The Computer Science Department welcomes two new faculty this year:

Nicole Eikmeier

Professor Eikmeier joins us from Purdue University, where she recently finished her PhD dissertation in the field of network analysis and random graph models. During her first year, she will teach Functional Problem Solving (Data Science) and Analysis of Algorithms.

Shervin Hajiamini

Professor Hajiamini joins us from Washington State University, where he recently finished his PhD dissertation titled Optimality study of dynamic voltage/frequency scaling in fine-to coarse-grain island partitioning for multicore systems. During his first year, he will teach Object-Oriented Problem Solving, Data Structures, and Algorithms and Operating Systems and Parallel Algorithms.

We are excited to have these outstanding faculty members joining the department.

These are some of the questions we've received about the position, along with our answers. We have posted them with the expectation that they will also be useful to others. Feel free to send additional questions to CSSearch@grinnell.edu.

Is this a new position or a replacement position?

This is a new position, intended primarily to support growth in the major and permit additional breadth of offerings.

Will you consider candidates who do not have a Ph.D.?

We will certainly consider candidates who are on track to the Ph.D., but have not yet completed their dissertation. College policy requires that tenure-track faculty have completed their Ph.D. (or other terminal degree) by the time of their third-year review.

What courses will the new hire teach?

Grinnell's normal teaching load is five courses (or equivalent) over two semesters. We try to make sure that faculty in their first year teach two sections of either CSC 151, Functional Problem Solving, the first course in our introductory sequence, or CSC 161, Imperative Problem Solving, the second course in our introductory sequence. In each semester, we'll pair you with an experienced faculty member who will be teaching another section of that course. Other than that, we will do our best to allow you to teach the courses in our curriculum that you would prefer to teach. As time goes on, we will encourage you to expand into other courses; we're a collegial department and try to work out schedules that balance interests and workload each year. It looks like we'll have room in our schedule for a new course in year two, and the new hire will have the opportunity to design that course to meet their scholarly interests. Finally, as the advertisement notes, every few years each faculty member teaches tutorial, a seminar-style class for first-year students.

How many students are there in CS courses?

We cap our introductory courses at 28, our mid-level courses at 24, and our upper-level courses at 20. Current demand means that most courses enroll to capacity. We currently graduate about 60 CS majors each year.

What are Grinnell College students like?

Hmmm ... that's an interesting question. By and large, we find Grinnell students a joy to teach. Most of them are taking classes because they want to learn, not because they have to or because they need to check off a box in order to graduate. Almost all of them have multiple interests. We see CS majors doing improv, playing in ensembles and bands, competing on the athletic fields, and more.

Is there financial support for faculty scholarship?

Each faculty member gets a base annual budget of $3,000 to cover supplies, travel, and assistants. An additional $5,000 is available through a competitive process. Summer research students are covered out of a separate budget, as are supplies for those students. New faculty get reasonably generous startup packages. In computer science, each faculty member has their own research lab. Other resources are also available on a case-by-case basis.

Is there interdisciplinary work at Grinnell that could involve computer science?

In general, yes. Faculty in many disciplines use computing as part of their work. Some likely collaborations would like be with our biology faculty who are interested in bioinformatics, our computational chemists, faculty working on the cross-disciplinary data science program, and some of our arts, music, or theater faculty. But others are certainly possible. In the end, it depends on two faculty finding common interests.

What do Grinnell students do after graduation?

The College helps us track graduate outcomes of our majors (many also like to keep in touch with the faculty). Our computer science majors generally go on to do the typical variety of things that CS majors do. Some end up at the "big three" (Google, Microsoft, Amazon). Some end up at startups. A few go on to graduate school immediately after college. Some end up in the financial industry. Some head off to volunteer opportunities at Teach for America or Lutheran Volunteer Corps. Over the longer term, some bring their general thinking skills to other areas. We count physicians, professional comedians, fundraisers, and helicopter pilots among our CS alumni.

Will you consider candidates in (fill in the discipline)?

If that discipline is reasonably considered with the scope of computer science (and yes, as our ad suggests, we consider a variety of areas within the scope of computer science) and the candidate is qualified to teach a variety of courses in the undergraduate computer science curriculum, then yes, we would consider that candidate.

What is it like living in Grinnell, Iowa?

