The School of Computer, Data & Information Sciences at the University of Wisconsin founding director Tom Erickson has decided to step down from his leadership position effective January 2025. Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor in Computer Sciences Remzi Arpaci-Dusseau will be his successor.

Arpaci-Dusseau also served as a chair for a task force responsible for establishing the future of CDIS and was the Computer Sciences Department Chair for four years.

A year and a half ago, Erickson approached Arpaci-Dusseau about what the next steps for the program were and this conversation led to the development of a task force of peers from all over the country, including Harvard, UC Berkeley, Georgia Tech and Carnegie Mellon, Erickson said.

“They came and they produced a report, which we released. The report basically said [we] have a unique opportunity in the country to be a first mover and create something special in the intersection of technology and society,” Erickson said.

The task force suggested the creation of the school, which was set to take three to five years to fully set into motion.

Erickson recalled coming out of retirement to begin establishing the school and not wanting to restrict himself to another three to five years of leadership.

“I’m 65 years old, so really, what prompted me to [step down] was first a notion that things are going well,” Erickson said. “We’ve got some great ideas about what to do next, to do things that are leading the country and we just happened to have the right guy sitting here.”

The ‘right guy’ that Erickson is referencing is Arpaci-Dusseau, who Erickson recalls asking to be his successor for years before he finally agreed, according to Erickson.

Erickson reflected on the challenges he faced during his time establishing the school, emphasizing that institutions — specifically ones that have been around for a long time such as UW — tend to be stubborn and resistant to change.

“New ideas inherently involve change and so there’s an inherent conflict with this notion of a different way of doing things,” Erickson said.

The initial start-up of the school was difficult and there was resistance from faculty, administration and donors. But, once they were able to demonstrate success and student growth, it was easier to get people on board, Erickson said.

This rapid student growth, however, has been a challenge for CDIS when it comes to accommodating the increasing number of interested students, Arpaci-Dusseau said.

To combat this, CDIS has been hiring large numbers of regular faculty as well as teaching faculty.

“One of our main goals was always to make it that the day that students show up on our campus, if they want to study computer science or data science or information science, we can serve them,” Arpaci-Dusseau said.

To further combat this ongoing problem and to prioritize student experience, CDIS, specifically Tom Erickson, raised $260 million to construct a new CDIS building set to open next year.

The building is expected to be a world-class facility for both research and education purposes, Arpaci-Dusseau said.

The CDIS building’s second floor will be a dedicated student services floor, with TA offices, classrooms and open spaces for students across all majors to study and collaborate.

“I think just the building coming into existence is going to be something that better supports students because there will be this central place where you go when you want to be connected to help for your classes,” Arpaci-Dusseau said.

Arpaci-Dusseau stated the importance of the student experience at CDIS and shared plans for smaller classroom experiences and more diverse class offerings upon the opening of the building.

Erickson said he was deeply inspired by the late UW Chancellor Blank, who instructed him to ensure that all students on campus could access the programs he set out to create.

Erickson valued student opinions and needs and he ensured that their voices were heard through holding lunches, listening sessions, focus groups and walking around campus and meeting people, Erickson said.

Arpaci-Dusseau intends to do the same during this leadership transition and he highlighted how important he thinks it is for a leader to know everybody, not only the people in his department.

“I’m just slowly doing that work, going out and talking to people across all the units and learning who they are, what they do, what they’re bringing to the table,” Arpaci-Dusseau said.

Inclusion is a huge aspect of the goals for the future of CDIS, but at the current moment, underrepresented students are rarely involved with computer and data science programs. At the current moment, 80% of graduates from CDIS are male, Erickson said.

Erickson reflected on his son’s medical school experience and how 56% of his son’s class was female. But, when they looked back 20 years at the same school, they found that there were only two women in the entire class.

Erickson used this anecdote to establish his hopes that computer sciences will soon observe the same growth.

“The medical field has completely transformed itself from being all male to something majority female, and we need to do the same thing in technology,” Erickson said.

Furthermore, Arpaci-Dusseau spoke about the goals of CDIS in terms of AI and the ever-evolving technology in our society.

As AI becomes increasingly more prevalent and advanced, it will affect how we do essentially everything here on campus, Arpaci-Dusseau said. He added that with AI, the computer sciences program has to focus on both hiring people and supporting their faculty. CDIS wants to not only lead the world into the next generation of technology through development but also help people understand technology’s impact.

Additionally, Arpaci-Dusseau spoke about the impact CDIS has on the community and its commitment as a program to the betterment of society as a whole.

Beyond the two core missions of CDIS, research and education, the school is also dedicated to service to the campus, city and state. They have an increasing number of programs focused on community service and outreach, something UW does well, Arpaci-Dusseau said.

Erickson’s advice to future leaders in the computer and data science field was simple.

“To not neglect the human aspects of your work,” Erickson said.