This project addresses a very critical problem of declining enrollments faced by all undergraduate computer science programs across the nation. Many key factors contributing to this decline have been identified. One important element is the lack of challenging research and project opportunities for the students. Undergraduate studies in computer science is perceived by students as long hours spent in text book reading and doing mundane programming assignments. This is at a time when exciting discoveries are being made and the discipline is expanding at an ever increasing rate. It appears that the problem of declining enrollment is a reflection of the gap which exists between research/development and undergraduate studies in computer science. This project approaches the declining enrollment problem by introducing a challenging research/project component to the under- graduate computer science courses. The laboratory associated with the project is exclusively for undergraduate research. Principal equipment necessary for this facility includes 6 SPARC1 workstations, a plotter, a printer, and a tape drive. The laboratory will be used by students to work on research projects with faculty in the areas of Computer Chip Design (VLSI), Computer Graphics, and Parallel/Distributed Processing projects. The award is being matched by an equal amount from the principal investigator's institution.
