Research Philosophy

Research in the Department of Computer Science at UNC-Chapel Hill is multidisciplinary and collaborative in nature. Our research mission is to push forward the state of the science in selected areas of our field.

Our driving research ideal is collaboration—as it has been since the founding of our Department. We believe that computer science’s greatest purpose is in working with other scientists to solve problems in their own disciplines. We actively seek opportunities to generate new research with our colleagues and with scientists in other departments.

Our current collaborative research includes work with geneticists at the UNC Medical School and with radiation oncologists at UNC Hospitals. Our visualization and bioinformatics faculty, among others, regularly invite outside faculty to present problems that computer science might solve to their students for discussion and analysis. Several such problems have grown into papers, dissertation topics and whole new avenues of research.

Our problem-driven research tends to be applied, but with a substantial theoretical component in support of the application. The areas listed here encompass our current research directions.