Volume 67, Issue 7

Looking Ahead to Technological Advancements
Department In Focus: Computer Science
by Hillel Broder

In todays technologically dependant world, computer expertise has emerged as a crucial discipline to scientific and technical advancement.  And that truth isn’t lost on Yeshiva.  Indeed, Yeshiva’s Computer Science department is working tirelessly to keep up with today’s exponential technological growth, but some faculty and students insist that a lack of qualified professors is hampering progress.

Dr. Bhaskar Sengupta, the new computer science department Chair, is interested in making “a concerted effort that a larger fraction of students graduating from Yeshiva College attend graduate school [in computer science].”  Currently, 10-20 percent of computer science majors pursue post‑graduate study; Sengupta intends to increase that percentage through personal consultation and advisement with students.

According to many students, and even some computer science faculty, the computer science department is suffering terribly from significant understaffing.  Indeed, Adjunct Professor Jerry Waxman maintained that one weak point of the department is “not enough full time faculty.”  With Dr. Michael Breban, a full time professor, on sabbatical this year, the only other full time professor remaining (with the exception of Sengupta) is Dr. Arnold Lebow.

“Yeshiva University administration needs to realize that Computer Science professors, although more expensive than English professors, are more valuable to students at Yeshiva and are greatly vital to maintaining any sort of quality computer science education Yeshiva offers,” asserted one faculty member.

Additionally, due to a severe shortage of faculty, many favored professors are relegated to teaching introductory level classes, while mediocre professors are teaching the advanced classes.

“Honestly, I feel cheated by the department because they have great teachers as you start your major requirements, but once you are knee-deep in the major there are only the poorest quality teachers available,” said one computer science major.

“The computer science field is huge,” added another student.  “Often electives can be as important or even more important then the required classes, in terms of the actual job market.  There are so few quality electives offered, with so few quality teachers, one has to wonder how serious an attitude the school has towards the computer science department.”

Although it was suggested to the administration that PhD students Menachem Hursarsky and Joshua Waxman – both of whom are currently lab teachers for computer science courses – be permitted to teach Introduction to Computer Science and courses in Data Structures as adjunct professors, Yeshiva invoked its policy of forbidding PhD students from acting as adjunct professors.

As this is a policy “across the board,” Husarsky and Waxman were forbidden from teaching the courses themselves.  Interestingly enough, non-PhD professors are currently teaching in the department, and Husarsky and Waxman cover certain aspects of the Introduction and Data Structures in their lab courses that are not taught in the lectures.

According to Yeshiva College senior and computer science major Josh Gottleib, Husarsky and Waxman are perfectly capable of teaching the two introductory programming courses, and “it is unfortunate that they are forbidden, because if they were permitted to [teach those courses], that would allow Dr. Waxman to teach more advanced courses, or even electives.”

In hiring Sengupta as the department chair in the beginning of fall 2002, Yeshiva has taken a stride toward better focusing the department.  According to Waxman, “Professor Sengupta’s really very good, and he’s working very hard for the department.”  In addition to chairing the department, Professor Sengupta is currently teaching a senior level course in Computer Algorithms.

YC junior Adam Steiner added, “Last fall, when I came, the department didn’t really have a chairman.  They had people who set the schedules but no one was in charge.  Now Sengupta is, and he’s taking it seriously, designing new courses [like] Compiler Theory and Graphic Design, and whipping everything into shape.  When [Professor Michael] Breban gets back from sabbatical it’ll be even better.”

Sengupta has aspirations for the department, including fostering “a culture of excellence in the program.”  He explained that the general sense he got “was that the computer science department lacked strong leadership and focus” prior to his arrival.

Sengupta has already taken action in this respect with plans to add a computer science honors track.  These two senior-level honors courses would include Introduction to Operations Research and a course entitled Computation Simulation.

According to YC senior Tuvia Lazar, “one of the greatest deficiencies in the department is the lack of available elective courses.”  This, it seems, is something Sengupta is attempting to address.

Although limited in number, however, Yeshiva computer science staff is dedicated and readily available to students.  According to Waxman, professors at Yeshiva devote much more of their time to the students than any other university he knows of.  Waxman, who concurrently holds a teaching position at City University of New York in Queens, commented that, relative to Yeshiva, Queens students have a very limited number of office hours that are open to consultations with their professors.

The computer science major is one of the most time-consuming majors in college, requiring students to take a total of 13 classes.  Although the number was originally 14, the department met two summers ago to address students’ protests that the major was nearly impossible to complete in three years.  The outcome was the removal of the introduction to computer science part two, compounding the material lost into other required courses.  The result, Waxman bemoaned, weakened the major because “greater intuition gained from large amounts of practice” was limited by less time devoted to practicing basic programming skills.

Who’s Who in Computer Science

There are currently six professors in the computer science department.

Dr. Bhaskar Sengupta, department chair, received his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, and his doctorate in operations research from Columbia University.  Before joining Yeshiva, Sengupta worked at the C&C Research Laboratories of NEC USA, and prior to that, in Bell Laboratories.  He has also taught in the State University of New York Stony Brook.  Sengupta is currently teaching a course in Algorithms.

Associate Professor Dr. Michael Breban received his diploma from Uzhgorod State University, and his M.S. and PhD from New York University.  According to Sengupta, Breban teaches “a full spectrum of courses.”  Gottleib suggested that more professors be “particularly like Professor Breban.”  Breban is currently on sabbatical.

Dr. Arnold Lebow received his B.S. and M.A. from Wayne State University, and his PhD from the University of Michigan.  This semester, Lebow is teaching a course in Discrete Structures and in Theory of Computation.

Dr. Jerry Waxman, adjunct professor, received his BA from YC, his MS from the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies, and his Rabbinic Ordination from the Rabbis Issac Elchanan Theological Seminary.  He holds an MS and PhD from N.Y.U. in Computer Science.  He is a full time professor at Queens College, and was previously chair of the computer science department there.  Waxman is teaching two courses this semester: Introduction to Computer Science and Data Structures.

Dr. Sig Handelman, a graduate of YC, worked for many years at IBM.  He also programmed for Mandelbrot himself (of fractal lore) at IBM.  He is currently teaching a course in XML.

Dr. Dana Hudes received his B.S. and M.S. from the New York Institute of Technology.  Hudes helped build the IBM global network, and has taught at CUNY Hunter College.  He has experience with hardware, communications, and networking, and is currently teaching courses in both Operating Systems and Networking.

Dr. Shapiro, of Baruch College, will be teaching a course in Data Base Systems next semester.  He received his MS in computer science from the University of Houston, Texas and his PhD in mathematics from the University of California, Berkeley.  His current research interests include information retrieval, text mining, databases, and analysis of algorithms.

The two lab assistants are PhD students Joshua Waxman and Menachem Husarsky.  They are both in the PhD program at CUNY.

Unlike most majors at YC, the Computer Science degree is much closer to a professional degree than a liberal arts degree.  Programming itself is “highly fluid and marketable” according to Sengupta.  Although the market for programmers has currently decreased, as the field develops and the economy rebounds, programmers will always be in high demand.  Some possible professions for students with computer science degrees include systems administration, web design, software development, and systems analysis.

There are currently 20-25 students declared as computer science majors in Yeshiva College.¨

What do you think? Click here to send a letter to the editors.
All content is copyright © Yeshiva University Commentator.