Over the last four years, four junior faculty members have been added to the CS roster, in part to broaden the department's coverage and to strengthen the quality of research.

But ultimately, says Gortler, "if there was no demand for courses, it would be hard to justify the growth of faculty. "

More Central Processors

More faculty brings at least two benefits.

Each new lecturer or professor has introduced a seminar to help broaden course offerings.

And a perennial problem--so called "orphan classes" that were taught irregularly and by different professors--has been eased by the glut of new hires.

CS 124: "Data Structures" was one such orphan, Gortler says, but now it has a father: Professor Michael D. Mitzenmacher, who intends to teach it regularly.

CS 152: "Principles of Programming Languages" hadn't been taught regularly until Professor Norman Ramsey came on board.

Eventually, Gortler says, the department hopes to be able to split large introductory classes--specifically CS-50--and have two faculty members teach different sections. For now, the priority remains to "adopt" out courses and to broaden course offerings.

And although advising and other number sensitive programs, like independent study, haven't suffered from the number crunch yet, Gortler anticipates that the growing number of concentrators may cause problems in the future.

"There's a general understanding that we will continue to grow, we'll probably aim to hire one person a year," Gortler says.

Gigabytes of Space

Space to accommodate new faculty has been the primary problem for most expanding departments.

For CS, the problem has been resolved by its recent move to a brand new building--Maxwell-Dworkin.

Gortler points to the new building as another indicator of the increased demand to study computer science at Harvard, and Hutchinson says that CS and other DEAS departments had no trouble finding good use for the new space.

"As soon as any space becomes available, it gets filled," says Hutchinson, "[But]it's made an enormous difference. It's exciting, certainly, and we have the room for new junior faculty," Hutchinson says.

Hutchinson also says the growth has been helped by "Dean Venky's" commitment to the department's growth.