MADISON, WI (SPECTRUM NEWS) — Ali Zaidi is less than a year away from graduation at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The computer science major has noticed a change over the past few years in the department.

“It's easy to tell that okay like computer science is really growing, I can tell just walking into this building,” Zaidi said.

He's not imagining it. The major has become the most popular on campus, ballooning from about 500 students five to six years ago to about 1800 now.

That's in part why the university has decided to make a change in the administrative structure surrounding that major and major's like it.

In early September the university announced it established a new school in the College of Letters and Science. It's the School of Computer, Data, and Information Sciences, or CDIS. The school will bring in the Department of Computer Science along with the Department of Statistics and the Information School — both programs that have seen an increase in students as well.

“There's no doubt that we're responding to a sign of the times,” said Tom Erickson, CDIS's founding director.

Erickson graduated from UW-Madison in 1980 and has worked in the tech field in several capacities since. He said the process to add the CDIS School has been going on for several years. Now that it is created Erickson said there is more administrative power and focus in addressing the infrastructure and staffing of the growing majors.

“It's fair to say we're busting at the seams right now,” Erickson said

Erickson said many universities will cap the number of students majoring computer science and tech. UW-Madison doesn't want to do that. So his job now will be to focus on not only getting the departments the staffing and resources they need for some of the campus's top majors, but even expanding the fields of studies students can go into within the departments.

“Students coming in they're going to have access, more access, to computer science and data science classes than they've had before because those are very highly sought after and difficult to get in,” Erickson said.

The state could use all of the computer and tech workers it can get too.

Job boards are filled with postings for people with that education. In Wisconsin alone there are more than 8,000 tech jobs posted on Indeed.com.

“We need these people in Wisconsin because our Wisconsin industry needs these people and that's certainly part of our goal,” Erickson said.

Zaidi knows this too. He says he already has two places he's interned that he's confident he can work at when he graduates. Zaidi also plans on feeling out the market and seeing what other jobs may be out there too.

“My worst case scenario involves a job, which I don't know if it can be said for a different major,” Zaidi said.

Erickson and Zaidi both say from what they can tell out in the jobs field, UW has highly respected tech programs. Erickson said this will only build off the university's good reputation.

“I think we have an opportunity to do something very special on a global scale,” Erickson said.