In 1993 Utrecht University has started a curriculum in Computational Science, starting at the undergraduate
level and leading to the Dutch `Doctorandus' degree (wich is more or less comparable to the Master's degree). The curriculum has been st up as a joint collaboration between the Departments of Mathematics & Computer Science, and Physics. It aims at a complete and self-contained educational program that should fulll society's growing demand for scientic computing, and it does so by trying to make students familiar with computational models (physics), applied mathematics (with emphasis on numerical analysis), and computer possibilities (computer science).
In our presentation we will discuss the ideas behind this new study, the perspectives for students with respect to carreer, and we will report on our experiences during the rst two years of existence of the new curriculum

Vorst, H.A. van der

Utrecht University Repository

Van der Vorst, H.A.Computational Science Curriculum in UtrechtAbstractIn 1993 Utrecht University has started a curriculum in Computational Science, starting at the undergraduatelevel and leading to the Dutch `Doctorandus' degree (wich is more or less comparable to the Master's degree). Thecurriculum has been st up as a joint collaboration between the Departments of Mathematics & Computer Science,and Physics. It aims at a complete and self-contained educational program that should fulll society's growingdemand for scientic computing, and it does so by trying to make students familiar with computational models(physics), applied mathematics (with emphasis on numerical analysis), and computer possibilities (computerscience).In our presentation we will discuss the ideas behind this new study, the perspectives for students with respectto carreer, and we will report on our experiences during the rst two years of existence of the new curriculum.1. The Dutch Educational SystemIn order to understand how the CS-curriculum ts in the educational system we will rst briey sketch the Dutcheducational system in relation with scientic education. From age 4 to 12 everyone attends the same type of primaryschool. At age 12 the education splits in essentially three streams:1. MAVO (low to medium level)2. HAVO (medium to high level), and3. VWO (high level).At each level the student can take a selection of courses, and typically such a selection (the selection has to fol-low certain rules to make it a proper one) contains Mathematics (Calculus), Physics, Biology, Dutch, two foreignlanguages, history, and economics. For the higher levels (VWO and HAVO) Mathematics comes in two avours:Mathematics A and B. Type A deals with statistics, type B has calculus and simple linear algebra. The VWO typecan be regarded as preparation for further education at a University. Several combinations of courses can be takenand the choice determines for what study the student qualies. If one nishes the VWO successfully then one isallowed to enter University without further requirements than having followed the proper courses.The education at the University consists of two phases:4. The rst phase takes in theory 4 years, but in practice often more than 5, and ends with a so-called `Doctorandus(drs)' degree. This degree can be compared to the American Masters Degree.5. The second phase takes again 4 years and ends with a PhD (Dr)-degree.The Computational Science Curriculum starts right at the beginning of phase 1, so when the students are at an ageof about 18 years old.2. The Circumstances in UtrechtThe main departments that are involved in Computational Science at Utrecht University are: Department of Mathematics, with chairs in Algebra, Analysis, Numerical Analysis, Statistics & Probability,and Mathematical Pysics. For Computational Science the chairs in Numerical Analysis and Statistics &Probability are the most relevant ones. The chair in Mathematical Physics became vacant in the last year andit is to be expected that the new professor will also be involved at least partly in the Computational Sciencecurriculum. The Numerical Analysis section consists at this moment of one full professor, three associateprofessors, four postdocs, and a small number of PhD-students. This section played a key role in the start ofComputational Science, warmly supported by the other mathematicians (including the pure mathematicians;in Utrecht there is no clear separation between pure and applied). Department of Informatics. Although this Department played an active role in getting Computational Sciencestarted in Utrecht, it became more deeply involved only very recently. At this moment, July 1995, it is veryactive in the participation as well as in the design of new courses. The Department of Informatics is currentlyactive in Algorithms and Algorithmic design, Information Technology, Programming, and Software Technology. Department of Physics. This department has dierent subgroups, among which we see Theoretical Physics,Experimental Physics, Astronomy, Oceanography, and Informatics of Physics. The last one was most activelyinvolved in Computational Science, but the courses in Physics for the new curriculum are not restricted to thisgroup.Apart from these three Departments, computational activities take also place in the Departments of Medicine,Chemistry, Biology, Pharmacy, and Earth Sciences.In 1990 a contact group was established, which acted as a forum for discussions on Computational Science mattersand for mutual help with large scale computational work. This group has organized Symposiums and it has also madea list of all those courses that have strong emphasis on Computational aspects. Students in various Departmentsare encouraged to select courses from this list.3. Promotion of exact sciencesThe number of students who enroll for exact sciences has decreased dramatically over the last years, and this is seenas an alarming fact by the Dutch Government. The State Department of Education and Science has taken stepsin order to help improve the situation, and together with the encouraging attention and stimulances of the Boardof Utrecht University this has created an atmosphere in which the establishment of a new Computational Sciencecurriculum was facilitated. The University Board has played a very active role in this by making money available,partly for Physics and partly for Mathematics & Informatics, under the condition that these Departments agreedto start the new curriculum by September 1, 1993. This deadline was made known only one year earlier, September1992.Furthermore, we received also warm support, in writing, from key industries and large research laboratories. Someof these groups were willing to help nance PhD positions (in fact, Philips Electronics is participating in a programfor nancing PhD positions in Utrecht, as per September 1995).This has culminated in the ocial approvement by the State Department of the Computational Science curriculumas an