Among the nation’s public universities, UF has the largest enrollment for black Ph.D. students in the computer science department.
The department has been leading in black Ph.D. student enrollment for years, said Juan Gilbert, the Banks preeminence chair in engineering in the department of Computer & Information Science & Engineering. Gilbert looked at information from the Computing Research Association and American Society for Engineering Education to determine UF’s standing.
“When you have a diverse group of people at the table coming up with ideas, you get better solutions,” Gilbert said.
Gilbert said with five black faculty members, the department has the nation’s largest group of black faculty among similar areas. Gilbert was the first black student to receive a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Cincinnati.
Jessica Jones, a 27-year-old Ph.D. candidate in human-centered computing, said as an African-American woman, she sees herself reflected in the faculty.
“I think the department is pretty diverse, not just racially and ethnically, but I believe there are a lot of women in the department,” Jones said. “You don’t see that often in STEM. So as an African-American woman, I feel represented as a student, and then when I look at the faculty, I see representation of myself on the faculty.”
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Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that there were 148 black computer science Ph.D. students in the nation. There are 148 total computer science Ph.D. students of all races in UF’s CISE department.
