Illinois Wesleyan
Computer Science

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A Solid Foundation

Computer science students at Illinois Wesleyan gain a broad understanding of the capabilities and limitations of computing technologies, how to solve problems and assess end-user needs, and how to adapt to changes in hardware and software technologies, as well as applications. What sets Illinois Wesleyan's computer science program apart is its foundational approach to computing within the context of a liberal arts curriculum. The computer science course of study focuses on the context in which computers and computing structures exist in today's rapidly changing technological environment. This approach produces computer science graduates who can more readily see relationships between computing and organizational/ societal problems, and needs and issues, setting them apart from those whose training is limited to more technically-oriented skills.

Alumni Spotlight 
Karl Pierburg ‘98 is currently the Senior Director of Football Systems with the Atlanta Falcons. He first came to Illinois Wesleyan to become a math teacher, but changed focus when three things happened junior year: he was elected Captain of the football team, he added a CS major to his math degree, and after a summer internship, Karl decided to go into IT consulting. 

Opportunities to Explore
 
Research
Research
The Student Honors Papers collection represents exemplary work in computer science at Illinois Wesleyan University. Recent project topics have included work in computational linguistics, theoretical computer science, and network security.
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
ACM is an international organization with the purpose of advancing the sciences, arts, and general understanding of information processing including, but not restricted to the study, design, development, construction, and application of modern machinery, computing techniques and appropriate languages for general information processing, for scientific computation, for the recognition, storage, retrieval, and processing of all data of all kinds, and for the automatic control and simulation of processes.
Upsilon Pi Epsilon
Upsilon Pi Epsilon
Upsilon Pi Epsilon is the computer science honorary society.

Alumni Spotlight

Alan Russian first applied for an internship at Google in 2013, but didn’t get an interview. He did receive an offer to intern at Boeing, where he gained the experience he would later need for his Google internship. "My job at Boeing helped me a lot," said Russian. "Google actually emailed me over the summer inviting me to reapply. I did, and eventually got my internship offer." And his internship led to a permanent job offer from Google. Read the story about Russian's internships. 
Alan Russian '15 
Software Engineer at Google 
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