The University of Texas at Austin Department of Computer Science (UTCS) is ranked as a top-ten Computer Science department nationally and is the only top-ten computer science department within 1,000 miles of Austin, TX. The department officially opened its doors on September 1, 1966. At that time it was strictly a graduate program consisting of 44 students, 13 faculty members, and an administrative staff of one. As the plural term implies, the new department was designed to bring together computer scientists previously identified with several different academic fields. When the popularity of computer-related studies began to soar in the mid-1970s, the need for a coordinated undergraduate computer science program was evident. The undergraduate program became a reality in September 1974 with 350 undergraduate computer science majors.