer Science. This past March 15, that number had grown to 61 students, close to doubling in size over four years.

The trend is not limited to Brandeis. The Brown Daily Herald and the Boston Globe have recently published articles describing similar jumps in computer science enrollment at Brown University and Harvard University, respectively. At Brown, the chair of the computer science department estimated that 12 percent of all undergraduates are enrolled in a computer science course, according to the Herald. Harvard offers the popular CS50 course, which enrolls almost 700 students and commands a staff of 102 teaching assistants, graders and multimedia producers, reported the Globe.

According to Dean of Arts and Sciences Susan Birren in an email to the Justice, a similar increase in enrollment was seen "in the early 2000s."

"Apparently the department has seen large swings in undergraduate numbers more than once-it probably has something to do with how computer science has been represented in the media and then group dynamics. ... [T]he more friends you know studying something, the more aware you are," wrote Brian Slepian '14, a teaching assistant for COSI 190A and former teaching assistant for COSI 30A, in an email to the Justice.

Reasons for the rise
DiLillo, the instructor for both sections of COSI 11A and this semester's section of COSI 21A, expressed in an interview with the Justice her belief that some students are looking to gain programming skills for their r?(c)sum?(c)s while others are interested exploring computer science as a potential major. "Nowadays, there are a lot of data out there in every field. Economics, biology, neuroscience, so on and so forth. So I also think that a lot of people are starting to see that pairing computer science with something else, like economics and this kind of stuff, is the way to go right now," said DiLillo.

"Now I see a very diverse group," said Avishek Neupane '14, a former teaching assistant for COSI 12B, in an interview with the Justice. "I see people who are doing creative arts and doing computer science. I see people doing biology and computer science. I see a more diverse group of people than what it originally used to be."

Prof. Harry Mairson (COSI), the undergraduate advising head for the department, expressed a similar sentiment in an email to the Justice. "First, the economy is rebounding in this area: entrepreneurship, startups, venture capital funding. Facebook, Twitter, and spinoffs provide examples, and this social media technology also amplifies discussion and interest.  Second, a lot of what we mean by 'understanding' is now computational.  Understanding processes-whether they take place inside computers, in the economy, in biological organisms, or even in artistic creation-is described more and more often using computational and algorithmic metaphors," wrote Mairson.

According to a Justice survey, 66 percent of respondents enrolled in the course due to their interest in the subject matter.
One student responded that "[t]he creativity in logical problem solving and my love of games and puzzles," drew him or her to computer science.

"The amazing artistic possibilities" drew another student. This student wanted "[t]o create and to imagine new worlds, all directly accessible at my fingertips."

Other students pointed to job prospects in the future in their answers. Twenty-three percent of respondents indicated that they enrolled in COSI 11A for that reason.

"I got my [Bachelor of Arts] in English, and I tried to get a job for years with very little success. I decided to do a science instead of liberal arts because the sciences seem to have much better career prospects," wrote one student. "Computer Science was the most interesting technical degree to me, and something I thought might be a good fit for me."

"I was drawn to computer science because a friend told me it would help me get jobs," wrote another.

"I think having a computer science degree is very marketable," said Kelsey Lafer '14, an undergraduate department representative for the Computer Science department who has been a teaching assistant for COSI 2A, 11A, 12B and 21A, in an interview with the Justice. "It's probably one of the easiest majors to get a job from, coming out of college."

According to Lafer, part of the rise in interest in computer science comes from its representation in media and over the past few years.

"Movies like [The Social Network] definitely sparked interest in [computer science]. ... I think it inspired a bunch of people to think, 'Maybe I can do that' or 'Wouldn't it be cool if I could do that?'" she said.

Other students explained that they wanted to learn important programming and coding skills, while a few stated that the instructor, DiLillo, drew them to the course.

The results from a similar survey given to students enrolled in COSI 21a showed that 52 percent of students enrolled in the course primarily in order to fulfill their major or minor requirements-90 percent of respondents said that they were planning on majoring or minoring in computer science-while the primary reason for 32 percent of students enrolled due to interest in subject matter. The percentage of students taking the course for job prospects was six percent. Many students wrote about their interest in the subjects drawing them to the field. The remaining 10 percent enrolled in the course mainly to fulfill University requirements or "other" reasons.
"Came for the 0s, stayed for the 1s," wrote one respondent. "Actually, I just find coding incredibly fun and interesting, so I feel I should channel that interest into something potentially utile to other human beings."

Thirty-five percent of respondents said that they had considered dropping the course-compared to 15 percent of students enrolled in 11A. Out of those students, 76 percent said that they wanted to drop the course due to unsatisfactory performance.

When asked why they stayed enrolled, students explained that they either needed the course for a requirement, the professor had encouraged them to stay or that they felt they could improve their performance.

Sixty-four percent of respondents to the COSI 11A survey said that they would go on to take COSI 12B and 59 percent said that they were planning on majoring or minoring in computer science. That number rose to 90 percent among students in COSI 21A.

According to the DiLillo, typically about 50 percent of students who enroll in COSI 11A decide to take COSI 12B.

The response
In order to accommodate the growth in enrollment, DiLillo explained that she has widened the criteria for serving as a teaching fellow and has decided to start offering recitations in her classes. "The first thing that I have decided to do for next semester is having recitation going along with the lecture. ... That's one change that I'm planning on for [COSI11A]. I actually already decided to have that for [COSI12B] next semester," said DiLillo.  

With regard to hiring teaching fellows, DiLillo explained that she likes to keep the ratio of students to teaching fellows low in her classes. "I like to keep the ratio one-to-10. [One] TA to 10 students."  

DiLillo reported having 300 students total in her classes, thus overseeing 30 teaching fellows. "The TAs have a 15-minute one-on-one with students where they can go over assignments and help them to restructure the [computer] program. ... It's critical for me to have that kind of support." In order to find 30 teaching fellows for her classes, she has had to begin hiring undergraduate sophomores. "Usually my TAs were between seniors and juniors, but nowadays I also had to take someone like a sophomore," DiLillo said.

"[M]ore faculty and resources would benefit the students in the form of more classes and elective choices," wrote Eden Zik '16, a teaching assistant for COSI 11A, in an email the Justice.

Recently, the department has increased the number of teaching faculty. DiLillo formerly held the title of lecturer and is now listed as an assistant professor on the Faculty Guide. This semester, Prof. Praveen Chaturvedi (COSI) was brought in as a lecturer to teach a course on mobile application development and will be teaching a course on MATLAB in the spring. Additionally, several other lecturers have been brought in to teach upper-level courses in computational linguistics.  

"As Dean of Arts and Sciences I work with departments to make sure that they have the resources they need to successfully mount their course offerings," wrote Birren. "If needed, this can include adding an additional section to a course, adding new courses to the curriculum, or increasing the number of TAs as course size increases. We have done all of these things in Computer Science over the past few years and will continue to work with the department to help them adjust to changes in enrollments.

"I think it's important that the department changes according to the increased interest in Computer Science. I think they should," said Lafer. "Computer science isn't going away," she added.

-Phil Gallagher contributed reporting