Grinnell is a small town, with about 8500 residents (plus about 1600 Grinnell College students). It's affordable. Many faculty live within walking distance of the College. Some faculty choose to live in Iowa City or Des Moines, each of which is about an hour away. Our schools are decent, and the community provides a lot of interesting extracurricular activities. The older faculty in the department all note that we found this a great place to raise our children.

The Grinnell Office of Communications and the Office of Community Enhancement and Engagement created a series of videos to help visitors understand what it's like living and working in Grinnell.

We think Grinnell is an excellent place to be if you are passionate about both teaching and scholarship and want to make a difference in the lives of young adults. Here are some of the things that set us apart.

You can also read more about our tenure-track position and some recent questions and answers about that position.

Teaching CS

At first glance, undergraduate curricula and departments may seem similar. Everyone teaches some kind of data structures and algorithms courses. Everyone has some required systems courses. Many require an upper-level theory of computation course. In those ways, Grinnell is much like other departments. But some characteristics of the curriculum and the College make us special.

• An internationally recognized curriculum. Grinnell is one of only five curricular exemplars in the Joint ACM/IEEE Computer Science Curricula 2013.
• A multi-paradigm introductory sequence. We believe students learn CS best when they are exposed to a variety of approaches to problem solving. We emphasize functional programming in the first course, imperative in the second, and object-oriented in the third. As you might expect, each class develops students' skills in algorithmic thinking. Each class also focuses on a particular problem domain. This year, the first course considers data science in the fall and digital humanities in the spring. The second course emphasis robotics, while the third course draws on a variety of domains.
• An emphasis on active learning. We've been teaching with a type of flipped classroom for more than two decades. Particularly for the introductory sequence, our model is that students do a bit of reading before class and spend most of class time working on problems in collaboration with other students.
• Strong support for innovative teaching across the College. Grinnell is a place in which colleagues will encourage you to try new approaches to your teaching and the College will help support such innovation. Grinnell also encourages faculty to learn from each other with a variety of resources, including a regular Science Teaching and Learning Group and week-long summer workshops on a wide variety of topics.
• An individually-advised curriculum. Grinnell has no required general education courses, other than a first-year seminar. Rather, advisers help students figure out what classes will be best for them. As a teacher, you'll find that the students in your classes are there because they want to learn the material, not because they are checking off a requirement.
• An active peer-support community. Nearly every CS course has an embedded mentor—a student who has previously taken the course and is available during every class meeting to assist with questions during labs or discussion. Each mentor also holds a weekly evening session for additional practice, study, and review of the class material. Our computer labs are also staffed in the evenings with trained tutors available for drop-in questions and homework help for students in the introductory courses. These peer educators are trained and coordinated by a dedicated staff member.

The department also has a strong commitment to diversifying the discipline, which is reflected not only in the issues discussed above, but also in a number of other departmental initiatives. Many efforts focus on developing a sense of community in the department, including peer mentoring programs, weekly lunchtime discussion groups, and evening study breaks. Our efforts have been successful. For example, currently 37% of our majors are women, above the national averages. The CS department is also active in institution-wide diversity efforts, such as the Grinnell Science Project (GSP), which has been honored with the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring for more than twenty years of successful efforts to increase the number of students from underrepresented groups who earn degrees in the sciences. Two members of the department have served as leaders of GSP in recent years. We are also active in the the Liberal Arts Colleges Association for Faculty Inclusion (LACAFI), an organization co-founded by Grinnell that aims to assist in the recruitment and appointment of faculty committed to diversity in the sciences. We particularly hope that candidates who share our commitment to diversity will apply.

Scholarship

Grinnell, like most comparable institutions, expects that its faculty are strong teachers and strong scholars. And like most comparable institutions, we provide faculty with startup funds and annual research grants with support for travel to conferences. But there a few things that set Grinnell apart.

• Faculty research labs. When we moved into our current space in 2007, we made sure that each faculty member had a research lab in addition to an office. Labs can serve as a place for specialized equipment, a place for your research team to work, a place separate from your office to get scholarly work done.
• A rich culture of student-faculty research. Grinnell College seeks to provide every student an opportunity to pursue research and share the product publicly. Grinnell's student-faculty research fund regularly allows interested faculty to work with students each summer while compensating those students appropriately (including course credit). Faculty also receive stipends for summer work with students. Funds are usually available for at least four students per faculty member. Students regularly present their work at regional, national, and international peer-reviewed conferences.
• Broader connections. Grinnell is one of fifteen liberal arts colleges that belong to the Computing Research Association (CRA).

