CS&E Program 

The Computational Science and Engineering (CS&E) Program at Purdue provides students with the opportunity to study a specific science or engineering discipline along with computing in a multidisciplinary environment. The aim of the CS&E program is not to produce a student with parts of two degrees, but rather a student who has learned how to integrate computing with another scientfic or engineering discipline, and is able to make original contributions in both disciplines.

The expected course load and examiniations for students in this program are roughly the same as for master's or doctoral degrees in other disciplines at Purdue, with approximately one third of the course load and examinations from computing and two thirds in the student's home department. For student's whose home department is Computer Science (in the School of Science) or Computer Engineering (in the School of Electrical Engineering), the reverse is true.

M.S. graduates should be well prepared to join and make significant contributions to interdisciplinary research teams. Ph.D. graduates are expected to become leaders in research and development at the forefront of their fields, applying advanced computational techniques and theory to solve key problems. Additionally, this program fosters interaction between faculty and students from the various departments through colloquia and team research efforts.

Specializations at the M.S. and Ph.D. level are offered by the participating departments: Agricultural Economics, Agronomy, Biological Sciences, Chemistry, Computer Sciences, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Electrical Engineering, Food Sciences,Industrial and Physical Pharmacy, Mathematics, Mechanical Engineering, Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy, Pharmacy Practice, Physics, Phsycological Sciences, and Statistics. Students must be admitted to one of these departments (the home department) and to the CS&E program. The degree is awarded in the home department with the specialization Computational Engineering or Computational Sciences indicated on the transcript. The program is administered by the CS&E Graduate Committee with representation from participating departments. CS&E requirements are tailored to the home deparment's requirements.

Students are expected to have a strong interest in computation and its application to science and engineering. Their undergraduate training is expected to have given them a strong foundation in several areas of science, engineering, and computing. Students that do not have both the interdisciplinary breadth and depth needed for the CS&E Program, may take some background undergraduate courses or exploit their talents to remedy their defficiencies while taking graduate courses. An introductory course in CS&E will be offered starting Fall 1995, which is specifically designed to allow students who did not major in computer science or computer engineering to learn quickly the key concepts from upper level undergraduate computer science courses.

Research for the Ph.D. degree is possible in the very broad range of areas of work represented by the large number of participating faculty. A more detailed description of research in progress can be obtained from the CS&E Program office. Purdue University has a broad range of powerful computing facilities available to CS&E researchers. These include several parallel computers, among them the Intel Paragon with 140 processors.