History of Computer Science
Known as the father of theoretical computer science, this mathematician was instrumental in breaking the German Enigma code during World War II.
Alan Turning
Students traditionally drink from this iconic campus landmark on the first day of classes for a 4.0 GPA.
Old Well
Andrea Wogoman & Stephanie Johnson
In this 1999 sci-fi classic, humanity is unknowingly trapped inside a simulated reality created by intelligent machines to harvest their bioelectric power.
The Matrix
Covering more than 30% of the Earth's surface, it is the largest ocean in the world.
Pacific Ocean
Originally known as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company, this tech giant was founded in 1911 and later earned the nickname "Big Blue."
IBM
This legendary UNC men's basketball coach, whom the university's basketball arena is named after, popularized the "Four Corners" offense.
Dean Smith
This UNC Hackathon happens in the fall is focuses on data science & ML applications!
what is CDC (Carolina Data Challenge)
This AI companion to Master Chief in the Halo video game series later inspired the name of Microsoft’s real-life digital assistant.
Cortana
This country holds the title for having the longest coastline in the world.
Canada
Developed by Sun Microsystems in 1995, this programming language was originally called "Oak" before being renamed to reflect the coffee its developers drank.
Java
He arrived from Wilmington on horseback in 1795 to become the very first student to enroll at UNC.
Hinton James (Hojo!)
Professor Neil Gaikwad’s 2026 research, accepted at the ACM FAccT conference, focuses heavily on the ethics, transparency, and identity alignment of these massive AI systems.
LLMs (will take agents)
In The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, this supercomputer spends 7.5 million years calculating the "Ultimate Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything". What is the answer?
42
In Ray Bradbury's dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451, this is the ironically destructive profession of the protagonist Guy Montag.
Fireman
In 1997, this IBM supercomputer made artificial intelligence history by defeating the reigning world chess champion, Garry Kasparov.
Deep Blue
This secret society built a stone castle near campus in the 1920s, shrouded in the legend of a student named Peter Dromgoole who supposedly died in a duel.
Order of Gimghoul
This prominent UNC CS professor, known for his prolific NLP work, was elected as both a AAAI Fellow and an ACL Fellow in 2025.
Mohit Bansal (leads the MURGE Lab)
In November 2023, an AI-generated song mimicking this artist's voice singing about "mangos" and "peaches" went viral in Latin America, prompting him to angrily condemn the track on his WhatsApp channel.
Bad Bunny
This classic satirical novel by Joseph Heller centers on a paradox where a WWII pilot cannot be grounded for insanity because asking to be grounded proves he is sane.
Catch-22
This computer scientist popularized the term "software engineering" and helped conceptualize the COBOL programming language, later retiring as a US Navy Rear Admiral.
Grace Hopper
In 1931, the university consolidated to form the multi-campus University of North Carolina system, joining Chapel Hill with these two other existing state colleges.
NC State & UNC Greensboro
Mihir, Caitlin, & Sadie!
This popular stock photography platform launched a massive 2023 copyright lawsuit against Stability AI, claiming its watermarks were visibly bleeding into AI-generated images.
Getty Images
Global trade routes with this nation dictated how the world names a famous beverage: land routes spread the word "cha," while sea routes spread the word "tea."
China