Tenured faculty that support student research opportunities, whether through summer projects or in-depth projects embedded within an upper-level course are eligible for a year-long sabbatical leave after six years (twelve semesters) of teaching, or a sequence of semester-long leaves after three years (six semesters) of teaching.

Tenure-track faculty are eligible for a one-semester research leave, beginning in their fourth year of service at the College. They may also borrow a semester from their first post-tenure sabbatical year-long research leave, extending their pre-tenure leave to a full year and making their first post-tenure sabbatical one semester.

You may also find it useful to read our statement on expectations for scholarship.

Synthesizing Teaching and Scholarship

While many people separate teaching and scholarship, we often find ways to integrate the two. Many of us have student co-authors on research papers (typically as an outcome of summer research projects). We also leave room in the curriculum for courses that tie closely to our areas of research, such as computer vision and evolutionary algorithms. In addition, several faculty members in the department contribute to the scholarly literature in computer science education.

Helping Early Career Faculty Succeed

We work hard to hire faculty we think will do well at Grinnell. We work as hard to make sure those faculty will succeed. In addition to the support for teaching and scholarship mentioned above, Grinnell provides a wide variety of resources, from opportunities for mentoring to an active early career faculty group which provides both social and professional support for such faculty.

A Bit More About Grinnell

Grinnell is a highly-selective liberal arts college, ranked in the top-twenty in the US News and World Report analysis (#11 this year). Grinnell has a well-deserved reputation for undergraduate teaching. A recent NSF report ranks Grinnell 7th per capita among schools from which science and engineering Ph.D.'s received their bachelors degrees.

Grinnell has a strong commitment to social justice, revealed, in part, by our need-blind admissions process. We do not consider ability to pay in making admissions decisions, and we meet the full demonstrated financial need (at least according to government calculations) of students we accept. 86% of first-year students receive financial aid, with an average financial aid package of over $50,000 to students demonstrating need. In an era in which student debt is a mounting problem, Grinnell students in the class of 2019 graduated with an average debt of about $20,000.

Our commitment to social justice and our admissions process lead to a diverse student body. The class of 2022 includes approximately 18% international students, 15% first generation college students, and 28% domestic students of color.

Because our students are active participants in their choice of courses, most also successfully integrate a broad variety of interests, taking ideas and approaches from one course to another, from outside their coursework into their coursework, or from their coursework to the broader community. Many prospective faculty are attracted to Grinnell by the quality of our students.

The Computer Science Department will be hiring a new tenure-track faculty member to start in Fall 2020. The official job posting appears below. If you explore our department, you'll find that Grinnell's CS department is an energetic and exciting place where we balance and connect our teaching and scholarship.

If you have questions about the position, please send them to CSSearch@grinnell.edu. You may also want to look at recent questions and answers.

GRINNELL COLLEGE – COMPUTER SCIENCE (AREA OPEN) - TENURE-TRACK POSITION (START FALL 2020)

GRINNELL COLLEGE. The Department of Computer Science invites applications for a tenure-track appointment beginning Fall 2020. Assistant Professor (Ph.D.) preferred; Instructor (ABD) or Associate Professor possible. Research and teaching interests are open (including, but not limited to, accessibility technology, artificial intelligence, algorithms, CS education, data science, databases, graphics, human-computer interaction, parallel and distributed computing, programming languages, security, software engineering, social and ethical issues in computing, systems, or theoretical computer science), but preference may be given to candidates who can teach upper-level software design courses. See http://www.cs.grinnell.edu.

Grinnell College is a highly selective undergraduate liberal arts college with a strong tradition of social responsibility. In letters of application, candidates should discuss their potential to contribute to a college community that maintains a diversity of people and perspectives as one of its core values. Review of applications will begin on October 17, 2019 Please visit our department website at http://www.cs.grinnell.edu and our application website at https://jobs.grinnell.edu/postings/2415 to find more details about the job and submit applications online. Candidates will need to upload a letter of application, curriculum vitae, transcripts (both undergraduate and graduate; copies are acceptable), a description of scholarly activities/agenda, and a teaching statement that describes anticipated teaching methods, measure of their effectiveness, and plans to support diversity in the department, the College, and the discipline. Candidates must also provide email addresses for three references. Questions about this search should be directed to the search chair, Professor Jerod Weinman, at [CSSearch@grinnell.edu] or 641-269-3169.

