The University’s computer science degree within the College of Engineering has seen the biggest jump in freshman enrollment in five years which University officials directly attribute to IBM’s March announcement to build a major facility in downtown BR.
Bijaya Karki, interim division chair and associate professor of computer science and engineering, said this increase is directly related to IBM’s project announcement. The contract for the project obligates IBM to provide 800 jobs at the new facility and has sparked a 55 percent increase in freshman enrollment for the fall 2013 semester.
“After [students] get a computer science degree, they can get jobs easily and locally,” Karki said, noting the increase in enrollment makes a computer science degree more competitive than ever. 
“Once [students] graduate from [LSU], they are better suited for the job,” Karki said. 
Even though the competition will increase within the major, Karki said students will have a “high possibility” of getting jobs once they graduate. 
Karki also mentioned the surge in enrollment comes with initiative to drastically expand the computer science program at the University. Plans are              underway to expand both educational and research programs. Karki said the program will introduce courses that are more industry demanding, such as software development and data mining. New faculty members will also be hired to support the curriculum initiative. 
Students already enrolled in the computer science program will not be directly affected by the increase in freshmen, according to Karki. He said it will have positive effects on these students by motivating them to graduate on time. 
Karki said the overall goal of the computer science program is to triple the number of graduates from the program. 
“After [students] get a computer science degree, they can get jobs easily and locally.”