San Diego State University

Apr 23, 2024

2022/2023 University Catalog

2022/2023 University Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

Computational Science

Graduate Information

OFFICE: Geology/Mathematics/Computer Science 206H
TELEPHONE: 619-594-3430 / FAX: 619-594-2459
WEBSITE: http://www.csrc.sdsu.edu

Faculty

Chair: Castillo, José E., Professor of Mathematics (B.S., Universidad Central de Venezuela, Venezuela; M.A., University of Texas at Austin; Ph.D., University of New Mexico)

Graduate Admissions and Doctoral Adviser: Castillo, José E., Professor of Mathematics (B.S., Universidad Central de Venezuela, Venezuela; M.A., University of Texas at Austin; Ph.D., University of New Mexico)

Tenured and Tenure-Track Faculty:

Blomgren, Peter V., Professor of Mathematics (M.Sc., The Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden; Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles)

Carretero, Ricardo, Professor of Mathematics (B.Sc., Universidad Nacional de Mexico, Mexico; Ph.D., University of London)

Castillo, José E., Professor of Mathematics (B.S., Universidad Central de Venezuela, Venezuela; M.A., University of Texas at Austin; Ph.D., University of New Mexico)

Cooksy, Andrew L., Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry (B.A., Harvard University; Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley)

Fan, Juanjuan, Professor of Statistics (B.S., Fudan University, China; M.S., Ph.D., University of Washington)

Jacobs, Gustaaf B., Professor of Aerospace Engineering (M.S., Delft University, Netherlands; Ph.D., University of Illinois at Chicago)

Johnson, Calvin W., Professor of Physics (B.S., University of California, Davis; Ph.D., University of Washington)

Kumar, Sunil, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Thomas G. Pine Faculty Fellow (B.S., S.V. National Institute of Technology, India; Ph.D., Birla Institute of Tech & Science, India)

Levine, Richard A., Professor of Statistics (B.S., State University of New York at Binghamton; M.S., Ph.D., Cornell University)

Müller, Ralph-Axel, Professor of Psychology (M.A., Ph.D., University of Frankfurt, Main, Germany)

Ren, Shangping, Professor of Computer Science (B.S., M.S., Hefei Polytechnic University, China; Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)

Rohwer, Forest L., Professor of Biology (B.A., Albertson College of Idaho; Ph.D., San Diego State University)

Sandquist, Eric L., Professor of Astronomy (B.A., University of Virginia; M.S., Ph.D., University of California, Santa Cruz)

Segall, Anca M., Professor of Biology (B.S., University of Maryland; Ph.D., University of Utah)

Sharma, Satish Kumar, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering (B.S., KNIT Sultanpur, Avadh University, India; Ph.D., Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Banaras Hindu University, India)

Shen, Samuel S.P., Albert W. Johnson Distinguished Professor of Mathematics (B.Sc., Nanjing University of Science and Technology, China; M.A., Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, Madison)

Sinha, Usha, Professor of Physics, Director of Medical Physics (B.S., Osmania University, India; M.S., Indian Institute of Technology, India; Ph.D., Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India)

Venkataraman, Satchi, Professor of Aerospace Engineering (B.E., Anna University, India; M.S., Clemson University; Ph.D., University of Florida)

Weber, Fridolin, Albert W. Johnson Distinguished Professor of Physics (M.S., Ph.D., University of Munich, Germany)

Xie, Tao, Professor of Computer Science (B.E., Anhui Institute of Technology, China; M.E., Hefei University of Technology, China; Ph.D., New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology)

Ashrafi, Ashkan, Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering (B.Sc., M.Sc., K.N., University of Technology, Tehran, Iran; M.S.E., Ph.D., University of Alabama, Huntsville)

Bailey, Barbara Ann, Associate Professor of Statistics (B.S., Springfield College in Illinois; M.S., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Ph.D., North Carolina State University)

Baljon, Arlette R.C., Associate Professor of Physics (M.S., University of Utrecht, Netherlands; Ph.D., University of Chicago)

Chen, Jianwei, Associate Professor of Statistics (B.S., National Huaqiao University, China; M.S., Ph.D., Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong)

Curtis, Christopher W., Associate Professor of Mathematics (B.S., Illinois Institute of Technology; Ph.D., University of Washington)

Gilles, Jerome E., Associate Professor of Mathematics (B.S., M.A., Ph.D., Ecole Normale Supeieure, France)

Liu, Xiaobai, Associate Professor of Computer Science (B.S., Fudan University, China; Ph.D., Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China))

Shen, Bo-Wen, Associate Professor of Mathematics (B.S., M.S., National Central University, Taiwan; Ph.D., North Carolina State University)

Tambasco, Mauro, Associate Professor of Physics (B.S., University of Toronto; M.S., University of Windsor; Ph.D., University of Western Ontario)

Vaidya, Naveen K., Associate Professor of Mathematics (B.S., M.S., Tribhuvan University, Nepal; Ph.D., York University, Canada)

Wang, Wei, Associate Professor of Computer Science (B.S., M.A., Xian Jiaotong University, China; Ph.D., University of Nebraska)

Camacho, Joaquin, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering (B.S. University of California, San Diego; M.S. University of Southern California; Ph.D. University of Southern California)

Katira, Parag, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering (B.S., University of Mumbai, India; Ph.D., University of Florida)

Kuznetsova, Lyuba P., Assistant Professor of Physics (M.S., Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia; Ph.D., Cornell University)

Luque Santolaria, Antoni, Assistant Professor of Mathematics (B.S., M.S., Ph.D., Universitat de Barcelona, Spain)

Nguyen, Huu Ngoc Duy, Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering (B.E., Swinburne University of Technology, Australia; M.S., University of Saskatchewan, Canada; Ph.D., McGill University, Canada)

Nollett, Kenneth M., Assistant Professor of Physics (B.S., Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Ph.D., The University of Chicago)

Paolini, Chris, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering (B.S., San Diego State University; Ph.D., San Diego State University

Shikuma, Nicholas J., Assistant Professor of Biology (B.S., University of the Pacific; M.S., University of Hawaii; Ph.D., University of California, Santa Cruz)

Graduate Information

Admission to Graduate Study

Students applying for admission should electronically submit the university application available at http://www.calstate.edu/apply along with the application fee.