Grinnell College is committed to providing a safe and inclusive educational and work environment for all College community members, and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, sex, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, veteran status, religion, disability, creed, or any other protected class.

An offer for this position will be contingent on successful completion of a background check.

The computer science faculty actively engage in activities and projects within Grinnell College, the Science Division, the department, and other areas. This page serves as a reference and contact list for many of these activities. Since all faculty are actively engaged in teaching, this page does not include specific activities related to classes, course development, or other aspects of teaching.

• Contact the relevant faculty member if you have questions or comments regarding any of these activities.
• Contact the department chair if you have questions about the department, organizational matters, or other areas not covered in this listing.

College Level

• Committees that require a representative from Computer Science
  • Chair, Department of Computer Science: Jerod Weinman
• Other activities
  • Web Governance: Jerod Weinman
  Science Division Level
  • General Science Major: Anya Vostinar
  • Hendrixson Fund: ???
  • Noyce Visiting Professor Committee: ???
  • Science Division Personnel Committee: ???
  • Facilities Management Liaison: Jerod Weinman
  • MathLAN Advisory Panel John Stone and Charlie Curstinger
  Department Level
  • Department Chair: Jerod Weinman
    • Supervision of departmental assistant(s)
    • Development of faculty-staff teaching assignment
    • Creation of class schedules
    • Supervision of graduation breakfast (with Science ASAs)
    • Faculty recruiting
    • Promotion, tenure, contract renewal reviews
    • Merit reviews
    • Regular meetings with Student Educational Policy Committee (SEPC)
    • Paperwork from Dean's office
    • Faculty mentoring
    • College catalog entry
    • Review transfer credit requests
    • Budget
  • Assessment Coordinator: Barbara Johnson
    • Reminders regarding exit interviews
    • Identification, posting of learning outcomes
    • Coordination with the College's Office of Analytic Support and Institutional Research (OASIR) and Center for Teaching Learning and Assessment (CTLA)
  • Communications Liaison: John David Stone, Henry M. Walker
  • Computer Science Museum: Henry M. Walker, Jerod Weinman,
  • Computer Science Commons: CS SEPC
    • Make sure there's water in the coffee pot.
    • Straighten.
    • Wash stray dishes.
  • Computer Science Table: Peter-Michael Osera
    • Pick readings
    • Advertise (coordinate with ASA)
    • Lead discussions
  • Diversity Initiatives:
    • Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing: Samuel A. Rebelsky, many faculty contribute
    • Richard Tapia Celebration of of Diversity in Computing: Samuel A. Rebelsky, many faculty contribute
  • Picnic: ???
  • Placement of Incoming Students: Samuel Rebelsky
  • Pledge of the Computing Professional: John David Stone
  • Senior Lunch: Samuel Rebelsky
  • Social Media Liaisons: varies according to activity
  • Study Abroad in CS: Jerod Weinman
    • Maintain list of study-abroad programs relevant to CS
    • Maintain list of course equivalents in those programs
    • Advise students on study-abroad options
    • Coordinate with Off-Campus Study office
  • Supervision of Peer Educators (Mentors, Lab Assistants, Tutors): Sarah Dahlby-Albright
    • Train mentors, lab assistants, individual tutors
    • Prepare lists of responsibilities for peer educators
    • Prepare picture list of peer educators
    • Recruit students for peer-educator positions
    • Interview prospective peer educators
    • Work with faculty to assign peer mentors to classes
    • Prepare schedule of evening tutors
    • Assign individual and small-group tutors to students
    • Read and respond to reports from individual tutors, evening tutors, and mentor sessions
    • Gather data on usage of peer educators
  • Thursday Extras John David Stone
  • Web Site: John Stone leads, all CS faculty contribute
  • Joint program with UIowa: Jerod Weinman
  Previous Versions
  • 2013-14
  • 2015-16
  • 2018-19

These are some of the questions we've received about the position, along with our answers. We have posted them with the expectation that they will also be useful to others. Feel free to send additional questions to CSSearch@grinnell.edu.

Will you consider candidates who do not have a Ph.D.?

