Former Dean Zvi Galil Shares OMSCS Success Story with 100th Audience

A decade has passed since the College of Computing launched its groundbreaking Online Master of Science in Computer Science (OMSCS) program. And in that time, former dean and program co-founder Zvi Galil has been asked to speak about the program repeatedly.

This summer, he delivered his 100th talk at the National University of Singapore, where he also met with faculty, administrators, Ph.D. students, and postdoctoral fellows. Afterward, he joined a local meet-up group for OMSCS students. Singapore has the highest concentration of OMSCS students globally —  30 students per million residents. At the same time, the U.S. comes in with 24 per million.

"The OMS Singapore group has been very helpful to me," said student Serge Nino Martin. "I was able to meet fellow students and alumni even before I started my classes officially. It is great to network with "like-minded" people who are very interested in learning more about computer science."

This is what these groups are supposed to do, accordingly to Galil.

"Our local meet-up groups allow students who are not in Atlanta to build their community, to share ideas, and to network," Galil said. "The university and the meet-up group provided me with wonderful hospitality."

About a third of current OMSCS students live outside the U.S., with large numbers in China, India, Canada, South Korea, and Singapore. The program also enrolls more than 300 students in Central and South America and more than 450 in Africa.

After he visited Singapore, Galil gave his 101st talk at Tel Aviv University, where he previously served as president. His fall schedule will take him to the University of Wisconsin at Madison, where he will meet up with Charles Isbell, former dean of computing at Georgia Tech and current provost at UW – Madison.