About CSE
The Department of Computer Science and Engineering
The Ohio State University's Department of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) is a national leader in computing education and research. Founded in 1968, the department is consistently ranked among the top programs worldwide and provides a rigorous, advanced learning environment for students with diverse career goals in science, engineering and applications.
Leadership
Meet CSE's chair and three associate chairs for: Academic Operations, Academic Programs, and Development and Growth.
Academics
The department offers:
- BS in Computer Science and Engineering*
- BS in Computer and Information Science (Via College of Arts & Sciences)
- BS in Data Analytics (via College of Arts & Sciences)
- BA in Computer and Information Science (Via College of Arts & Sciences)
- MS in Computer Science and Engineering
- PhD in Computer Science and Engineering
*Accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET, under the General Criteria and the Program Criteria for Electrical, Computer, Communications, Telecommunication(s) and Similarly Named Engineering Programs. Accredited by the Computing Accreditation Commission of ABET, under the General Criteria and the Program Criteria for Computer Science and Similarly Named Computing Programs.
Rankings
Ohio State has the top-ranked CSE department among Ohio universities, according to U.S. News and World Report. In the 2025 issue, Ohio State’s computer science graduate program ranks 27th out of 210 programs nationwide, while the computer engineering graduate program ranks 24th out of 157 programs in the nation.
Fall 2024 Enrollment
Undergraduate students................................................ 3,815
Master’s students.............................................................175
Doctorate students...........................................................263
TOTAL.......................................................................... 4,253
Degrees Conferred 2023-2024
Bachelor’s........................................................................ 597
Master’s.............................................................................72
Doctorate..........................................................................23
Research
The department’s research areas comprehensively cover both core and foundational computer science and engineering, and interdisciplinary fields. These include algorithms and theory, artificial intelligence, computational biology and bioinformatics, computer architecture, computer graphics, data management and analytics, high performance computing, networking and distributed systems, software engineering and programming languages, social network analytics and software systems.
In fiscal year 2024, the department’s research was supported by nearly $19 million in externally sponsored research funding. Faculty research spans a large spectrum of critical CSE areas, including advanced architectures, artificial intelligence, computer networking, software systems design and implementation, theoretical foundations, and various applications.
Ohio State is home to two $20 million National Science Foundation Artificial Intelligence institutes, a $15 million NSF Harnessing Data Revolution Institute (Imageomics), and a cyber security and digital trust institute. Each of these interdisciplinary research institutes are led by CSE faculty. CSE’s research laboratories provide a world-class environment for learning and discovery including the Laboratory for Artificial Intelligence Research, Network Based Computing Lab, Data Mining Research Lab, Computer Graphics Research Lab, Computer Vision Laboratory, and Dependable Distributed and Networked Systems Lab.
Faculty
- 52 tenure-track faculty, 1 research professor, 1 visiting professor, 10 professors of practice, and 28 full-time lecturers
- 4 ACM Fellows, 12 IEEE Fellows and 32 NSF CAREER Awardees
Alumni
Known, living CSE alumni worldwide............................10,086
Many Ohio State CSE graduates are distinguished scholars and leaders in both academia and industry. They are professors in other leading CSE departments and are also global corporate executives and technical fellows at companies, including Cisco, Google, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Texas Instruments and many others. Several Ohio State CSE graduates have been recognized for computer animation with Academy Awards. Our graduates are actively recruited by major computer companies and startups.
Diversity
CSE graduate students represent 20 different countries from around the world, including China (34.3%) and India (19.2%). 21.5% of CSE graduate students in 2024 were female, compared to 5.6% in 2008. Underrepresented minorities* made up 15.6% of CSE’s undergraduate student body in 2024.
* underrepresented minority = African American, Hispanic, American Indian/ Alaskan Native and those who identify as two or more races
Distinctive Education Programs
CSE students enjoy unique experiential learning offerings, including real-world capstone projects, a game design program, undergraduate research experiences, an entrepreneurship program and 80+ engineering student organizations such as the award-winning Association of Computing Machinery Women’s Chapter (ACM-W) at Ohio State. Since 2013, the OHI/O program has been fostering a tech culture at the university, offering hackathons, makeathons and student leadership opportunities.
History
1956: First computer programming class taught at Ohio State
1968: Computer science program launched
1969: First undergraduate degrees awarded
1969: Master’s degree program authorized
1972: First CIS doctorate degree awarded
2007: First CSE doctorate degree awarded
Contacts
Main Office
395 Dreese Labs 2015 Neil Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210 614-292-5813 CSE Administrative Contacts
Anish Arora, Department Chair (on sabbatical leave January through August 2025), arora.9@osu.edu
Eric Fosler-Lussier, Acting Chair (January through August 2025), fosler-lussier.1@osu.edu
Raghu Machiraju, Associate Chair for Development and Growth, machiraju.1@osu.edu
Feng Qin, Acting Associate Chair of Academic Operations, qin.34@osu.edu
Rajiv Ramnath, Associate Chair of Academic Programs, ramnath.6@osu.edu
Graduate Program
cse.osu.edu/graduate, grad-adm@cse.ohio-state.edu
Lynn Lyons, Graduate Program Coordinator, lyons.220@osu.edu
Michelle Pitro, Senior Academic Program Services Specialist, pitro.1@osu.edu
Kathryn Reeves, Assistant Director of Academic Programs, reeves.92@osu.edu
Undergraduate Program
cse.osu.edu/current-students, compsciadvising@osu.edu
Nikki Strader, Undergraduate Academic Advising Manager, strader.1@osu.edu
Administration, Communications
Ingrid Rivera, Communications and Executive Assistant to the Chairs, rivera.153@osu.edu
Development
Katie Kuvin, Director of Development, kuvin.3@osu.edu
Fiscal
Leigh Zircher, Finance Manager, zircher.6@osu.edu