Investing in the Future One of the first departments in the United States officially elevated to the status of an independent school is Carnegie Mellon University's School of Computer Science, established in 1988. The independent status has enabled the school to follow a path devoted to excellence in both research and education and has helped push experimental computer science ideas from theory to practical demonstration.     Georgia Tech followed suit in 1990 when it established the College of Computing. The college's online description now states: "Georgia Tech invested in the future when it established the College of Computing, one of a few college-level computing units at a major U.S. research university. In naming the new college, it was essential to indicate that our interest would be in computing not just the discipline of computer science." Georgia Tech adds that it built on its strong foundation of computer science fundamentals and now conducts cutting-edge research in strategic areas ideal for collaborative work. "Be Bold" Today, many institutions that have made the change to an independent academic unit see encouraging results on several important levels. When asked how the transition from a department to a college most significantly benefited Georgia Tech, Freeman replies, "I think the students benefited in two primary ways:

As a college we were able to compete successfully for the resources - faculty, staff and equipment - essential to a quality education. And we had the flexibility to adjust our curriculum to changing conditions.     "In addition to the resource issue noted above, which is critical to faculty competitiveness, as a college we were able to establish high and appropriate standards of faculty performance that were tailored to the scholarly activities of our faculty," he explains. "I definitely think a stand-alone college or school gives an institution better positioning for distinction."     To programs evaluating the evolution into an independent academic unit, Freeman gives this advice. "Consider the change carefully, because each campus has its own needs, constraints and opportunities. Visit and study what others have done and are doing. And be bold - the changes that are coming will make the changes so far seem insignificant."     Addressing the current, difficult times in the technology and computing industry, Freeman says, "The downturn, like most, is only temporary. All indications are that the long-term outlook for computing is still very bright. … It is a great time to invest for the future. For more established independent computing units, I would predict that their independence will actually serve them well in the current, financially tight situation." Freeman concludes: "The importance of information is, in fact, much greater in difficult times because it is even more essential to make well-informed decisions."

CS Professor Mubarak Shah Elected IEEE Fellow SEECS celebrates five Fellows of IEEE, plus other honors and awards On November, 17, 2002, the Board of Directors of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE) conferred upon Mubarak Shah, Professor of Computer Science, the elite honor of IEEE Fellow. Shah's election to Fellow came with the citation: "For contributions to motion-based recognition and shape from shading in computer vision." IEEE - a technical professional association of more than 377,000 individual members in 150 countries - designates only about 0.1 percent of its membership to Fellow.     "It is a tremendous honor for me to be elected a Fellow of the IEEE," says Shah, who joined the CS department at UCF in 1986. "IEEE is a major and the largest professional organization in computer science and electrical engineering. I was lucky to be selected on my first time applying to Fellow."     Receiving this award puts Shah in excellent company within in the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He joins Narsingh Deo, Millican Chair Professor of Computer Science, Erol Gelenbe, Director and Professor of SEECS, Wasfy Mikhael, Professor of Electrical Engineering, and Amar Mukherjee, Professor of Computer Science, as Fellows of the IEEE.     Deo and Gelenbe are also Fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), the world's oldest and largest educational and scientific computing society with more than 75,000 members in 100 countries. IEEE Distinction "I would like to recognize Mubarak Shah for his wonderful career accomplishments," states Gelenbe on behalf of the SEECS faculty and staff. "We celebrate your recent election to IEEE Fellow and commend you on many successful ventures."     Shah received his B.E. degree in electronics in 1979 from Dawood College of Engineering and Technology, Karachi, Pakistan, where he had the distinction of graduating with the highest grades in the university. He was awarded the prestigious five-year Quaid-e-Azam (Father of Nation) scholarship for his Ph.D. studies. He completed his E.D.E. diploma in 1980 at Philips International Institute of Technology, Eindhoven, The Netherlands.     In 1982 and 1986 respectively, Shah earned his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Engineering from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. In his 17 years with the department, Shah's research areas have included: computer vision, gesture recognition, lip reading, shape from shading, visual surveillance, visual motion, motion-based recognition and optical flow.     Also of note is Shah's success in funding research projects. He has been awarded more than $4 million in grants from Federal, State and industry sources including the Florida Department of Transportation, Lockheed Martin Corp., Boeing Co. and Harris Corp. His research, particularly his work in computer vision, has earned Shah and the School of EECS a very positive reputation in industry.     "The interaction with a renowned member of the field of computer vision allows Lockheed Martin to be able to acquire leading edge technology," states Abhijit Mahalanobis, Distinguished Member of Technical Staff at Lockheed Martin. "I think the relationship between industry and academia is very important, and the various projects Lockheed is working on with Dr. Shah are great examples of how well the two can work together."