Computer Science at Illinois: A Deep Dive into the Human-Computer Interaction Program

For almost five decades, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) has stood as an international leader in computing research. With over 120 faculty members and more than 625 graduate students, the Department of Computer Science at Illinois conducts research broadly organized around 11 research areas. The Thomas M. Siebel Center for Computer Science, opened in 2004, serves as the department's home. This state-of-the-art building, located on the north side of campus within The Grainger College of Engineering, was made possible by a gift from alumnus Tom Siebel. The vision was to create not only a magnificent workspace but also opportunities to investigate and apply computing tools to the building itself.

Foundational Elements of the Computer Science Program

The Computer Science curriculum at UIUC provides a broad and deep knowledge of the theory, design, and application of computer systems, with an emphasis on software systems. Computing's ubiquitous nature means application areas span virtually any field imaginable, from developing gene sequencing algorithms via techniques in computational biology to designing user interfaces for mobile applications; from designing methods for high-frequency trading to creating computer-generated graphics and special effects in the gaming industry; and from creating embedded real-time systems to be deployed in medical devices to analyzing social data from internet communication patterns.

The curriculum provides a strong foundation in mathematics, science, and computation during the first two years. Advanced coursework in more technical core areas and areas of the student's choosing follows in the second two years. Both a combined B.S.-M.S. degree program and a B.S-M.C.S. degree program are available.

Graduation Requirements

To graduate, students must complete a minimum of 128 hours, and a minimum Technical GPA of 2.0 is required for CS and Math courses. A minimum of 40 hours of upper-division coursework, generally at the 300- or 400-level, is also required. Students must fulfill their Language Other Than English requirement by successfully completing a third level of a language other than English.

Foundational Mathematics and Science Courses

The Computer Science program includes a strong foundation in mathematics and science, encompassing courses such as:

MATH 221: Calculus I
MATH 231: Calculus II
MATH 241: Calculus III
MATH 257: Linear Algebra with Computational Applications (or MATH 415 or MATH 416)
PHYS 211: University Physics: Mechanics
PHYS 212: University Physics: Electricity & Magnetism

Students must also take one science elective course.

Computer Science Technical Core

The computer science technical core comprises the following courses:

CS 124: Introduction to Computer Science I
CS 128: Introduction to Computer Science II
CS 173: Discrete Structures
CS 222: Software Design Lab
CS 225: Data Structures
CS 233: Computer Architecture
CS 341: System Programming
CS 357: Numerical Methods I
CS 361: Probability & Statistics for Computer Science
CS 374: Introduction to Algorithms & Models of Computation
CS 421: Programming Languages & Compilers

Technical Electives

Students must take a minimum of six additional technical electives with at least eighteen cumulative credit hours, chosen from CS 397 and the CS 400-level courses, not including CS 400, CS 401, CS 402, CS 403 or CS 491. At least one of the CS courses used for technical electives must be chosen from a list of CS courses satisfying the team project requirement. At least three of the CS courses used for technical electives must be chosen from a single focus area.

Advanced Electives

Students must take a minimum of two advanced elective courses comprising at least six credit hours for a letter grade. These advanced elective courses must be distinct from courses used to satisfy the technical electives. They may be chosen from CS 397 Individual Study and the 400-level coursework offered for a letter grade in ANY area offered at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) at Illinois

We are living at a time when devices of all kinds have become central to our lives. While the technology has attracted more than sufficient interest, the human dimension too has begun to occupy a pre-eminent position over the last few years, with special attention brought to human-computer interaction. Naturally, there are many ways to look at this exceedingly fascinating area of study and is reflected in the various courses organized along different lines of emphasis but all under the same rubric - human-computer interaction. Some go beyond computers to look at human technology interaction. What is common to all courses is an emphasis on understanding user experience and incorporating those insights into products or services.

Human-computer interaction (HCI) is a design field that focuses on the design of computer technology and the interactions between humans and computers. This can be technology used to improve learning for students, tools at the intersection of aging and accessibility, and creative endeavors.

The interactive computing area at UIUC comprises scholars with diverse preparation, methodologies, and perspectives spanning interaction design, visualization, applied machine learning, decision sciences, and social computing. These scholars share the common goal of designing computational artifacts and developing pedagogy to address important questions that arise when algorithms mediate (and influence) individual and group decision-making; team formation or collectives; interaction design; and mechanisms that influence online behavioral norms.

The interactive computing group's groundbreaking research develops algorithms, designs experiments, and builds systems to answer research questions at different scales: individuals, small groups, and large groups.

Research Areas within HCI

At the individual level, the group has examined research questions around personal health, supporting work, and, more broadly, the design of just, equitable infrastructures. Our focus on individual health has led to the creation of tools to elicit communication in children and adults diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD); the creation of environments to support adherence to medical regimens for children with asthma; the development of embodied, mixed-reality rehabilitation systems; the design of algorithmic synthesis of messages; and the development of domestic robots to help aging-in-place. Our research on work environments has resulted in the development of algorithms for opportune notification management, design of decision control and automation systems; the design of visual analytics engines; and the creation of virtual environments for safety. Our emphasis on equity and justice has led to the development of contestable machine learning systems; the design of interfaces to communicate algorithmic knowledge and process; the creation of tools that democratize visualization for non-experts; methods to hide on the internet; and the design of adversarial bargaining systems. Our work has led to the creation of the term “algorithmic auditing” and an increased focus on the ethical implications of the use of algorithms in online platforms.

