Why study computing at Butler?
We might be an excellent fit for you. Read on, and see if you agree!
Strong Academics
We offer majors in computer science and in software engineering, and a minor in computer science. Data science is also available through the Mathematical Sciences department. All of these programs allow for the addition of one or more specialization tracks. We offer tracks in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and game design. Our programs are academically rigorous; in particular, we require our students to take two semesters of discrete mathematics to shore up their logic and problem-solving skills, and our majors cap that off with a minimum of three 400-level capstone-like courses. Along the way, our students take courses in object-oriented design, algorithms, databases, computer organization, and more. You can find all the details on our academics page. We may expect a lot of our students, but we also provide the necessary support so they succeed, including office hours with faculty, free peer tutoring, and ample access to lab facilities. See our student life and resources page.
Excellent Career Opportunities
We run informal Tech Talks (pizza included), typically twice a month, usually with local alumni as the featured speakers. They discuss their work, share internship and job opportunities, talk about what things were like for them as students, and give plenty of advice. All majors are required to take our CS311 course on vocational exploration and career planning, plus campus-wide career planning and internship resources. Most of our students do at least one internship before graduating. We have recent alumni working at large companies like Google, Salesforce, Lilly, Raytheon and other defense contractors, medium sized companies like Angie’s List and MISO, and a variety of small companies and startups. See our alumni page for specific examples, or go search for computer science alumni on LinkedIn.
Research and Graduate School Preparation
For our students who are curious about graduate school, we offer the opportunity to do research. The university honors program and the Butler Summer Institute both offer structured ways to engage an a research project. Students are also encouraged to approach faculty members they are interested in working with. All of our full-time faculty members have active research programs and enjoy collaborating with undergraduate students. Sometimes, this work leads to joint research publications.
Recent students have been accepted into top computer science or software engineering graduate programs like Indiana University, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Northwestern University, Purdue University, the University of Washington, and the University of Wisconsin. Computer science is excellent preparation for professional programs like law school or an MBA, and we have recent alumni attend the Harvard Business School and the Kelly School of Business at IU.
For examples of student research, see our projects and research page. You can find the research specialties of our faculty on the faculty & staff page by clicking on their profile information. Our lab and computing facilities are on our student life and resources page.
Fun
Our student chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is active, and holds events such at trivia contests, game nights (board games and video games), and laser tag. Students can be found in our labs working on projects in the evenings, and some hang out in our fishbowl lab in the faculty and staff office suite during the day. There’s always candy and other food available, as well as the occasional bad pun or computer science meme. Check out our student life and resources page.
EPICS
Our Engineering Projects in Community Service course (EPICS) is required for both our major programs. In this course, which we offer every semester, small groups of student teams work on software projects for not-for-profit clients. These projects typically span several semesters. Our alumni praise the EPICS program for the team-building and communications skills it develops. It is deeply satisfying when the work you do makes the world a better place. For more details, see the EPICS website or view the official course description through our academics page.
Study Abroad
Many Butler students choose to spend a semester abroad. It is very possible, with planning, to do a semester abroad with a computing major and still graduate on time. We’ve had students study in Argentina, France, Italy, Taiwan, and Japan. For those who don’t feel confident in their language skills, our students have studied in Australia, England, Ireland, and New Zealand. We have a special arrangement with a program in Prague, in the Czech Republic. They offer computer science courses that we have pre-approved for transfer credit to count in our programs. The pictures above were taken by our students while in Prague. If a whole semester is too much, Butler offers a wide variety of short courses that are just a few weeks long. More information is available through the Butler Center for Global Education.
Who do you want to be?
You can be yourself and also study computer science or software engineering, because they go with everything. You can study abroad or do summer research or do an internship. We have had student athletes who play football, softball, tennis, golf, soccer, run track, or swim. Our students have double-majored in mathematics, history, music, accounting, physics, theater, ballet, Spanish, and more. You can live on or off campus, or be in a sorority or fraternity. We have veterans and first-generation college students. We’ve had students from Indianapolis, or from Mongolia, Thailand, Poland, Egypt, Mexico, or Australia. You are welcome and belong just as you are.
