Simulation-Based Engineering & Science Certificate
Proposal (PDF)
The Center for Scientific Computing at SMU is in the process of
setting up a certificate program in
Simulation-Based Engineering and Science. The program has yet
to be finalized; however, it will be similar to what is described in
the above PDF document.
The purpose of the proposed SBE&S certificate program is, first of
all, to provide students in Engineering, Science and Mathematics the
opportunity to complete a structured educational program in applied
high-performance computing, while still satisfying all requirements of
a traditional degree program, and, second, to allow people who have
already completed their degree program to further their professional
development. The key points in the design of the program are:
- Development of a coherent and meaningful set of courses whose
completion will prepare students to use high-performance computing
within their disciplines. This should benefit not only the students
but also research programs within the departments.
- Facilitate the broad participation of departments in Science and
Engineering as well as industry by keeping the requirements as
streamlined as possible. In particular, SBE&S students should be
able to fully satisfy departmental degree requirements without
significantly delaying graduation.
- Encourage collaboration among faculty and students interested in
the application of high-performance computing in their
disciplines.
Such a program would be of tremendous benefit to the SMU community for
a variety of reasons:
- An interdisciplinary program of this form would help facilitate
the training of the small number of students from individual
departments that are currently interested in developing
high-performance computing applications, and would help generate
interest in such research among future students.
- Given SMU's new initiatives in developing a local computational
facility, the ongoing support for computational science and
engineering from funding agencies, and the possibility of new
faculty hires engaged in computationally-intensive research, there
is an urgent need for a mechanism to train our students.
- This program will be open to exceptional undergraduates,
directly benefiting undergraduate education at SMU for those
students who wish to pursue jobs or graduate work in
high-performance computing.
Specific requirements of the proposed program include:
- Completion of a two-course core sequence. Proposed content may be
found here.
- Completion of a third elective - individual departments, with the
approval of the program, will determine which courses will satisfy
the requirement for their majors. For example, mathematics would
require an outside course emphasizing computation in some
application discipline, while other departments may require courses
which focus on discipline-specific software packages. A general list
of electives for certificate-only students will be
maintained.
- Two semesters of participation in the SBE&S seminar. (One
credit per semester.) We feel this additional requirement is
important both to develop a sense of comaraderie between the
participating students and to foster collaborative research.
Speakers will include participating faculty and students from SMU,
as well as outside speakers.
