History
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2020
- The Master’s of Science in Artificial Intelligence program is established in fall 2024.
- The Undergraduate Bachelor of Science in Artificial Intelligence program is approved to start in spring 2025.
- CIC is recognized with the Student Organization of the Year award.
- Girls Who Code student organization is recognized with the Program/Event of the Year award.
- Dr. Deepak Tosh receives the prestigious NSF Career Award.
- Dr. Kreinovich is recognized as one of the leading researchers in the world.
- UTEP-led CAHSI Alliance Receives $4.8M from Google to increase the number of Hispanic students who earn graduate degrees in computing.
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, US Space Systems Command, and UTEP establish the Cyber Halo Innovation Research Program (CHIRP) at UTEP.
- Dr. Martine Ceberio is appointed Associate Dean of Engineering for People, Culture, and Environment.
- CIC is recognized with the Program/Event of the Year award.
- CS graduate, Adeel Malik receives the University's Outstanding Dissertation Award.
- The Hopper Dean Center of Excellence for K-12 CS Education is established with a $5M endowment.
- NSF renews UTEP’s CyberCorps(R) program with a $5M grant.
- Dr. Kreinovich Among UTEP Faculty Making the List of Top Researchers in the World.
- Dr. Ann Gates Receives Top Leadership Award from AAHHE.
- UTEP Alumnus and Researcher, Dr. Acosta is awarded the prestigious Department of the Army Civilian Service Achievement Medal for his commitment to improving workforce diversity.
- Dr. Salamah Salamah becomes Department Chair.
- Dr. Ann Gates is appointed Vice Provost.
- Dr. Martine Ceberio is inducted into the UT System Academy of Distinguished Teachers.
2010
- Dr. Heather Wilson is named President of UTEP.
- UTEP is honored by the Center for Minorities and People with Disabilities for supporting minorities in Computer Science.
- Dr. Martine Ceberio receives the Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award.
- Dr. Natalia Villanueva-Rosales receives the 2019 Hispanic Engineer National Achievement Award.
- The CS undergraduate program adds a concentration in Data Analytics.
- ACM-W student organization is recognized with the Program/Event of the Year award.
- UTEP earns R1 status by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education.
- The CS undergraduate program adds a concentration in Software Engineering.
- Dr. Salamah Salamah and Jaime Acosta (ARL) receive the ARL award for collaboration.
- The Coding Interview Club (CIC) is founded by Googler in Residence Schuyler Manchester.
- The first cohort of UTEP CS students are selected for the Google’s Tech Exchange program.
- The CS department is awarded a $5M NSF S-STEM grant to prepare future cybersecurity workforce.
- Dr. Vladik Kreinovich, is recognized for his contributions and research in Fuzzy Systems by The International Fuzzy System Association.
- UTEP is Designated as an Army Research Lab remote campus with a focus on Cybersecurity Assessment and Analysis.
- The CS department is awarded a $1.9M NSF grant to revolutionize CS education.
- NSA Designates UTEP as a National Center of Academic Excellence (CAE) in Cyber Operations (one of only 18 institutions nationwide)
- UTEP is designated as a CyberCorps(R) Institution through a $4M Scholarship for Service grant from NSF and DHS.
- CAHSI is highlighted by the White House as a Bright Spot in Hispanic Education
- Dr. Ann Gates receives the 2015 Great Minds in STEM’s Education award.
- Dr. Nigel Ward is awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to conduct research at Kyoto University in Japan.
- The Frontiers in Education Conference is held in El Paso
- The Master’s of Science in Software Engineering program is established.
- The undergraduate CS and graduate Software Engineering programs add concentrations in Secure Cyber-Systems.
- Minersvll@UTEP places second in IBM’s Great Mind Challenge: Watson Edition
- UTEP celebrates its 100 years anniversary.
- The grand opening of CCSB takes place on March 2, 2012.
- Luis Jimenez’s sculpture “End of the Trail (with Electric Sunset)” is moved from the library to CCSB.
- Dr. Ann Gates returns as Department Chair.
- Dr. Chris Kiekintveld receives the prestigious NSF Career Award.
- UTEP Engineering hosts the National Center for Women & Information Technology Award.
- The department moves into the new Chemistry and Computer Science Building (CCSB).
- Dr. Ward becomes Department Chair.
- UTEP is designated by the NSA as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education.
- CS graduate, Jaime Acosta receives the University's Outstanding Dissertation Award.
- Dr. Martine Ceberio receives the prestigious NSF career award.
- CS Hosts NAFIPS 2010.
2000
- The Center for Information Assurance is formed.
- Eunice Santos becomes Department Chair.
- Dr. Steve Roach receives the university’s 2008 chancellor’s council award for outstanding teaching.
- The undergraduate curriculum is streamlined to 120 hours.
- The Master’s of Science in Information Technology program is established.
- San 2007, the 13th GAMM-IMACS International Symposium on Scientific Computing, Computer Arithmetic, and Validated Numerics is held at UTEP.
- Cyber-ShARE Center of Excellence is established with NSF funding.
- The semi-annual NMSU/UTEP Workshop on Mathematics and Computer Science Series is started.
- UTEP hosts SIGDOC 2007.
- UTEP, in consortium with Stanford University and other partners, is awarded the Administration of the ARMY’s high performance computing research center.
- The UNIX Teaching Lab is upgraded and converted from Solaris to RedHat Linux.
- The Ph.D. program in Computer Science is established.
- Dr. Ann Gates becomes Department Chair.
