Greetings! You've reached Steve Tate's home page at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. I am Department Head for the Department of Computer Science at UNCG, and you can find links to department information here as well as information about my research and teaching. If you want to contact me, see the "Contact" link to the left.

Basic Information

My work is in the area of computer security and cryptography, and you can find more information by following the "Research" link to the left. I'm completely committed to leading the Department of Computer Science, and strongly feel that keeping active and current in my own research is an important part of this - if you'd like to chat about my research or about computer security (or computer science) in general, please feel free to contact me!

Teaching for Fall 2009

I am teaching CSC 330 (Advanced Data Structures) and CSC 680 (Advanced Topics in Computer Security) in Fall 2009 - for more information, see the class web page.

About Computer Science

I've been fascinated by the field of computer science for many years now, and enjoy talking about computer science topics and issues with others. One of the unusual things about computer science as a field is how many people have a mistaken idea about what the field of computer science is — most people have a pretty good idea of what biology is, or what chemistry is, but since there is little or no exposure to computer science in K-12 education a lot people come into college without a clear picture of the field. If you are thinking about studying computer science and are reading this, you might want to read something I've written about What is Computer Science?. Something else to read that I'd recommend is an excellent article by David Chisnall entitled Is Computer Science Dying? (the answer is "no").

My History

Before joining UNCG in 2007, I was at The University of North Texas for 14 years, in what was originally the Department of Computer Science and later became the Department of Computer Science and Engineering. At UNT I created the Center for Information and Computer Security, which won recognition by the National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education. I received my Ph.D. from Duke University in 1991, followed by a 2 year postdoc supported by NASA. I have worked and published in several areas, including algebraic algorithms, circuit complexity, online algorithms, and data compression.