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Department of Computer Science

The Department of Computer Science (DCS) was originally formed in 1969 as the Computing Centre, a Department in the Faculty of Engineering. In 1976, the Computing Centre moved to the Chiromo Campus where it occupied the purpose-built premises used by the School today. It was formally established in 1977 as the Institute of Computer Science whose mandate included academic as well as university ICT services. In the year 2002, and in the interest of realizing more focused management and efficiency of the two functions, ICS was split into two units i.e. ICTC and SCI now department of Computer Science (DCS).

The department takes its name from the core competencies that it seeks to nurture: Computing, to cover the theory and science of computation and Informatics to exemplify the practical outworking of this theory in technology and application. The department is a regional leader in research, research and development (R&D) and advanced education in computing. It was the first to offer Bachelors and Postgraduate degrees in Computer Science in the region.

Department of Computer Science is located at the picturesque Chiromo Campus off Riverside Drive within the College of Biological and Physical Science of the University of Nairobi. The department is housed in a two storey building with office facilities for over 50 members of staff, a computer room, several computer labs with a fully networked modern computer infrastructure, a library and several classrooms.

It is charged with teaching and research activities. It has eleven on-going and very competitive programmes: Diploma (Computer Science), BSc. (Computer Science), M.Sc. in Computer Science with specialization in Computational intelligence and Distributed Computing Technology, M.Sc. in Information Systems with specialization in IT Management, ICT4D and Applied Computing. PhD (Information Systems) and PhD (Computer Science).

The research mandate of the Department of Computer Science consists of seven research groups in the following thematic areas:

1. E-governance
2. Mobile Financial Services
3. ICT for development (ICT4D)
4. Human Language Technology (HLT)
5. Technology Supported Learning
6. Distributed systems and networks
7. E-science