Purdue boosting enrollment in computer science

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Purdue University plans to expand undergraduate and graduate enrollment in computer science by more than a quarter to meet growing demand among employers for people who can analyze and work with very large data sets.

Department of Computer Science head Sunil Prabhakar said during a university forum Thursday that the department wants to expand undergraduate enrollment to 1,000 students by 2015 and graduate student enrollment to more than 300 by that time.

The U.S. Department of Labor predicts employment of computer and information research scientists will grow by 19 percent from 2010 to 2020

Prabhakar says “we have entered an age of big data, where every day massive amounts of digital data are produced that could provide valuable insights for science, agriculture, business and government.”