The College of Engineering has selected Xiaoqing "Frank" Liu to head the Department of Computer Science and Computer Engineering. Liu begins July 1. He will also hold the Rodger S. Kline Leadership Chair in Computer Science and Computer Engineering.

"I am very excited to welcome Dr. Liu to our faculty and to this important leadership position," said John English, dean of the College of Engineering. "Computer science and computer engineering is a vital and dynamic field and Dr. Liu brings the skills we need to excel in this area."

Liu comes to Arkansas from the Missouri University of Science and Technology, where he served as professor of computer science and associate chair for graduate studies and external affairs in the computer science department. He was interim computer science department chair in 2013. He holds a bachelor's degree in computer science from the National University of Defense Technology in Changsha, China; a master's degree in computer science from Southeast University in Nanjing, China; and a doctorate in computer science from Texas A&M University in college station.

Liu's research and teaching interests include software engineering, service computing, collective intelligence, web-based argumentation, intelligent systems and software applications. Liu published 128 referred journal and conference papers and book chapters. He served as principal or co-principal investigators on 26 sponsored research projects and an industrial partnership. He made notable contributions in the areas of on-line argumentation based collaborative decision support, web service discovery and recommendation, software modeling, and software quality and process management.

Liu explained that his objective is "to build and grow a high quality department with an excellent reputation in both teaching and research" by leveraging the support, involvement, and collaboration of the faculty, staff, students, and alumni in the department.