For the past few years, the hardware component of the computer science program has been on the brink of collapse. Ingo Cyliax's resignation pushes its status beyond the brink, and, with Frank Prosser's pending retirement, a crisis is at hand. Restoration of this component is only feasible with an investment of resources and, more important, a departmental concensus in favor of doing it. It is time for the CS faculty to make a decision. This is important enough an issue to be openly deliberated with a definite determination made about how to proceed.
Further inaction is a decision to let the hardware component lapse.
This statement summarizes the conditions necessary for a sustained hardware component in the computer science program. Although I have discussed the basic issues with several faculty members, these conclusions are mine, alone. Clearly, hardware activities are relatively expensive, especially in terms of support personnel. It is possible to recoup some of these costs by providing facilities and expertise to the campus and region, but to do so entails additional resources in advance and continuing costs. The others actively used hardware in their research but were not hardware researchers per se.