UMass Amherst Computer Science faculty are a group of talented, passionate individuals who are dedicated to educating and mentoring students while conducting research that will push the boundaries of technology. The faculty members in Computer Science have expertise in areas such as artificial intelligence, computer graphics, machine learning, databases, cybersecurity, distributed systems and networks, and programming languages. Check out the umass amherst computer science requirements and the umass amherst computer science acceptance rate below.

Our faculty’s interests are vast and varied: they study everything from how to make computers think like humans to how to make them fly. They are studying ways to improve the quality of life for people who have disabilities through assistive technologies or by using technology to detect fraud in financial markets. They are also trying to understand how society can benefit from having access to massive amounts of data through new methods of analysis.

Some of our faculty members have won prestigious awards for their work; others have been recognized for their contributions to society through public service activities such as teaching children about computers at local libraries or working with local high schools on science fair projects that incorporate technology into traditional classroom activities.

umass amherst computer science requirements

B.A. In Computer Science Degree Requirements

The College of Information and Computer Sciences has an interdisciplinary Bachelor’s of Arts (BA) degree in Computer Science. The program began in Fall 2010.

The computer science undergraduate program provides a solid foundation in the science of computing. To receive a baccalaureate degree, the University requires that a student successfully complete a minimum of 120 credits with a minimum cumulative grade point average of 2.0 (A=4.0). The Bachelor of Arts in Computer Science will graduate computing professionals who have the necessary depth of expertise in computer science to have lifelong careers in the field, and who, at the same time, have sufficient exposure to a second discipline to be able to interact with professionals in that field in a knowledgeable manner, so as to apply advanced computer science techniques to problems in that second area. This degree is particularly appropriate for students who are interested in combining Computer Science with another discipline as a double major.

Major Changes into CS are by application only.  If you are interested in joining our major, submit your application.  If you have questions after reviewing the process, please contact the appropriate list on our Contact Us With Your Questions page.

If you are already a CS Major and want to switch between BS and BA, talk with your advisor and fill out a “program change” form.

Students completing the Computer Science BA (or BS) and a Math major or minor will find some helpful advice on this page.

Students in the Computer Science B.S. no longer have foreign language course requirements (college requirement), only students in the B.A. program do.

BA Requirements

• MAJOR Requirements for BA
• BA TRACKING Form is to be used by all students who pursue the BA to track progress.
• Four-course outside concentration and how to submit courses for UPD review/approval.

The tracking forms are informal descriptions of the programs that are for guidance only, and they do not define official policy.  See Academic Requirements Report (ARR) on SPIRE.

When Does A Course Count For The CS Major?

A computer science major may not use any course taken on a pass/fail basis to fulfill the computer science program requirements (including mathematics, lab science, and computer science introductory, core, and upper-level elective courses). Students must maintain an average grade of at least C (2.0) in all courses used to satisfy the major degree requirement (see major GPA on the ARR).  While courses with grades of C-, D+, or D may be counted toward the degree, students normally repeat these courses so that the new grade will replace the old in their GPA calculation (Check Academic Regulations for rules about repeating courses).  A grade below C will normally not suffice as a prerequisite for a later course. For example, enrolling in COMPSCI 220 requires a grade of “C or better” in COMPSCI 187.

What Is An Approved CS Elective?

Any regularly numbered COMPSCI course at the 300-level or above may be used as an elective, excluding CICS 305 (formerly COMPSCI 305), or if it is specifically barred as an elective in its course description.

The following require ARR Fixes which may be updated closer to graduation:

• Experimental courses (x90), seminar courses (x91-x95) and special topics (x97) may only be used as CS electives at the 300- or 400-level depending on the level if specifically stated in the course description.  *Only 3 credits of a CS Capstone courses (499T/P) can be used as a CS elective 400+ (see NOTE).  ONLY email upd@cs.umass.edu if you want to EXCLUDE one of these courses.
• Independent studies (x96) at the 300-level (or above) are reviewed for CS elective credit via the independent study approval process during registration.  If UPD approved for major requirements, *only 3 credits of independent study can be used as a CS elective (see NOTE).  ONLY email upd@cs.umass.edu if you want to EXCLUDE.

NOTE:  *Only 3 credits of either COMPSCI 499P/T or COMPSCI 396/496/596 may be used toward CS Major requirements.

Master’s In Computer Science Program

The college offers concentrations in Data Science,  Security, and Field Experience which meet all of the regular non-thesis master’s degree requirements. The requirements for the Concentrations in Data Science and Security emphasize data science and security related courses. The Field Experience emphasizes internship skill development applied to project based courses.

All master’s program students are expected to have a solid undergraduate background in computer science. If you are unsure of your background, you should consult master’s advisor, Elizabeth Parolski, for course options.

Master’s students are required to: MS Course Requirements are explained in greater detail here.

