Randy Bryant Named New Dean of SCS -- Press Release

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Carnegie Mellon Names Randal E. Bryant as New Dean
Of Its Top-Ranked School of Computer Science

PITTSBURGH---Randal E. Bryant, the Robert Mehrabian Professor of
Computer Science and head of the Computer Science Department in Carnegie
Mellon University's School of Computer Science (SCS), has been named
dean of the college, effective April 1.

He succeeds James H. Morris, who will step down as dean to pursue other
duties at the university, including greater involvement in Carnegie
Mellon's West Coast Campus. Morris had served as dean of SCS since
1999.

Bryant has been a member of the SCS faculty since 1984. He has achieved
wide recognition in academia and industry for developing computer-aided
design tools that simulate and verify digital circuits, and for his
research in symbolic manipulation and parallel computation.

Last year Bryant was elected to the National Academy of Engineering for
pioneering new abstractions for logic circuit simulation, especially the
switch-level model for transistor circuits.

``Randy Bryant is the quintessential computer science professor,'' said
Carnegie Mellon President Jared L. Cohon. ``He has done outstanding
research that many companies depend upon to verify the basic soundness
of their computer systems. He is also known for excellence in teaching
and for creating exciting new courses of study for undergraduate
students in computer science. He has been an outstanding department head
and he will be a great dean.''

In research Bryant is best known for developing switch-level chip
simulation and ordered binary decision diagrams (BDDs). The MOSSIM
simulator was the first tool that could efficiently model the logical
behavior of very large-scale integrated (VLSI) circuits. Intel
Corp. used the program for more than a decade in developing several
generations of their microprocessors. Versions of the COSMOS simulator,
which Bryant developed to succeed MOSSIM, are still being used at Intel
and other companies.

Binary decision diagrams are a tool that has enabled breakthroughs in
the formal verification of hardware and software systems, including the
widely acclaimed symbolic model checking, developed at Carnegie Mellon
by graduate student Ken McMillan and his advisor, Edmund Clarke.

Bryant is also co-author of a best-selling textbook which, for the first
time, offers a core text that provides an integrated view of the
hardware, software and networks that underlie computer systems. The
book, ``Computer Systems: A Programmer's Perspective,'' written in
conjunction with SCS colleague David O'Hallaron, was published in 2002
by Prentice Hall. To date, more than 63 colleges and universities in the
U.S. and another 15 abroad are using the book in their basic computer
curricula.

Bryant earned a bachelor's degree in applied mathematics from the
University of Michigan in 1973. He received a doctor's degree in
electrical engineering and computer science from the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology in 1981. He spent three years as an assistant
professor of computer science at the California Institute of Technology
before coming to Carnegie Mellon as an assistant professor in
1984. Bryant became an associate professor of computer science in 1987
and a full professor in 1990. He was named head of the Computer Science
Department in 1999. He also holds a courtesy position in Carnegie
Mellon's Electrical and Computer Engineering Department.

Bryant is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers (IEEE) and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). He
has received several awards from the Semiconductor Research Corp.,
including inventor recognition awards in 1989 and 1990, plus a technical
excellence award shared with Carnegie Mellon colleagues in 1996.

He is also a co-recipient of ACM's Kanellakis Theory and Practice
Award for his contributions to the development of symbolic model
checking. The Kanellakis award recognizes theoretical work in computer
science that ultimately has an impact on the commercial world. He has
received a number of best paper awards, including the 1989 IEEE Baker
Prize, awarded to the single best paper among the thousands published
each year across the entire IEEE. He received Carnegie Mellon's Newell
Medal for Research Excellence in 1998.

During his career Bryant has consulted for numerous companies, including
Hewlett-Packard Corp., IBM and Fujitsu. He also serves on the technical
advisory boards of several companies.

Bryant is an avid athlete. Over the years, he has competed as a runner,
speed skater, rower and triathlete. Most recently he has been rowing on
Pittsburgh's rivers. As a member of the Steel City Rowing Club, he has
competed three times in the ``Head of the Ohio.''

Bryant also serves on the board of the Bellefield Presbyterian Church
in Pittsburgh, where Janice Bryant, his wife of 21 years, works as
director of Children's Ministries. The couple has three children: a
son Jacob, 19, a student at Harvard University; and two daughters,
Claire, 17, a student at the International Baccalaureate program at
Schenley High School in Pittsburgh, and Elizabeth, 11, a fifth grader at
the Pittsburgh Urban Christian School in Wilkinsburg, Pa.

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