The programming languages specialization of computer science at the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering rates No. 19 nationally in the 2024-25 U.S. News and World Report Best Graduate School rankings.
“The department has long excelled in research on improving programming languages, a specialty that continues to grow,” said Yuzhen Ye, Computer Science chair and professor of Informatics and Computer Science. “Our faculty engage in foundational research to improve programming languages and study the intersection with other areas including high-performance computing and security.”
Programming languages are central to expressing and understanding all kinds of computer programs. Luddy’s wide-ranging program consistently rates among the nation’s best.
“It speaks to the quality and diversity of work in programming languages that we do, ranging from type theory to quantum programming languages, to probabilistic models for artificial intelligence, to gradual typing,” said Sam Tobin-Hochstadt, associate professor and director of undergraduate studies for computer science.
Ye said the eight-person programming languages group was enhanced by the recent addition of Carlo Angiuli, assistant professor and a former postdoctoral associate at Carnegie Mellon University and Hang Zhang, assistant professor who previously was at Georgia Tech University. Other long-time members of the group are Daniel Friedman, professor of Computer Science; Daniel Leivant, professor of Computer Science; Amr Sabry, professor of Computer Science; Chung-chieh Shan, associate professor; Jeremy Siek, professor; and Tobin-Hochstadt.
Friedman was a catalyst for the study of programming languages at IU.
“He created the programming languages group 50 years ago and deserves enormous credit for its reputation over that time,” Tobin-Hochstadt said.
Luddy’s programming languages specialization was one of 32 IU graduate programs and specialization areas ranked among the nation’s top 20 by the U.S. News and World Report. Only seven public universities nationally and two Big Ten schools have more top-20 programs and specialization areas than IU.