At the small group level, the group has examined algorithmic team formation, visualization of group conversations, and public visualizations that incentivize workplace collaboration. At a large scale, their work has examined crowdsourced design critiques and develops educational technologies for remote learning and identifying coordinated behavior. They are exploring novel approaches to online moderation and developing new AI-backed socio-technical systems. Their research pioneered the concept of design mining: using data mining and machine learning to capture and index large repositories of existing designs and correlate the design patterns found in these repositories with performance metrics to understand best practices.

Read also: Computer Science College Guide

Faculty and Recognition

The group, which comprises senior, mid-career, and junior faculty, including three ACM distinguished members, shows leadership in research, teaching, and service to the community. They publish at leading human-computer interaction and social computing conferences, and the community has recognized their work with best-paper awards and honorable mentions at these conferences. Their scholarship has also been recognized through highly visible external fellowships and with prominent awards within the university. Funding from federal agencies and industry support their work.

The group has received acclaim for its teaching and student mentoring. Their faculty have been honored with teaching excellence awards within the university. Their mentoring efforts have led to their undergraduates receiving CRA honorable mentions and their Ph.D. students taking faculty positions at top-tier peer institutions and prominent industry research labs. As part of broader service to the community, they help organize major conferences, associate editors of prominent journals in the field, and series editors of distinguished academic book collections. Their faculty are leading the Just Infrastructure center that interrogates the complex interactions between people, systems, and algorithms. Their public engagement has led to creating public datasets, startups, and changes in online governance.

Rico Dataset

As part of a collaboration with Google, their faculty have released and maintained the Rico dataset-the largest repository of mobile app designs collected to date-comprising more than 72k unique UI screens and 3M UI elements mined from 9.7k Android apps. This dataset’s scale and its semantic classification of UI components have made it possible for researchers in academia and industry to train deep neural models for mobile task automation, app testing, and UI layout generation.

Ph.D. in Computer Science

The Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science program at UIUC has different requirements based on the student's entry qualifications.

Entering with an Approved M.S. Degree in Computer Science

CS 599: Thesis Research (minimum 32 hours)
500-level CS Coursework (minimum 12 hours)
Additional 500-level Coursework (4 hours)
Remaining thesis research credit or graduate-level coursework (Minimum 16 hours)
Total Hours: 64

Entering with Another Approved Graduate Degree

CS 599: Thesis Research (minimum 32 hours)
500-level CS Coursework (minimum 12 hours)
Additional 500-level Coursework (4 hours)
Supplementary CS Graduate-level 400- or 500-level coursework (Minimum 8 hours)
Remaining thesis research credit or graduate-level coursework (Minimum 16 hours)
Total Hours: 72

Entering with a B.S. Degree

CS 599: Thesis Research (minimum 32 hours)
500-level CS Coursework (minimum 12 hours)
Additional 500-level Coursework (4 hours)
Supplementary CS Graduate-level 400- or 500-level coursework (Minimum 8 hours)
Additional graduate-level 400- or 500-level coursework (24 hours)
Remaining thesis research credit or graduate-level coursework (Minimum 16 hours)
Total Hours: 96

Other Requirements and Conditions

Regardless of entry qualifications, all Ph.D. students must fulfill the following requirements:

A teaching assistantship for an entire term, with a satisfactory performance evaluation by the department, is required by the end of the 5th year.
Ph.D. exam and dissertation requirements:
- International Students must show demonstration of English proficiency (equivalent to that necessary to be a TA-see Financial Aid) before taking the Qualifying Exam.
- Qualifying exam
- Preliminary exam
- Final exam or dissertation defense
- Dissertation deposit
Minimum GPA: 3.0

Admission Requirements

Applicants must hold a bachelor's degree equivalent to that granted by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The recommended background for students entering a Computer Science graduate degree program is a bachelor's or a master's degree (only if applying to the PhD program) in computer science or computer engineering. The Graduate Record Examination (GRE) general aptitude tests (Verbal, Quantitative, and Analytical) are no longer required. Applicants to the computer science PhD program must have a minimum grade point average (GPA) of 3.40 (A = 4.00) in their undergraduate studies (international GPAs are systematically converted) to be considered. The department reserves the right to admit applicants with lower GPAs under rare and exceptional circumstances. If an applicant also holds a graduate degree, the minimum GPA for that degree must be 3.00.

All applicants whose native language is not English are required to submit TOEFL or International English Language Testing System (IELTS) scores as evidence of English proficiency. All applicants, regardless of US citizenship, whose native language is not English and who wish to be considered for teaching assistantships (one of the most common forms of financial aid for new graduate students in the department) must demonstrate spoken English language proficiency by achieving a minimum score of 24 on the speaking subsection of the TOEFL iBT or 8 on the speaking subsection of the IELTS. Students who are unable to take the TOEFL iBT or IELTS are required to receive a minimum score of 5 on the OEAI Test, offered on campus.

Financial Aid

Fellowships, research assistantships, and teaching assistantships (all of which include tuition and partial fee waivers) are awarded on a competitive basis.

HCI Courses

The Computer Science department offers several courses related to HCI, including:

CS 465: User Interface Design
CS 467: Social Visualization
CS 417: Virtual Reality

These courses provide students with the knowledge and skills necessary to design and develop effective and user-friendly computer systems.

The Siebel Center: A Hub for Innovation

The home of the Department of Computer Science at Illinois is the Thomas M. Siebel Center for Computer Science, a state-of-the-art building that opened its doors in 2004. On the north side of campus, home to The Grainger College of Engineering, Siebel Center is an interactive computing habitat, made possible by a gift from alumnus Tom Siebel. The vision for the building was not only to create a magnificent space to work in, but to offer opportunities to investigate and apply computing tools on the building itself.

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