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The Computer Science Department (http://www.cs.memphis.edu/) was created in 2005 by approval of the TBR (Tennessee Board of Regents) of a proposal submitted by The University of Memphis earlier in the year. Previously, the University had created the Division of Computer Science in 1999 to better handle the need of computer science majors. Max Garzon was the interim founding director and he shepherded the proposal to create a new Department that underwent various approvals since 2001. A permanent director and current chair Sajjan Shiva took the reins of the Division and now Department in 2003.

Several milestones have characterized the various stages of development in computer science. The first was the creation of a new core and cross-disciplinary culture interested in computing and computational applications. The igniting spark came from a cognitive science seminar organized by Lloyd Partridge and Stan Franklin in 1984. A grass roots effort ensued, supported in addition by Max Garzon (Computer Science), Art Graesser (Psychology), Terri Horgan and John Tienson (Philosophy), and Don Francescchetti (Physics), among many others. The effort resulted in the formation of the interdisciplinary Institute for Intelligent Systems, currently co-directed by Art Graesser and Stan Franklin, and the Cognitive science, Complex Systems, and Bioinformatics seminars, well known foci of interdisciplinary research on campus today.

A second stage was marked by hiring and retaining highly dynamic faculty with research interests in very promising topics. As a consequence, computer science experienced a remarkable expansion of externally funded research. The 1990s, saw a tenfold increase in external grants compared to 1980s levels. Currently, the Division attracts over $1M per year worth of research dollars from funding agencies such as The National Science Foundation (NSF), The Office of Naval Research (ONR), The Defense Advanced Research Project (DARPA), and The National Aeronautics Space Adminsitration (NASA). These projects push the frontiers of research in labs for artificial intelligence (Franklin), network security (Dasgupta), computational neurodynamics (Kozma), bioinspired parallel computing (Garzon), and human-computer interaction (Garzon).

A third stage in the development of the computer science group was the addition of two new interdisciplinary programs to the curriculum, despite the relatively small size of the group. The bioinformatics program shepherded by Dr. Giri Narasimhan and now directed by Dr. Segun George, today actively engages students and faculty in biology, computer science, statistics, on and off campus, particularly at St. Jude Children's Research hospital. The electronic commerce, originally established in 2000 under the leadership of Max Garzon and Mark L. Gillenson (Business School) and currently under the direction of Max Garzon (Computer Science), is an interdisciplinary new degree program jointly offered with the Fogelman College of Business and Economics. Students enjoy a unique synergistic mix of technical, managerial and practical experience. It is one of only three degree programs in the country of its kind. The program has also been ranked first in the nation in 2002 in the area of CRM (Customer Relationship Management), in great part due to research conducted by Mark Gillenson and Dan Sherrell (Business).

(source : http://zorro.cs.memphis.edu/~cswebadm/csweb/aboutus/milestones.htm)