The proposed Emphasis is intended to both appeal to our existing graduate students and to attract and bring in new students who might not otherwise decide to attend UCSB. Currently, graduate students are being admitted within the Departments of Computer Science, Mathematics, Mechanical and Environmental Engineering, and Chemical Engineering whose research interests are increasingly being defined at the boundaries of two or more departments, rather than being encompassed within a single department.
It is possible under the current situation for students to assemble curricula from existing course offerings. However, they must balance extra-departmental courses against both course and exam requirements pertaining to their home department. The new Emphasis would provide a set of core courses that would make it easier for students to pursue a better-integrated academic program. The courses for the new Emphasis are already in place. We do not anticipate the need for additional courses for at least the first two years of operation of the new Emphasis. The anticipated additional enrollment in the chosen courses should not present any capacity problems. In fact, a few of the courses currently suffer from lower than desired enrollment, and those courses would definitely benefit from an increased enrollment.
We expect that the creation of the new Emphasis will enhance both the quality and the quantity of students seeking entry to UCSB. We anticipate an initial recruitment of 10-15 students per year across the participating departments. We believe that the new Emphasis will meet with enthusiastic student response. Many existing students have inquired about the possibility for such an Emphasis, and we are constantly receiving email from excellent students on the outside asking about the possibilities for studies in computational science and engineering at UCSB.
We expect that the employment opportunities for students enrolled in the new Emphasis will be excellent. CSE is a rapidly expanding research area. Graduates from our new Emphasis will have the advantage of having both an advanced degree in a traditional discipline and a credential in CSE, enabling them to seek employment in either area. There is a healthy demand for CSE graduates in industry. For U.S. Citizens and permanent residents, there is a great demand for CSE graduates at all of the National Laboratories. Finally, the directors of well-established CSE programs at Stanford, University of Texas Austin and University of Illinois report a strong demand for their graduates.