Yes! Candidates who are knowledgeable in the computing discipline and show evidence of promise for effective teaching are welcome to apply. Our department has had tremendously positive experiences in the past with visiting faculty that did not hold a Ph.D.

Will you consider candidates who do not have a CS degree?

Yes! We think broadly about the discipline of computing. In addition to CS, our faculty hold PhD.s in mathematics, philosophy, and evolutionary biology. While it is important that candidates be sufficiently knowledgeable about the discipline to teach a variety of courses in our curriculum, we welcome candidates that possess a degree outside computing (related fields preferred) as well as relevant computing knowledge and experience.

What courses will the new hire teach?

Grinnell's normal teaching load is five courses over two semesters. Given our long history as a smaller department, several regular faculty have taught many courses in the curriculum. Therefore, we will do our best to allow visitors to teach the courses in our curriculum they feel best-suited to teach. We are a collegial department and try to work out schedules that balance interests and workload each year. For the several courses in which multiple sections are offered, we can often pair visiting faculty with an experienced faculty member teaching another section of that course. Depending on staffing and enrollments, there may also be an opportunity for visitors to offer an elective course for the major in the area of their interest.

For the current position, we have a strong need for the candidate to contribute to teaching our core systems courses, either Computer Organization and Architecture or Operating Systems and Parallel Algorithms.

How many students are there in CS courses?

We cap our introductory courses at 32 and 28, our mid-level courses at 24, and our upper-level courses at 20. Current demand means that most courses enroll to capacity. We currently graduate around 60 CS majors each year.

Are teaching assistants available?

Most of our courses have what we call class mentors who serve many of the same roles as teaching assistants. That is, they support other students in class periods during lab sessions (every class day in some classes) and run weekly review sessions. Graders are also available for introductory and mid-level courses.

What are Grinnell College students like?

Hmmm ... that's an interesting question. By and large, we find Grinnell students a joy to teach. Most of them are taking classes because they want to learn, not because they have to or because they need to check off a box in order to graduate. Almost all of them have multiple interests. We see CS majors doing improv comedy, playing in ensembles and bands, competing on the athletic fields, and more.

Is there financial support for faculty scholarship?

Visiting faculty members receive an annual budget of $2,000 to cover attendance at a professional meeting (e.g., registration, travel, lodging, and meals) and up to $500 for other research expenses. Stipends for summer research students are covered out of a separate budget, as are supplies for those students and a stipend for supervising those students. Other resources are also available on a case-by-case basis.

Is there interdisciplinary work at Grinnell that could involve computer science?

In general, yes. Faculty in many disciplines use computing as part of their work. Some likely collaborations would like be with our biology faculty who are interested in bioinformatics, our computational chemists, English faculty working in the digital humanities, faculty working on the cross-disciplinary data science program, and some of our arts faculty. But others are certainly possible. In the end, it depends on two faculty finding common interests.

What do Grinnell students do after graduation?

Our computer science majors generally go on to do the typical variety of things that CS majors do. Some end up at well-known companies (Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, Facebook). Some end up at startups. A few go on to graduate school immediately after college. Some end up in the financial industry. Some head off to volunteer opportunities (e.g., Teach for America or Lutheran Volunteer Corps.) Over the longer term, some bring their general thinking skills to other areas. We count physicians, professional comedians, fundraisers, and helicopter pilots among our CS alumni.

Do you expect to hire any tenure-track positions soon?

We have recently expanded by several positions and do not yet know what the near-term immediate future may hold for regular positions.

What is it like living in Grinnell, Iowa?

Grinnell is a small town, with about 8500 residents (plus about 1600 Grinnell College students). It's affordable. Many faculty live within walking distance of the College. (All but two of the CS faculty are within a five-block radius of the College; the others live about a mile away.) Some faculty choose to live in Iowa City or Des Moines, each of which is about an hour away. Our schools are decent, and the community provides a lot of interesting extracurricular activities. Several faculty in the department all note that we find this a great place to raise our children.

The Grinnell Office of Communications and the Office of Community Enhancement and Engagement put together this series of videos to help visitors understand what it's like living and working in Grinnell.

GRINNELL COLLEGE – COMPUTER SCIENCE – TWO-YEAR VISITING POSITION (START FALL 2019).

