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Dear Badgers,
We look forward to the arrival of spring, but the question on our minds this year is - will we be able to tell the difference? Except for a few short bursts of winter weather, we have been experiencing the mildest winter since I arrived in Madison in 2001. Winter has never been my favorite season, but I cannot help but feel a bit cheated this year by having nothing to complain about. One upside is that we don’t have to explain to all our faculty candidates: Pay no attention to the weather now - it’s SO much nicer in summer and fall!
Speaking of which: We are in the early stages of another busy faculty recruiting season. We are shaking up our procedures for recruiting this year, which we hope will result in more great people joining us at this exciting time. Our department continues to flourish as we find creative ways to handle the explosion in demand for our courses and for advisors. Our new home in the CDIS building (opening in mid-2025) continues to shoot upward across the street, and the question of “where do we go as a department and as a discipline at UW-Madison” is a daily topic of discussion among ourselves and with our many stakeholders on campus and beyond.
I’d like to pay particular tribute to our department staff - the academic administrators and advisors; those handling HR and travel and reimbursements; the accountants and those helping faculty with proposal preparation and grant management; those working on alumni outreach, publicity, and development; and the overall department management and administration. In my role as chair, I interact with many of these wonderful people on a daily basis and am always impressed by their dedication and efficiency. I’m immensely grateful for all that they do!
We have a lot of good news to report in this edition, especially about distinctions and recognitions for our faculty. Please enjoy reading and, as always, On Wisconsin!
Steve Wright
Chair, Computer Sciences
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