CSC News

Dr. Gregg Rothermel to Retire as Department Head

Gregg Rothermel, Distinguished University Professor and Head of the NC State Department of Computer Science, will retire from his position on August 1, 2025. Since 2018, Rothermel has led the Department of Computer Science (CSC) in its mission to advance the citizens of North Carolina, the nation and the world through excellence in computing education and research. 

Rothermel came to NC State from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where he was a professor and Jensen Chair of Software Engineering. He received his B.A. in Philosophy from Reed College, M.S. in Computer Science from SUNY Albany and Ph.D. in Computer Science from Clemson University, under the guidance of Mary Jean Harrold.

Rothermel is widely recognized as one of the top software engineering researchers in the world. His strong leadership in software engineering is reflected in recent rankings from CSRankings, which placed the department third in that field among U.S. institutions.

With the support of the “Engineering Expansion” initiative. Rothermel transformed the CSC department from a faculty of 50 tenure-track, tenured, and teaching faculty to a faculty of size 76. In doing so. Rothermel helped the department strengthen existing research groups in Cybersecurity, Computer Systems, Computer Networking, Software Engineering, Computer-Assisted Learning, AI and Machine Learning and Theoretical Computer Science, and establish a new presence in the area of Cyber-Physical Systems. The strengths of several of these groups also are reflected in the department’s national standing in CSRankings: #1 in high-performance computing, #5 in embedded and real-time systems and #9 in computer architecture, among others.

Rothermel also led the department’s (and the college’s) recent growth in the current renaissance of artificial intelligence. While the department ranked 32nd in 2014 in AI, as of 2024 that ranking has grown to 9th. A particular focus of the department has been to go beyond core AI research (machine learning, natural language processing, computer vision, etc.) to applied AI – the practical application of AI to solve real-world problems. The department is currently working on curricula by which to bring the foundations necessary to harness applied AI to all of the other disciplines represented in the College of Engineering.

The department’s growth in research is reflected in its increase in annual research expenditures from $10.4K in 2018/2019 to $18.6K in 2023/2024, in new awards from $12.8K in 2018/2019 to $15.6K in 2023/2024 and in top-tier research publications from 165 in 2018 to 271 in 2023.

Along with this growth in research, the department’s educational efforts expanded significantly: from Fall 2018 to Fall 2024 undergraduate enrollments increased from 1135 to 1763, Master’s enrollments increased from 519 to 763, and Ph.D. enrollments increased from 199 to 241. The growth of the department’s cohort of Professional Teaching-Track Faculty from 6 to 17 has enabled the department to increase retention and graduation rates among its undergraduates, and continue to produce the software engineering talent that is vastly needed by the state and the Triangle, as well as the nation as a whole.

Among his many accolades, Rothermel was recognized as a Distinguished University Professor in 2024, an honor reserved for NC State's most exceptional scholars. Rothermel is also an IEEE Fellow and ACM Distinguished Scientist, and was recently recognized by IEEE for authoring one of the most influential papers in IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering of the past 50 years.

What comes next after spearheading one of the top computer science programs in the country? Going abroad and continuing his love of research. Rothermel has accepted a one-year position as a “Distinguished Invited Professor” at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), one of the foremost academic institutions in South Korea.

“I’m particularly happy to return to KAIST, where I spent much of three years as a Visiting Professor earlier in my career, to renew my research collaborations on software engineering and cyber-physical systems with colleagues and friends, and to mentor students and younger faculty,” said Rothermel. “The move is personally satisfying as well: my wife is Korean and my three-year-old son is at a perfect stage to be immersed in the Korean language and culture and, hopefully, emerge bi-lingual.”

“It has been a great privilege and a great pleasure serving as the Department Head for Computer Science,” said Rothermel. “I’ve loved my time here and will treasure the memories of it. For that, I have a lot of people to thank. Beginning with the College of Engineering, this includes Dean Pfaendtner, Dean Luis-Martin Vega, the Assistant and Associate Deans, and the College’s support staff. I’m also grateful to the Heads of the other departments in COE for their camaraderie and support, and to the department’s Strategic Advisory Board for their commitment to the department. I’m especially grateful to the faculty for all that they have done to advance the department – any credit I might claim for improvements in our research productivity and impact is ultimately due to their efforts. Finally, I’ve been blessed to have been supported by a talented, dedicated staff. It’s all of you – the people who have made this journey possible – who have also made it pleasurable. Thank you.”

The Department of Computer Science community wishes Rothermel and his family all the best as they enter the next phase of their lives. 

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