Founded in December 2017, CFCS is a university new initiative co-founded by Turing Award Winner Professor John Hopcroft and Professor Wen Gao. Currently there are 10 faculty members. The center has established close collaboration with the world leading universities and leading institutions, enjoying frequent academic visits by scholars from around the world. There are 4 visiting chair professors at CFCS, including 2 additional Turing Award winners: Professors Silvio Micali from MIT, and Manuel Blum from CMU.

The center stands in the frontier of theoretical computer science, such as game theory, information theory, quantum information science and cryptography, applied computing, such as visual computing and artificial intelligence, as well as the interdisciplinary research in robotics, computational economics, and art, to name just a few.    

The center aims at developing the excellence on two fronts: research and education. On the research front, the center provides a world-class research environment, where innovation and impactful research is the central aim, measured by professional reputation among world scholars. On the education front, the center is deeply involved in the Turing Class, an elite undergraduate program that draws the cream of the crop from the PKU undergraduate talent pool. New curriculum and pedagogy are designed and practiced in this program, cultivating a new generation of computer scientists and engineers who are solid in both theories and practices.