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To the Editor:

As chairman of the Department of Computer and Information Science in the School of Engineering, I am delighted that you chose to profile Gayle Laakmann ("Senior tires to improve Engineers' curriculum," The Daily Pennsylvanian, 3/28/05). We are grateful for Gayle's initiative and leadership and very proud of her academic and industrial accomplishments.

I would also like to take this opportunity to note that Gayle's great initiatives are part of a much broader effort in the department to redesign our undergraduate and graduate programs to get ahead in a rapidly changing technological environment. Most of our faculty hires over the last four years have been in experimental areas of computer science: computer architecture, databases, artificial intelligence, programming languages and security.

We have streamlined requirements and increased the experimental content of our curricula, and we have redesigned core courses to increase opportunities for experimentation and for realistic project work. We have encouraged increased student participation in these efforts by providing funding for initiatives and for undergraduate teaching assistantships.

All in all, I believe that our programs are becoming more integrated, more effective and more fun and are providing a better foundation for the student success and initiative that Gayle exemplifies so well.

Fernando Pereira

The author is chairman of the Department of Computer and Information Science.

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