Computational Science Education

A.  Undergraduate Programs

1.  Undergraduate Programs in the United States

The undergraduate computational science programs included in this survey are listed in Table 1.
 

Table 1. Undergraduate Computational Science Programs in the United States

Degrees/Formal Programs (16)  
   
Capital University Minor in Computational Science
Clark University Concentration in Computational Science
Illinois State University B.S. in Computational Physics
Oregon State University B.S. in Computational Physics
Princeton University Undergraduate Certificate in Applied and Computational Mathematics
Rice University B.A. in Computational and Applied Mathematics
Salve Regina University Minor in Computational Science
SUNY Brockport B.S. in Computational Science
Stanford University B.S. in Mathematical and Computational Science
Syracuse University Minor in Computational Science
University at Buffalo (SUNY) B.S. in Computational Physics
University of Chicago B.A. and B.S in Computational and Applied Mathematics
University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire Minor in Computational Science
University of Wisconsin - LaCrosse Minor in Computational Science
Wittenberg University Minor in Computational Science
Wofford College Emphasis in Computational Science
   
Courses only (18)   
Boston University  
California Institute of Technology  
Clarkson University  
Clemson University  
University of Colorado  
Duke University  
Elizabeth City State University  
University of Houston-Downtown  
Indiana University of Pennsylvania  
Indiana University - Purdue University at Indianapolis  
Macalester College  
University of Minnesota  
New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology  
North Carolina State University  
University of Rochester  
San Diego State University  
SUNY Institute of Technology at Utica  
United States Naval Academy  

These programs include sixteen that offer a formal degree, minor, or certificate and eighteen that offer undergraduate courses in computational science without any formal program.  Although several universities offer degrees in computational physics or computational mathematics, the B.S. in Computational Science now offered by SUNY Brockport is the only major degree program in the United States specifically for computational science.

Another dimension of undergraduate education in computational science is the range of institutions.  Early CSE programs were primarily at large research universities.  Now courses and programs are being offered at smaller universities (e.g., the University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire) and liberal arts colleges (e.g., Wofford College, Macalester College).

The colleges and universities included in this survey have all supplemented existing traditional courses in mathematics, computer science, and the scientific/engineering disciplines with new interdisciplinary courses to create a CSE curriculum.  There is some commonality among the courses, so an answer to the question of what constitutes an interdisciplinary undergraduate CSE program is beginning to appear.

Existing courses that typically appear in the CSE curriculum include:

New, interdisciplinary courses that often appear are:


2.  International Undergraduate Programs

Undergraduate computational science programs have also been developed outside of the United States.  Table 2 lists several representative programs at international universities.

Table 2. International Undergraduate Computational Science Programs

Australian National University Australia Bachelor of Computational Science
Carleton University Canada Honours and Major in Computational Chemistry
National University of Singapore Singapore B.Sc. in Computational Science
Trinity College Ireland Moderatorship in Computational Physics
Trinity College Ireland Moderatorship in Computational Chemistry

[Contents][Introduction][Undergraduate][Graduate][Resources][Bibliography]