The Department of Scientific Computing is pleased to announce that The Florida State University Board of Trustees has approved the implementation of a new B.S. degree in Computational Science, starting in the Fall 2010 semester.
The new degree program should be of interest to and is well suited for those who like working on computers and who ordinarily would also be interested in any of the mathematical sciences (mathematics, computer science, statistics), or the natural sciences (biology, chemistry, physics, geological sciences, ...), or any engineering discipline. Thus, students in the new degree program will learn how to develop and apply new computational tools to solve science and engineering problems.
The newly established Department of Scientific Computing is the focal point of computational science activities at FSU. Computational science involves the invention, implementation, testing, and application of algorithms and software used to solve large-scale scientific and engineering problems. The Department provides a venue for innovative research and education in scientific computing. Our faculty come from a wide variety of traditional mathematical and scientific disciplines who are primarily interested in developing knowledge and tools for computational science and applying those tools to the solution of problems in a variety of applications.
Please note that computational science is different from computer science. At the risk of oversimplifying things, one can say that computer science is about the science of computers whereas computational science is about the use of computers to solve science and engineering problems.
The new degree program, along with the already established Master's and Ph.D. programs, trains students in computational science by providing them with a mix of theory and practice, including substantial hands-on experience in the deployment and use of algorithms for scientific computing.
More information about the new degree program and a sample academic map are found at
under "Computational Science." Information about the Department of Scientific Computing is found at
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I would very much appreciate it if you would alert your students about our new degree program and encourage those that might be interested to seek more information. Please address questions, or have your students address questions, about the new degree program to
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Also, anyone in the neighborhood interested in knowing more about the new degree program is welcome to stop by the Department offices located on the 4th floor of the Dirac Science Library. Over the spring, we will be holding open houses in our department at which we will demonstrate what computational science is all about; we would welcome you and/or your colleagues and especially your students to attend these events. If you know anyone who might be interested in these, please have them contact us through the above email address so that I can let them know when the open houses will take place.
Max Gunzburger Chair, Department of Scientific Computing
