Meet the Chair

Yong Chen is a Professor and the Interim Department Chair of the Computer Science Department at the Edward E. Whitacre Jr. College of Engineering at Texas Tech University. As Interim Chair of the Computer Science Department, Dr. Chen oversees a department of 28 faculty members, including 20 tenure-track and tenured professors, as well as 3 full-time and 5 part-time teaching faculty members, and 6 full-time staff. Dr. Chen also oversees four degree programs, two certificate programs, and research labs and facilities that contribute to both the educational and research missions of the department.

Under his leadership, the department has grown its full-time faculty size by 35% over the past two years. As of Fall 2024, the department is home to 451 undergraduate majors and 559 graduate students, comprising 476 Master’s students and 83 Ph.D. students, with a total population of 1,010 students. Additionally, nearly 600 freshmen foundational students have expressed an interest in pursuing computer science as their major. Since Fall 2023, the department has become the largest of the seven departments in the College of Engineering in terms of total student enrollment. Over the last two years, the department undergraduate enrollment has increased by 42.7% and the Ph.D. enrollment has grown by 43.1%. During the 2024 academic year, the department successfully completed the ABET comprehensive review, which included a site visit in Fall 2023. The department’s Bachelor’s degree program has been accredited through the 2029-2030 academic year. The department also introduced an Artificial Intelligence minor program and three undergraduate concentrations to begin in Fall 2025. The department's research scholarship and external funding have experienced significant growth too. According to the Texas Tech Office of Research Services, the department secured a credited total share of over $5.4 million ($5,414,209) external grants in 2024, more than tripling the total amount compared to two years ago. The majority of these grants are led by the Computer Science Department and awarded through highly competitive National Science Foundation (NSF) programs.

Dr. Chen is also the founding Director of the Data-Intensive Scalable Computing Laboratory and the Co-Director and Lead Principal Investigator for the Phase-II NSF Cloud and Autonomic Computing Center, funded by the NSF Industry-University Cooperative Research Centers (IUCRC) program. As a research scholar, Dr. Chen currently supervises two post-doctoral researchers, nine Ph.D. students, three Master’s students, and three undergraduate students. Over the course of his career, he has advised and graduated nine Ph.D. students, approximately 30 Master’s students, and around 50 undergraduate advisees. He has published over 160 scientific papers in high-impact international journals and conferences and has been awarded 22 external research grants with a total funding amount exceeding $18 million as the Lead Principal Investigator. He joined Texas Tech in 2011 as an Assistant Professor and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2017 and Full Professor in 2022. 

Yong Chen, Ph.D.
Professor and Department Interim Chair

Email: yong.chen@ttu.edu

Phone: 806.834.0284

Office: Engineering Center (EC) Suite 102-B