Our goal in the graduate curriculum is to provide students with a common core of knowledge and expertise in fundamental areas of computational and applied mathematics and parallel computation, along with depth in an engineering or scientific application or a mathematics or computer science technology. Although it is technically possible now to have students take courses from the various departments, departmental requirements tend to discourage students from taking more than a minimum number of courses from outside a department's own offering. Overall, current departmental requirements may require the student to take extensive coursework or examinations in areas that have little or no relevance to CSE, leaving little time for the student to develop the broad interdisciplinary background that is necessary for success in this new discipline.
The proposed structure begins with a common core of graduate courses in computational and applied mathematics and parallel computation. The core requirements must be satisfied by every CSE student regardless of department. This will ensure that every student has the basic tools for more advanced courses and research. We have already developed a core graduate course sequence in computational methods which is cross-listed in mechanical and environmental engineering, computer science, mathematics, chemical engineering and electrical and computer engineering. This has been done by correlating existing courses and eliminating redundancies among courses that were similar, and has enabled us to offer the courses every year, taught by the faculty from several different departments who are experts in these areas. Several candidate applied mathematics sequences currently exist. We will work on ensuring that at least one of these sequences meets the needs of each department with respect to CSE education. An appropriate course in parallel computation already exists in the Department of Computer Science. A priority for the future will be to add a course on scientific visualization and software interface design to the core. This will depend on our ability to recruit new faculty who work in this area and can contribute to the CSE educational and research objectives. All required courses must be passed with a grade of B or better.
We have enclosed a list of prospective elective courses. Over time, the Emphasis can and will develop courses that would be useful for CSE students but which are not now currently or reliably offered in any department, resulting in a greater breadth of coverage of relevant material than would otherwise come about. For example, Computational Fluid Dynamics has recently been cross-listed in mathematics and mechanical and environmental engineering by core CSE faculty, enabling us to offer this course every year, taught by experts in that field. CSE will initially be on the graduate level (both M.S. and Ph.D.). Over the longer term, an extension to the upper-division undergraduate level is intended.
A Coordinating Committee consisting of faculty representing the participating departments will administer the Emphasis. The Coordinating Committee will meet periodically to monitor the program and the progress of the students. Admission to the Emphasis will be carried out through the participating departments, with members of the Coordinating Committee serving on the respective recruiting committees of each department to ensure that CSE students in each department are admitted with the proper credentials and background for success in this emphasis and in their department. Admission to the Emphasis will normally be granted at the same time as admission to the home department, but it will also be possible for students who are already admitted to the home department to petition to add the Emphasis, in which case the decision would be made by a member of the Coordinating Committee in that department. Students must complete a Graduate Student Petition and pay a $ 15 petition processing fee to officially add the emphasis to their transcript. The petition must be approved by the departmental Graduate Advisor and sent to the Graduate Division.
We expect that students pursuing the CSE Emphasis would pursue and hold TAships and GSR positions on a par with other students in their respective departments.
CSE is a very broad and interdisciplinary field, and much of the study plan for each student will be designed around his or her specific interests, with the assistance of the student's advisor. Since the program will encompass several Academic Departments, the students must meet the academic requirements of his or her home department, for a degree in that department with an emphasis in CSE. We will negotiate with each department to ensure that the overall graduate degree requirements include a broad background in both CSE and the academic field of the home department, but at the same time are tailored so that students within the CSE emphasis are not unduly burdened with requirements over and above the standard requirements of the home department. In some cases, this will have the consequence that the home department may substitude some CSE requirements for some of their current requirements, for students in the CSE emphasis. For example, in the Department of Computer Science, where there is currently a specialization in CSE which follows the plan of the proposed emphasis, two out of the ten screening examinations for the Ph.D., none of which originally included CSE, are replaced by examinations in the CSE subjects of numerical methods and parallel computation.
An important part of CSE graduate education is participation in a multidisciplinary research project. There are a great many opportunities lately for funding of multidisciplinary research projects, and the existence of a formal CSE Emphasis will put us in a better position both to compete for these funds and to accomplish the research. Thus, many of the CSE students will acquire the multidisciplinary research experience via their research assistantships. We also have excellent connections with both Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Los Alamos National Laboratory, and expect that it will be no problem, especially for domestic students, to arrange for meaningful research experiences and internships at those Laboratories. As the program develops, we will attempt to engage California industries as well.