The Computer Science department at Fitchburg State College strives to provide quality education and sound academic advising and student support in the areas of Computer Science and Information Technology. Our primary focus is to prepare students with a foundation that prepares them to continue learning after graduation. The department is committed to providing high quality professional programs and life-long learning opportunities at the graduate and undergraduate levels and in continuing education. The department seeks to help the local hi-tech/business communities by providing professional education and a skilled workforce in the Computer Science and Information Technology fields.

In 1972, Fitchburg State College was the first state college in Massachusetts to offer a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science. A Master of Science degree in Computer Science was introduced in 1981. By 1986, Fitchburg State achieved another first among the state colleges in Massachusetts by installing a campus wide fiber optic network. Today all college buildings including the dorms are conveniently connected to a local area network. Students enjoy the benefits of communicating across the campus as well as across the world using campus wide access to the Internet. All faculty members, college wide, have been issued desktop computers with network access. In 1994, the Computer Science department in conjunction with the Business Administration department began to offer an undergraduate interdisciplinary concentration in Computer Information Systems.  In 2001, this program is replaced with a Bachelor of Science major in Computer Information Systems.

The department had a long-standing and close relationship with Raytheon Corporation, which offered an undergraduate degree program in Computer Science through Fitchburg State College. The department once had an industrial advisory committee consisting of members from Raytheon, General Electric, DEC and Mitre corporations whose suggestions were incorporated into the early curriculum to meet the then current industry standards and demands. The General Electric Company was the first to provide our students with internship sites starting in 1973. Since that time, students have had internships at such sites as Accutest Corporation, Anwelt Corporation, Blue Cross - Blue Shield, Computervision, Digital Equipment Corporation, General Electric Company, Dynamics Research, G.T.E. Laboratories, I.B.M., Itek, Honeywell, Data General Corporation, M.I.T., Burbank Hospital, Haystack Observatory, M.I.T. Lincoln Labs, Metacom, Mitre, Raytheon, Sanders Assoc., Wang Laboratories, Simplex, GenRad, SyBase, Compaq, EMC² , and IRIS Associates.

The department has vastly improved its software and hardware labs in the recent years.  We currently offer a lecture/lab with 24 Windows and 8 Unix workstations, another computer lab with 24 Windows workstations with all the software used in the courses installed, a local area network lab with 16 computers, a Linux lab with 16 computers and two hardware labs.  We also provide web and database servers.  Department aims to replace its computers in a 3-year cycle.  Department maintains its own network connecting all these labs and faculty desktops.   Multimedia equipment is available in all the classrooms where we offer our courses.    In our hardware labs, 10 DSP systems are now available in support of the Digital Signal Processing course. Programmable logic devices have been added to the Digital Electronics course coverage and are available for lab use.  PROM programmers have been installed in order to allow students to create their own micro coded control units in the Computer Architecture course.  The department has evolved from using a large mainframe to minicomputers to microcomputers to stand-alone desktops to the current networked desktops and workstations. 

The strength and unique feature of our B.S. in Computer Science program was and still is its blend of computer hardware and software courses. The program prepares students to work in positions that require an intimate working knowledge of software, hardware and theoretical computer science.

Important curriculum revisions were completed during the 2000-2001 academic year. These included a major emphasis on revisions needed for preparation for CSAB accreditation. Among these changes were the incorporation of Assembly Language into Computer Architecture course and the placement of Programming Languages and Software Engineering into the list of core courses.

Effective September 2000, the Computer Information Systems program was placed fully under the Computer Science department's management. Since then, major changes were made to its curriculum to meet the CSAB accreditation standards for information systems as proposed in the April 2000 draft by CSAB. The department also revamped its graduate program during the 2001-2002 academic year.  The department also offers certificate programs packaged for most part from undergraduate courses offered in the department.

B.S. in Computer Science and B.S. in Computer Information Systems are offered during the day as well as in the evening.  So also the various certificate programs.  Graduate Program is offered in the evening only.