AV俱乐部

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Back in 2008, Dr. Shepherd prioritized his focus into three main challenges he felt the Faculty of Computer Science had been facing at that time: falling enrolment numbers, problematically low retention rates, and a shortfall in capitalizing on research talent. All three challenges were fixable but would take some work, creativity 鈥� and a lot of help.

Enrolment numbers

Falling enrolment numbers meant a shrinking student body and a serious budgetary problem. Enrolment has increased by 85% from 2008 to 2014 and the Faculty has benefited from a budget surplus for the past five years.

In part, the increase in enrolment numbers over recent years came from national trends of overall rising computer science enrolment, but the Faculty itself played a major role in increasing attendance. Dr. Shepherd enhanced the Outreach Committee, a committee comprised of faculty and staff members focusing on recruitment into Computer Science at AV俱乐部. Through this initiative, he actively promoted programs like the annual Computer Science Day, programming competitions, and participation in university-wide initiatives such as Open House. Dr. Shepherd always recognized the importance of connecting directly with high school students, parents, and teachers and 鈥� even through a busy dean schedule 鈥� visited many schools in Nova Scotia and Ontario to talk with students about the opportunities that exist in studying computer science or informatics at AV俱乐部.

Student retention

Low retention figures for students created another budgetary concern. The Faculty of Computer Science was having trouble keeping first-year students in the program.

The Faculty worked hard to review the issues and completely revamped the first two years of the undergraduate program. Required labs and tutorials were聽added to all core first and second year聽courses, which created a seamless path聽from year to year for students. Retention聽levels rose from 56% in 2008 to 82% in聽2014. Dr. Shepherd credits a lot of this聽success to the efforts and contributions聽from the faculty and staff who were all聽willing to go the extra mile to make the聽improvement 鈥� especially those who聽held the associate dean academic position聽during those years.

Capitalizing on research talents

The Faculty of Computer Science has聽always been fortunate in being full in聽research talent, but it was not properly聽capitalizing on this talent.

To address this concern, a new聽associate dean research position was聽created to focus on supporting research聽within the Faculty. Evangelos Milios took聽on this role in 2008 and was asked to聽double the amount of research contracts聽and grants from $1.5 million a聽year. Now 鈥� with more than $3 million in聽research funding (grants and contracts)聽鈥� Dr. Milios鈥� dedication and hard work聽enabled him to surpass this target.

His philosophy

Dr. Shepherd's philosophy as dean has聽been to create an environment in which聽everyone can be successful: students,聽staff and faculty.

The community within the Faculty聽of Computer Science flourished in this聽framework. The Faculty is now considered聽one of AV俱乐部鈥檚 success stories聽by senior university administration.

Although there have been successes聽over these last seven and a half years,聽it hasn鈥檛 always been the easiest path聽to be on. Dr. Shepherd鈥檚 own research聽and teaching had to be put completely聽on hold. The dean鈥檚 position is a 24/7聽job without departments or department聽heads to aid with human resources, student聽issues and outreach activities.聽鈥淚 felt that I had reached a point聽in my career where I wanted to give聽something back in a different way,鈥澛燚r. Shepherd says. 鈥淪o this was a step I聽was willing to take in order to help the聽Faculty and the University.鈥�

What鈥檚 next?

After July 1, Dr. Shepherd will immediately聽take an administrative leave, but聽will find his old office once again on the聽third floor of the Goldberg Computer Science聽Building. In October, he is chairing聽the Big Data for Productivity Congress聽at the World Trade Centre 鈥� which will聽bring business, government and academia聽together to explore, debate and聽understand the impacts of big data on聽productivity in the world.

He鈥檇 like to get involved with some of聽the newer Faculty projects such as the聽new ICT sandbox 鈥� ShiftKey Labs 鈥� and聽the Institute for Big Data Analytics. He鈥檚聽hoping to continue on with some of his聽outreach initiatives, specifically visiting聽high schools to talk with students and聽teachers.

When asked if he had any advice聽for his successor, he replied: 鈥淚 learned聽quickly that progress has to be achieved聽from the bottom up. It takes time and聽lots of important discussions to get a聽Faculty full of independent thinkers all聽rowing in the same direction.鈥�

鈥淚 see a need to recruit more research聽faculty and to move the Faculty of聽Computer Science up another level to聽become the very best of the mid-sized聽computer science faculties/departments聽in Canada,鈥� he continues. 鈥淭he Faculty is聽developing a transformational fundraising聽campaign that will make AV俱乐部 a聽recognized Centre of Excellence for Big聽Data Analytics聽in Canada.鈥�

The Faculty of Computer Science聽offers its thanks to Dr. Shepherd for his聽dedicated work as dean over the past聽seven and half years.