GRINNELL COLLEGE. The Department of Computer Science invites applications for a two-year visiting position beginning Fall 2019. Ph.D. in Computer Science preferred, but candidates with degrees (e.g., Ed.D., ABD, or Master’s) in closely related fields and relevant experience will be considered. Teaching and research areas of interest are open, but preference may be given to candidates who can teach operating systems or computer architecture. See http://www.cs.grinnell.edu.

Grinnell College is a highly selective undergraduate liberal arts college with a strong tradition of social responsibility. In letters of application, candidates should discuss their potential to contribute to a college community that maintains a diversity of people and perspectives as one of its core values. To be assured of full consideration, all application materials should be received by February 15. Please visit our application website at https://jobs.grinnell.edu to find more details about the job and submit applications online. Candidates will need to upload a letter of application, curriculum vitae, undergraduate and graduate transcripts (copies are acceptable), a description of scholarly activities, and a teaching statement that includes a description of the ways they plan to support diversity in the department, College, and the discipline. Candidates must also provide email addresses for three references. Questions about this search should be directed to the search chair, Professor Jerod Weinman, at CSSearch@grinnell.edu or 641-269-3169.

Grinnell College is committed to establishing and maintaining a safe and nondiscriminatory educational environment for all College community members. It is committed to a policy of nondiscrimination in matters of admission, employment, and housing, and in access to and participation in its education programs, services, and activities. The college does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, sex, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, veteran status, pregnancy, childbirth, religion, disability, creed, or any other protected class.

An offer for this position will be contingent on successful completion of a background check.

The Computer Science Department will be hiring a new tenure-track faculty member to start in Fall 2019. The official job posting appears below. If you explore our department, you'll find that Grinnell's CS department is an energetic and exciting place where we balance and connect our teaching and scholarship.

If you have questions about the position, please send them to CSSearch@grinnell.edu. You may also want to look at recent questions and answers.

GRINNELL COLLEGE – COMPUTER SCIENCE (AREA OPEN) - TENURE-TRACK POSITION (START FALL 2019)

GRINNELL COLLEGE. The Department of Computer Science invites applications for a tenure-track appointment beginning Fall 2019. Assistant Professor (Ph.D.) preferred; Instructor (ABD) or Associate Professor possible. Research and teaching interests might include, but are not limited to, accessibility technology, artificial intelligence, algorithms, CS education, data science, databases, graphics, human-computer interaction, networking, parallel and distributed computing, programming languages, security, software engineering, social and ethical issues in computing, systems, theoretical computer science, or other interdisciplinary computing applications.

Grinnell College is a highly selective undergraduate liberal arts college with a strong tradition of social responsibility. In letters of application, candidates should discuss their potential to contribute to a college community that maintains a diversity of people and perspectives as one of its core values. To be assured of full consideration, all application materials should be received by October 19, 2018. Please visit our department website at http://www.cs.grinnell.edu and our application website at https://jobs.grinnell.edu to find more details about the job and submit applications online. Candidates will need to upload a letter of application, curriculum vitae, transcripts (copies are acceptable), a description of scholarly activities, and a teaching statement that includes a description of the ways in which they plan to support diversity and inclusion in the department, the College, and the discipline. Candidates must also provide email addresses for three references. Questions about this search should be directed to the search chair, Professor Jerod Weinman, at [CSSearch@grinnell.edu] or 641-269-3169.

Grinnell College is committed to establishing and maintaining a safe and nondiscriminatory educational environment for all College community members. It is committed to a policy of nondiscrimination in matters of admission, employment, and housing, and in access to and participation in its education programs, services, and activities. The college does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, sex, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, veteran status, pregnancy, childbirth, religion, disability, creed, or any other protected class.

An offer for this position will be contingent on successful completion of a background check.

The computer science faculty actively engage in activities and projects within Grinnell College, the Science Division, the department, and other areas. This page serves as a reference and contact list for many of these activities. Since all faculty are actively engaged in teaching, this page does not include specific activities related to classes, course development, or other aspects of teaching.

• Contact the relevant faculty member if you have questions or comments regarding any of these activities.
• Contact the department chair if you have questions about the department, organizational matters, or other areas not covered in this listing.