- The Challman Scholarship is established; Nidia Pedregon is the first awardee.
- Fares Fraij is awarded the first Ph.D. in Computer Science and receives the University's Outstanding Dissertation Award.
- The Computer Science Fight Song is written; to be sung at TCM on other special occasions to the tune of Marty Robbin’s El Paso.
- Dr. Nigel Ward develops the Acceptance Estimator for Computer Science Graduate Admissions.
- CS graduate, Oscar Mondragon receives the University's Outstanding Dissertation Award.
- The Computing Alliance of Hispanic-Serving Institutions (CAHSI) is founded with NSF support.
- Java replaces Scheme as the first language of instruction.
- Dr. Ann Gates receives the University's 2003 Chancellor's Council Award for Outstanding Teaching.
- Dr. Vladik Kreinovich receives the 2003 UTEP Faculty Achievement Award for Research.
- Mr. Ray Bell's teaching is recognized with the UTEP Distinguished Teaching Award.
- The Lockheed-Martin "Storefront" is established on campus.
- CS graduate, Raul Trejo receives the University's Outstanding Dissertation Award.
- The Master’s of Information Technology (MIT) Program is established as a joint effort between the CS Department and the College of Business Administration.
- The undergraduate program is accredited by ABET.
- Scheme replaces Pascal as the initial language of instruction.
- The dot.com bubble bursts.
1990
- The International Logic Programming Symposium is held at UTEP.
- The UTEP CS Robot Team wins 1st prize in the AAAI Vacuum Contest.
- Dr. Dan Cooke becomes Department Chair and receives the University Distinguished Achievement in Research Award.
- The UTEP CS Robot Team wins 3rd prize in the AAAI Office Navigation Contest.
- The first department website is launched and includes the first web pages on El Paso and Juarez.
- Dr. Chitta Baral receives the prestigious NSF Career Award.
- The Computer Science department moves into the newly refurbished Old Geology Building.
- The Ph.D. program in Computer Engineering is established.
- The Pan-American Center for Earth and Environmental Studies (PACES) is established with NASA sponsorship.
- The first issue of RAGMAG, a student-produced newsletter with humor and inside jokes, is published.
1980
- Courses in Computer Networks and Computer Vision are introduced.
- Dr. Riter leaves the department to become Dean of Engineering, and Dr. Bernat becomes Department Chair.
- Dr. Gelfond receives the UTEP Distinguished Service Award for Research.
- Dr. Diana Natalicio is named President of UTEP.
- The department office moves back to the Engineering Building.
- Courses in Artificial Intelligence, Distributed Processing, and Senior Professional Orientation are added to the undergraduate Computer Science program, and the two-semester Software Engineering Capstone is introduced.
- The Master’s of Science in Computer Science program has its first two graduates: Andreas Hoetzel and Kay Roy.
- Departmental status is granted to Computer Science by the Coordinating Board, Texas College and University System, and approval is given for a Master’s Degree program in Computer Science.
- Students use two major locations for computer terminals: one of them is in the Classroom Building and the other in Liberal Arts.
- The Master’s of Science in Computer Science is first offered, with thesis and non-thesis options.
- Classes in Computer Graphics and Data Communications are introduced.
- The department office moves to Bell Hall.
- The Computer Science Department is founded. The founding faculty include Dr. Steve Riter from Electrical Engineering, Dr. Michael Gelfond from Mathematics, and Dr. Andrew Bernat, from the Institute for Astronomy in Hawaii.
- The new department is housed on the third floor of the Engineering Building.
- There are 657 declared Computer Science majors in Fall of 1982.
- Courses in Simulating and Operating Systems are first introduced. The languages of instruction include FORTRAN, COBOL, Pascal, Assembler, and JCL.
1970
- The Computer Science program appears in the UTEP catalog for the first time. The program is housed in the EE Department and has three "options": Business, Computation (Algorithms), and Computer Systems.
- The first full Computer Science graduating class receives their degrees: Jorge A. Fernandez, Robert A. Coyne, Lee A. Paicurich, Rafael J. Rasura, Daniel T. Rueda, Fernando Saenz-Chavira, and Wesley S. White.
- An interdisciplinary program in Computer Science is developed by Business, Mathematics, and Electrical Engineering. This is despite opposition from some of the more traditional-minded faculty, who argued that computers were merely useful appliances, like toasters, and that the notion of "Computer Science" made no more sense than did "Toaster Science."
- The 700 lb. disks with the university seal are hoisted into place in September 1977.
- The Engineering Science Complex is completed in October 1976.
- The University Computing Center is established to cover all computer needs on campus: administrative, instructional, and research.
- The Data Processing and Computation Center is located in the former Bell Hall dining room. It boasts an IBM 360/50 with storage capability of 180 million characters.
1960
- Texas Western College is renamed The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP).
- Electronic Data Processing, BUSN 3304, covering "Punch Card Electronic Data Processing, Principles and Problems of Accounting Systems" is offered by the newly founded School of Business.
- A crane is used to lift UTEP's first major computer equipment into Old Main. The Control Data Corporation 3100 computer system with twenty components is placed in a newly renovated third-floor space for the Computer Center coordinated by Physics Professor Robert Schumaker.
- The use of the UTEP Computer Center begins in 1967 and is expanded in 1973 on the ground floor of Benedict Hall with the acquisition of a new computer.
- The UTEP basketball team wins the NCAA National Championship.
- EE 3472 Digital Computers and EE 3473 Analog Computers courses are added to Electrical Engineering.
- Computer courses are first taught in Old Main.