• Complete 30-course credits meeting the Course Requirements
• Satisfy 4 Core Requirements (at least one from each area)
  • Take one Theory, one Systems, one Machine Learning, and one from any area, and earn a B or higher in each core class.
• Satisfy 12 credits, or 4 courses, of 600-level or higher courses. 

The Master’s in Computer Science degree is a non-thesis degree, however, students interested in research are encouraged to participate in independent study research after their first semester of coursework. In addition, the MS program offers a Master’s Project 6 credit research opportunity. This is a project that involves working with two professors on a research project or paper. The Master’s Project frequently spans two academic semesters. 

Umass Amherst Computer Science Faculty

The College of Information and Computer Sciences (CICS) announces the appointment of twelve new tenure-track and teaching faculty in 2020 to create capacity for its growing academic and research programs, after hiring five new faculty in 2019.

“After extraordinary work by the search chairs, hiring committees, hiring teams, and grad reps, I look forward to welcoming twelve impressive new faculty over the next few years,” said Laura Haas, dean of CICS. “The college will be considerably stronger for their contributions, as we work together to increase teaching capacity and build on our research strengths in several key areas, including data science and artificial intelligence, theory, information retrieval, and robotics.”

These twelve new faculty will bring the college’s cohort of tenure-stream and teaching faculty to 74. Of the college’s 62 current and 11 emeritus members, 40 are professional society fellows and 20 have received lifetime research achievement awards. In addition to these new hires, Yair Zick, who was hired in 2019 as an assistant professor, will arrive on campus in the fall of 2020.

Hung Le, Assistant Professor Starting Fall 2020Hung Le was most recently a postdoc at the University of Victoria, on a fellowship from the Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences. He received his doctorate in computer science from Oregon State University, and his bachelor’s degree from Hanoi University of Science and Technology. His research has focused on problems in low dimensional metrics, minor-free graphs, and graphs of bounded expansion.

Hui Guan, Assistant Professor Starting Fall 2020Hui Guan recently received her doctorate from North Carolina State University. Her research lies in the intersection of machine learning and programming systems, with a focus on improving machine learning through innovations in algorithms and programming systems, as well as leveraging machine learning to improve high-performance computing. She holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications in China.

Peter Klemperer, Senior Teaching Faculty Starting Fall 2020Peter Klemperer was most recently an assistant professor of computer science at Mount Holyoke College. He is interested in all aspects of computer security, with an emphasis on virtualized systems and usability, including how virtualization can provide an isolated high ground position for malware detection in operating systems and processes. He received his doctorate at Carnegie Mellon University in 2014, and a master’s degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2008.

Hamed Zamani, Assistant Professor Starting Fall 2020Hamed Zamani’s research interests include various aspects of information retrieval, recommender systems, and machine learning. He was most recently a Researcher at Microsoft, working on a wide range of theoretical and practical problems related to search engines. Prior to Microsoft, he spent four years at the Center for Intelligent Information Retrieval at the College of Information and Computer Sciences, UMass Amherst, where he received his doctorate in 2019, winning the college’s Outstanding Dissertation Award for that year.

Laure Thompson, Assistant Professor Starting Fall 2020Laure Thompson’s research bridges machine learning and natural language processing with humanistic scholarship. She develops methods for understanding and intentionally altering what models learn, as well as methods and methodologies for studying humanities collections at scale. Her work focuses on understanding how information is encoded within trained models’ learned representations and how intentional data modification affects these representations. Laure Thompson is completing her PhD at Cornell University and is expected to receive her doctorate later this summer. She received a best paper award from COLING in 2018.

Ghazaleh Parvini, Teaching Faculty Starting Fall 2020Ghazaleh Parvini’s research focuses on algorithms, optimization, computational biology and graph theory. She is a doctoral candidate at Iowa State University, where she works as a graduate instructor teaching discrete mathematics. Parvini received her master’s and bachelor’s degrees from the University of Tehran in 2015 and 2012. She has previously worked as a software developer, instructor, and mathematics teacher, and describes herself as “a teacher, a programmer, and a theory lover.”

Ethan Zuckerman, Associate Professor Starting Spring 2021Ethan Zuckerman comes to UMass after nearly a decade at MIT, where he served as director of the Center for Civic Media and associate professor of practice in media arts and sciences at the MIT Media Lab. The author of the books Rewire: Digital Cosmopolitans in the Age of Connection, and the forthcoming Mistrust: How Losing Faith in Institutions Provides the Tools to Transform Them, his research focuses on the use of media as a tool for social change, the role of technology in international development and the use of new media technologies by activists. He received his bachelor’s degree from Williams College and, as a Fulbright scholar, studied at the University of Ghana at Legon. His interdisciplinary position is jointly supported by the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences and the College of Information and Computer Sciences.