independent study, of which the name is privileged. This status becomes eective as per September 1995, andfrom then on we are allowed to grant a Doctorandus title in Computational Science.4. The Computational Science CurriculumThe goal of our Computational Science curriculum is to provide a complete program for professional simulation ofscientic processes. The ingredients of this program are Mathematics, Numerical Analysis, Physics, and Informatics.The students have, in the last two years, also a choice from courses in Chemistry, Economics, etc.The program of the rst year leads to a `Propedeuse'-degree. Without this degree students are formally not allowedto take 3-rd and 4-th year courses. This rst year program consists of the following elements: Calculus ( 20%) Linear Algebra ( 16%) Introduction to Statistics ( 8%) Principles of Programming ( 10%) Algorithms & Datastructures ( 10%) Mechanics ( 10%) Electrodynamics ( 10%) CS Practical Work ( 16%)After this rst year the student has still the possibillity to switch from Computational Science to a program inMathematics or Physics with no delay in the total program. We anticipated that this switch possibility might makeit easier for the student to select our new program, in the sense of a reduced risk.The program of the second year includes Advanced Calculus (dierential equations, partial dierential equations) ( 22%) Introduction Numerical Analysis, and Numerical Linear Algebra (together ( 18%) Introduction to Probability theory ( 8%) Knowledge Technology ( 8%) Parallel Programming ( 8%) Quantum Mechanics, and Waves + Optics (together  16%) Coputational Science Practical Work ( 20%)The practical work includes sessions in which the students becom familiar with computer simulations of increasingcomplexity. The simplied versions of the models are introduced in the rst year. In these sessions students use C,Matlab, Mathematica, and they make their reports with LaTEX.The 3-rd and 4-th year are rather diverse and we give here only an impression of the most important elements: Numerical Algorithms for super and parallel computers Nonlinear PDE's and Dynamical Systems Theory of Programming Decision Theory Articial Intelligence A Project (in which the students work in small teams) Computer practice A seminar, in which the students have to give at least two presentations of two times 45 minutes each. A selection upon choice from a list of courses in Physics, Chemistry, Earth Sciences, Hydrodynamics, etc. Thesis work (6 months)5. Promotional ActivitiesOf course we have undertaken actions to make sure that students at secondary schools, as well as their teachers inmathematics and physics, became aware of our program in Computational Sciences. Among our activities in thisdirection we mention special brochures with information on the program, the purpose of the program, career perspectives, andtelephone numbers for further information. Utrecht University organizes each year in November two special days, during which students in the nal year ofsecondary school, get all sorts of information on the various programs. Example lectures are given, computerdemonstrations, special introductions, and students have an opportunity for contacts with sta. These daysare usually very lively events that are rather popular for young students and their parents. Free lunches areprovided. Of course, also Computational Sciences presents itself at these occasions with introductions, examplecourses, and videos. Our postdocs and some of our younger students present introductions at schools (or at meetings where studentsof several schools attend). It turns out that it is often more ecient to let younger persons do this kind ofpropaganda. Since 1993 we have prepared, with professional help of editors of a popular scientic journal, special inlays infull color for this magazine. A signicant number of the students in our program became aware of the programthrough these inlays. Occasionally we give special lectures for secondary school teachers. We are in the process of providing information through WWW.6. Early ExperiencesOur early experiences are quite encouraging. In the rst year of existence, '93-'94, we had 18 students enrolled inour program, and the same number in the second year. We have no denitive numbers for this year but there areindications that the number will be higher this time.It is our impression that the best students are those with an interest in physics.After two years we are now building up the necessary courses for the third year and the involved Departments arewilling to adjust their courses, or to develop special variants for the Computational Science students. This leads tofurther improvements in the program and it also leads to a better identication of the curriculum.7. Related Research ProjectsWe are convinced that the researchers who are involved in the new program, should also be involved in relatedresearch projects, because of the stimulating eect of this on students. This creates also positions for students toparticipate for their thesis work and later on for their PhD work.The Dutch Organization for Scientic Research (NWO) has started a program in Massively Parallel Computingand Networking. We got a fairly large proposal granted, and this includes research in Plasma Physics (Tokamakmodeling), Earth Mantle convection, and studying the inuence of the Oceans on the long term climate.Cray Research has also set up a grant program in the Netherlands from which we received a grant for research onBSP-models for linear algebra.Other projects, amongst others with Philips Eelctronics, are anticipated, and this includes simulation studies forcircuits and integrated circuits.Addresses: Prof. Dr. Henk van der Vorst, Mathematical Institute, University of Utrecht, P.O. Box 80010,3508 TA Utrecht, the Netherlands. email: vorst@math.ruu.nl

Computational science curriculum in Utrecht

In 1993 Utrecht University has started a curriculum in Computational Science, starting at the undergraduate

level and leading to the Dutch `Doctorandus' degree (wich is more or less comparable to the Master's degree). The curriculum has been st up as a joint collaboration between the Departments of Mathematics & Computer Science, and Physics. It aims at a complete and self-contained educational program that should fulll society's growing demand for scientic computing, and it does so by trying to make students familiar with computational models (physics), applied mathematics (with emphasis on numerical analysis), and computer possibilities (computer science).

In our presentation we will discuss the ideas behind this new study, the perspectives for students with respect to carreer, and we will report on our experiences during the rst two years of existence of the new curriculum

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Computational science curriculum in Utrecht

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