College Level

• Committees that require a representative from Computer Science
  • Chair, Department of Computer Science: Jerod Weinman
• Other activities
  • Space Committee: Jerod Weinman
  • Wilson Program in Enterprise and Leadership: Samuel Rebelsky
  • Admissions and Student Financial Aid Committee: Charlie Curtsinger
  • Title IX Task Force: Anya Vostinar

Science Division Level

• General Science Major: Anya Vostinar
• Hendrixson Fund: Charlie Curtsinger
• Noyce Visiting Professor Committee: Samuel Rebelsky
• Science Division Personnel Committee: Samuel Rebelsky
• Facilities Management Liaison: Jerod Weinman
• MathLAN Advisory Panel John Stone and Charlie Curstinger
• Carver Grant Representative Charlie Curtsinger

Department Level

• Department Chair: Jerod Weinman
  • Supervision of departmental assistant(s)
  • Development of faculty-staff teaching assignment
  • Creation of class schedules
  • Supervision of graduation breakfast (with Science ASAs)
  • Faculty recruiting
  • Promotion, tenure, contract renewal reviews
  • Merit reviews
  • Regular meetings with Student Educational Policy Committee (SEPC)
  • Paperwork from Dean's office
  • Faculty mentoring
  • College catalog entry
  • Review transfer credit requests
  • Budget
• Assessment Coordinator: Barbara Johnson
  • Reminders regarding exit interviews
  • Identification, posting of learning outcomes
  • Coordination with the College's Office of Analytic Support and Institutional Research (OASIR) and Center for Teaching Learning and Assessment (CTLA)
• Communications Liaison: John David Stone, Henry M. Walker
• Computer Science Museum: Henry M. Walker
• Computer Science Commons: CS SEPC
  • Make sure there's water in the coffee pot.
  • Straighten.
  • Wash stray dishes.
• Computer Science Table: Charlie Curtsinger
  • Pick readings
  • Advertise (coordinate with ASA)
  • Lead discussions
• Diversity Initiatives:
  • Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing: Samuel A. Rebelsky, many faculty contribute
  • Richard Tapia Celebration of of Diversity in Computing: Samuel A. Rebelsky, many faculty contribute
• Picnic: Anya Vostinar
• Placement of Incoming Students: Samuel Rebelsky
• Pledge of the Computing Professional: John David Stone
• Senior Lunch and Awards: Samuel Rebelsky
• Social Media Liaisons: varies according to activity
• Study Abroad in CS: Jerod Weinman
  • Maintain list of study-abroad programs relevant to CS
  • Maintain list of course equivalents in those programs
  • Advise students on study-abroad options
  • Coordinate with Off-campus Study office
• Supervision of Peer Educators (Mentors, Lab Assistants, Tutors): Sarah Dahlby-Albright
  • Train mentors, lab assistants, individual tutors
  • Prepare lists of responsibilities for peer educators
  • Prepare picture list of peer educators
  • Recruit students for peer-educator positions
  • Interview prospective peer educators
  • Work with faculty to assign peer mentors to classes
  • Prepare schedule of evening tutors
  • Assign individual and small-group tutors to students
  • Read and respond to reports from individual tutors, evening tutors, and mentor sessions
  • Gather data on usage of peer educators
• Thursday Extras John David Stone
• Web Site: John Stone leads, all CS faculty contribute
• Joint program with UIowa: Jerod Weinman

Special Tasks

• Decennial Review: Jerod Weinman

Previous Versions

• 2013-14
• 2015-16

Grinnell College is hiring for a visiting position in Computer Science.

Why visit in CS at Grinnell?

We think Grinnell is an excellent place to be if you are passionate about both teaching and scholarship and want to make a difference in the lives of young adults. Here are some of the things that set us apart.

You can also read more about our open visiting position and some recent questions and answers about the position.

Teaching CS

At first glance, undergraduate curricula and departments may seem similar. Everyone teaches some kind of data structures and algorithms courses. Everyone has some required systems courses. Most require an upper-level theory of computation course. In those ways, Grinnell is much like other departments. But some characteristics of the curriculum and the College make us special.