Bruno Castro da Silva, Assistant Professor  Starting Spring 2021Bruno Castro da Silva was most recently an associate professor at the Institute of Informatics at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul UFRGS, Brazil. His research interests lie in the intersection of machine learning, reinforcement learning, optimal control theory, and robotics, and include the construction of reusable motor skills, active learning, efficient exploration of large state-spaces, and Bayesian optimization applied to control. He was previously a postdoctoral associate at the Aerospace Controls Laboratory at MIT LIDS. He received his doctorate in computer science from the College of Information and Computer Sciences, UMass Amherst in 2014, and his master’s and bachelor’s degrees in computer science from UFRGS in 2007 and 2004.

Donghyun Kim, Assistant Professor Starting Spring 2021Donghyun Kim aspires to create robust and versatile legged robots capable of all-terrain mobility for service and emergency applications, with a focus on optimizing control algorithms to accomplish advanced dynamic locomotion. He was most recently a postdoctoral associate at MIT. He received his doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin in 2017, and his master’s and bachelor’s degrees in mechanical engineering from Seoul National University and Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in 2012 and 2007.

Cindy Xiong, Assistant Professor  Starting Fall 2021Cindy Xiong is a doctoral candidate in the Visual Thinking Lab at Northwestern University. Her research interests include cognitive psychology, perception, education, decision making and data visualization. Xiong was a visiting scholar at Utrecht University in the Netherlands in 2018, and received bachelor’s degrees in applied mathematics and psychology from UCLA in 2016.

Gayane Vardoyan, Assistant Professor  Starting Fall 2021Gayane Vardoyan is a doctoral candidate working in systems and networking at CICS with advisor Don Towsley. Her recent research interests have focused on problems in quantum communication. Prior to joining CICS, she will be a postdoc at Delft University of Technology, Netherlands, supported by the Quantum Software Consortium’s Ada Lovelace Fellowship. Vardoyan received her master’s from CICS in 2017 and a bachelor’s in electrical engineering and computer sciences from the University of California, Berkeley in 2011. Previously, she worked at the Argonne National Lab and the Computation Institute at the University of Chicago.

Ravi Karkar, Assistant Professor  Starting Fall 2022 Ravi Karkar is a doctoral candidate in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington. His research focus is on designing, developing, and evaluating tools that can enable people to gather data and interpret personal aspects of their medical condition in the context of their day-to-day lives. He received his master’s degree in computer science from Georgia Institute of Technology in 2012 and his bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering from Gujarat University, India in 2011.

National Rankings

CICS graduate programs in computer science rank in the top 20 among public and private institutions in North America.

U.S. News & World Report 2018 CICS also consistently ranks among the top 25 computer science graduate programs on CS Rankings, a metrics-based ranking system managed by CICS professor Emery Berger. 

The CICS undergraduate program in computer science ranks #31 among all public and private institutions in the U.S.

U.S. News & World Report 2021

A Decade of Growth

Since 2011, enrollment in CICS undergraduate and graduate programs has increased by over 300%.

A Destination of Choice for High Achieving Students

(First-year students, Fall 2021)

Average High School

GPA 4.2

1429

Average SAT 

26%

Women

Up from 14.5% in 2016 and comparable to the industry benchmark of 26%

Bright Futures

Our talented graduates start out a step ahead.

The annual graduate outcomes report includes detailed information about post-graduate placement.

(Class of 2021)

$90K

Median salary for bachelor’s degree graduates

$110K

Median salary for MS/PhD graduates

68%

Percentage of graduates who remain in Massachusetts for their first job

65%

Percentage of CICS undergraduate students who participated in one or more internships during their time at UMass Amherst

Internationally Recognized Faculty

Since the founding of the UMass Amherst computer science program in 1964, our faculty have continuously been recognized for their achievements and contributions to computing. More >>

• Tenure-Stream & Teaching Faculty86
• Lifetime Research Achievement Awards22
• Professional Society Fellows44

• National Science Foundation CAREER Awards32
• UMass Amherst Distinguished Professors7

Innovative Interdisciplinary Research

We deliver on the promise of computing by developing secure, fair, trustworthy, easy-to-use, and helpful technologies that advance science, improve our quality of life, and contribute to the progress of society.

Research Centers & Institutes

• Center for Data Science
• Center for Intelligent Information Retrieval
• Center for Smart & Connected Society
• Computational Social Science Institute
• Cybersecurity Institute

Excellence & Impact

• New awards (in FY21)$22.9Mincluding $4.1M from corporations
• Expenditures (in FY21)$19.5Ma 46% increase since 2011
• Collaborationswith every college across campus

umass amherst computer science acceptance rate

We’re a group of professors at the University of Massachusetts Amherst who are excited to share with you all the things we’ve learned about computer science! We’re here to help you learn about this exciting field in an engaging, accessible way.

As a student looking for a career in the field, you may be feeling overwhelmed by how many options there are out there. But don’t worry! We’ve got your back. We know how hard it is to make choices when it comes to your career path, so we’ve created this site to give you some guidance on what kind of work might be right for you.

If you want to learn more about us as professors, check out our About page. If you’re interested in taking one of our courses or just want to chat with us about anything related to computer science, feel free to reach out!