Craig Shue has been appointed head of WPI’s Department of Computer Science, effective July 1, 2022. He will succeed Craig Wills, who is stepping down after 11 years of distinguished leadership.
An associate professor in the Computer Science Department and the Cyber Security Program, Shue's research in enterprise and residential network security has resulted in a range of government and private-sector funding, including a 2017 NSF CAREER Award. He directs WPI's Scholarship for Service Program, which funds cyber security students, and directs WPI's Cyber Security Program. He has served as a principal investigator on over $11 million in external funding at WPI. Prior to joining WPI, Shue worked as a Cyber Security Research Scientist in the Cyber and Information Security Research Group at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He earned his BS in Computer Science from Ohio University and his MS and PhD in Computer Science from Indiana University.
The School of Arts and Sciences offers its sincere appreciation to Professor Wills for all that he has done to lead the Computer Science Department over the past 11 years. He has been a steadfast advocate for the department while overseeing tremendous growth of WPI’s computer science programs. Computer Science now is the largest department on campus and a third of all WPI students are pursuing a computing-related degree. The department's research has quadrupled in expenditures and PhDs produced. Under his leadership, the department increased the number of full-time faculty by 50% despite the retirements of many long-time core faculty members and the transition of faculty to the newly-created Robotics Engineering Department. During Wills’s tenure, the department helped spawn new interdisciplinary programs in Data Science, Cybersecurity, and Neuroscience. Over the past decade and as the result of his efforts, Computer Science has truly become an interdisciplinary hub at WPI, supported by a collegial community of high quality faculty, talented students, and dedicated staff.