• An internationally recognized curriculum. Grinnell is one of only five curricular exemplars in the Joint ACM/IEEE Computer Science Curricula 2013.
• A multi-paradigm introductory sequence. We believe students learn CS best when they are exposed to a broad variety of approaches. We emphasize functional programming in the first course, imperative in the second, and object-oriented in the third. As you might expect, each class develops student skills in algorithmic thinking. Each class also focuses on a particular problem domain. This year, the first course considers data science and the second course uses some robotics.
• An emphasis on active learning. We've been teaching with a type of "flipped classroom" for more than two decades. Particularly for the introductory sequence, our model is that students do a bit of reading before class and spend most of class time working on problems with other students.
• Strong support for innovative teaching across the College. Grinnell is a place in which colleagues will encourage you to try new approaches to your teaching and the College will help support such innovation. Grinnell also encourages faculty to learn from each other with a variety of resources, including a regular Science Teaching and Learning Group and week-long summer workshops on a wide variety of topics.
• An individually-mentored curriculum. Grinnell has no required general education courses, other than a first-year seminar. Rather, advisers help students figure out what classes will be best for them. As a teacher, you'll find that the students in your classes are there because they want to learn the material, not because they are checking off a requirement.

Diversity and Inclusion

The department also has a strong commitment to diversifying the discipline, which is reflected not only in the issues discussed above, but also in a number of other departmental initiatives. Many efforts focus on developing a sense of community in the department, including peer mentoring programs, weekly lunchtime discussion groups, and evening study breaks. Our efforts have been successful. For example, over 30% of our majors are women, above the national averages.

The department and the College regularly provides financial support for several students to attend the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, the Richard Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing, and MINK WIC (Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, & Kansas Women in Computing Conference).

The CS department is also active in institution-wide diversity efforts, such as the Grinnell Science Project (GSP), which has been honored with the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring for more than twenty years of successful efforts to increase the number of students from underrepresented groups who earn degrees in the sciences. Two members of the department have served as leaders of GSP in recent years. We are also active in the the Liberal Arts Colleges Association for Faculty Inclusion (LACAFI), an organization co-founded by Grinnell that aims to assist in the recruitment and appointment of faculty committed to diversity in the sciences. We particularly hope that candidates who share our commitment to diversity will apply.

Scholarship

Grinnell, like most comparable institutions, expects that its faculty are strong teachers and strong scholars. And like most comparable institutions, we provide funds to support those scholarly endeavors. But a few things set Grinnell apart.

• A rich culture of student-faculty research. Grinnell's student-faculty research fund regularly allows interested faculty to work with students each summer while compensating those students with course credit and a stipend. Funds are usually available for four students per faculty member, and faculty receive a modest stipend as well. Our students regularly present their work at regional, national, and international peer-reviewed conferences.
• Broader connections. Grinnell is one of twelve liberal arts colleges that belong to the Computing Research Association (CRA).

Our statement on expectations for scholarship may give you a sense of how we think broadly about scholarship in the discipline.

Synthesizing Teaching and Scholarship

While many people separate teaching and scholarship, we often find ways to integrate the two. Many of us have student co-authors on research papers (typically as an outcome of summer research projects). We also leave room in the curriculum for courses that tie closely to our areas of research, such as computer vision and evolutionary biology. In addition, several faculty members in the department contribute to the scholarly literature in computer science education.

Helping Early Career Faculty Succeed

We work hard to hire faculty we think will do well at Grinnell. We work as hard to make sure those faculty will succeed. In addition to the support for teaching and scholarship mentioned above, Grinnell provides a wide variety of resources, from opportunities for mentoring to an active early career faculty group that provides both social and professional support for such faculty.

A Bit More About Grinnell

Grinnell is a highly-selective liberal arts college, ranked in the top-twenty in the US News and World Report analysis (#11 this year). Grinnell has a well-deserved reputation for undergraduate teaching. A recent NSF report ranks Grinnell 7th per capita among schools from which science and engineering Ph.D.'s received their bachelors degrees.

Grinnell has a strong commitment to social justice, revealed, in part, by our need-blind admissions process. We do not consider ability to pay in making admissions decisions, and we meet the full demonstrated financial need (at least according to government calculations) of students we accept. 87% of our students receive financial aid, with an average financial aid package of over $45,000 to students demonstrating need. In an era in which student debt is a mounting problem, Grinnell students in the class of 2018 graduated with an average debt of only $19,000.

Our commitment to social justice and our admissions process lead to a diverse student body. The class of 2022 includes approximately 18% international students, 15% first generation college students, and 28% domestic students of color.

Because our students are active participants in their choice of courses, most also successfully integrate a broad variety of interests, taking ideas and approaches from one course to another, from outside their coursework into their coursework, or from their coursework to the broader community. Many prospective faculty are attracted to Grinnell by the quality of our students.