Program

Computational Science and Engineering (CSE) is an interdisciplinary area that draws upon the traditionally distinct academic departments of the sciences or engineering, broadly interpreted. It is more than any of its component fields and traditionally does not fit within the subject areas, conference and journal scopes, or reward structures of computer science, mathematics, or any of science or engineering departments alone. An example of a research endeavor that would be considered CSE is the development of a large-scale computer simulation code to investigate a scientific question that goes beyond the use of canned (commercial or freely available) software but requires familiarity with other aspects of the simulation.

The Computational Science and Engineering Master of Science (M.S.) program is an interdisciplinary program created to foster computationally intensive research and graduate education in the sciences and engineering. The role of the individual scientist trained in a specific discipline is now being replaced by a scientific team that brings individuals with different backgrounds and expertise together in a multidisciplinary approach. Our aim is to produce a professional in scientific computing who will be able to work as part of an interdisciplinary research team. A recipient of this degree will be well trained in state-of-the-art numerical methods, use of software development tools and in the application of these techniques to at least one scientific or engineering area. The graduates of this program will be ideal candidates for Ph.D. programs at our institution and elsewhere.

The Computational Science and Engineering Master of Science (M.S.) program comprises eight courses corresponding to a minimum of 24 credits, two non-credit graduate seminars and a Master’s thesis. This program is open to the graduates of engineering and science majors, who would like to get a graduate degree in the interdisciplinary area of Computational Science and Engineering.

Students enrolled in the program are required to take two courses in the area of computation and modeling and three courses in their specialization area. The computation and modeling elective courses are determined by the programs in the Institute for Graduate Studies in Sciences and Engineering at the beginning of each academic year. The specialization area elective courses are taken with the approval of the advisor.

Descriptions of relevant courses are to be found in the respective sections of the related departmental programs.

In addition to the courses listed in these programs Special Studies and Special Topics courses related with the interdisciplinary field of Computational Science and Engineering as well as courses with similar contents may be substituted, subject to the approval of the advisor, for any course of the respective specialization fields.