All applicants must submit admissions materials separately to SDSU Graduate Admissions and to Computational Science.

Graduate Admissions

The following materials should be submitted as a complete package directly to:

Graduate Admissions
Enrollment Services
San Diego State University
San Diego, CA 92182-7416

Official transcripts (in sealed envelopes) from all post-secondary institutions attended;
- Students who attended SDSU need only submit transcripts for work completed since last attendance.
- Students with international coursework must submit both the official transcript and proof of degree. If documents are in a language other than English, they must be accompanied by a certified English translation.
GRE scores (http://www.ets.org SDSU institution code 4682);
English language score, if medium of instruction was in a language other than English (http://www.ets.org SDSU institution code 4682).

Master of Science Degree in Computational Science

The following materials should be submitted electronically to the Computational Science Research Center at San Diego State University. Refer to the Graduate Admissions website (http://arweb.sdsu.edu/es/admissions/grad/programs/index.html) for application instructions. Consult the department website (http://www.csrc.sdsu.edu/masters_checklist.html) for details concerning required materials.

Three letters of recommendation from persons in a position to judge academic ability;
Personal statement of motivating interest for the program and briefly describe research interests and educational goals.
Copies of unofficial transcripts from all postsecondary institutions attended.

Ph.D. Degree in Computational Science

Students must apply and be admitted to University of California, Irvine (UCI) and SDSU; however, prospective students must apply to UCI first. Qualified applicants will then be given application instructions to SDSU. Admission will be granted to a limited number of qualified students. Completed applications are due by December 15 for the fall term, although later applications may be allowed at the discretion of the admissions committee. The admissions review process may include personal interviews of applicants.

The following materials should be submitted electronically to the Computational Science Research Center at San Diego State University. Refer to the Graduate Admissions website (http://arweb.sdsu.edu/es/admissions/grad/programs/index.html) for application instructions. Consult the department website (http://www.csrc.sdsu.edu/doctoral_checklist.html) for details concerning required materials.

Three letters of recommendation from former or current professors, supervisors, or other appropriate persons;
Applicant’s statement of purpose, explaining their interest in the program;
Current resume;
Joint doctoral program in computational science application form;
Copies of unofficial transcripts from all post-secondary institutions attended.

Master’s Degree Programs

General Information

The computational science program offers a Master of Science degree. The program features courses and research projects under the supervision of SDSU faculty from the College of Sciences in the following departments: Astronomy, Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Engineering, Geology, Mathematics, and Physics.

Graduates of this program will have a solid foundation in a field of science and the additional training and experience required of computational science professionals. Fundamental science, in one of the specializations, dominates the program. This is supplemented with additional courses in computational science. Real scientific problem-solving is emphasized, through a thesis that could be done in conjunction with a carefully managed extramural research program. A significant proportion of the students in this program will be employed in positions related to their area of studies, thereby providing opportunities for extramural support. Graduates will be prepared for positions in scientific research, scientific programming, and software engineering.

Associateships

Graduate teaching associateships and graduate non teaching associateships may be available from the individual departments. See the appropriate department of this bulletin for more information.

Admission to the Degree Curriculum

All students must satisfy the general requirements for admission to the university with classified graduate standing, as described in Admission and Registration . If the undergraduate preparation of the students in the desired specialization is deficient, they will be required to take courses for the removal of the deficiency. These courses, taken by students as a classified graduate student, are in addition to the minimum 30 units required for the master’s degree. A complete student program must be approved by the computational science program director. The requirements for entering this program consists of a baccalaureate degree in one of the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields, with background in Linear Algebra, Differential Equations, Statistics, and Programming in a language such as C or Fortran. Applicants will be evaluated on the basis of their prior academic record and their potential for creative research and teaching, as demonstrated in submitted application materials. Applicants must have an undergraduate Grade Point Average of at least 3.0.

Doctoral Program

http://www.csrc.sdsu.edu/doctoral.html

General Information

San Diego State University and University of California, Irvine (UCI), offer jointly a doctoral program in computational science. The participating faculties are from the College of Engineering and College of Sciences at SDSU and the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Science and Samueli School of Engineering at UCI.

Admission to the Degree Curriculum

In order to be considered for admission into the program, applicants must fulfill the general requirements for admission with graduate standing to both institutions. Applicants must have received a bachelor’s or master’s degree in a science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) discipline from an accredited institution with standards equivalent to SDSU’s and UCI’s, with background in Linear Algebra, Differential Equations, Statistics, and Programming in a language such as C or Fortran. Applicants with degrees in other areas may be admitted conditionally and may be advised to take additional courses. Applicants are expected to be able to take advanced Mathematics courses. Applicants will be evaluated on the basis of their prior academic record and their potential for creative research and teaching, as demonstrated in submitted application materials. Applicants must have an undergraduate or master’s grade point average of 3.0, and of at least 3.50 in any prior graduate course work.. Successful applicants must demonstrate they are well qualified to pursue, with distinction, advanced study and research.

Faculty Advisers and Doctoral Committee: Upon admission to the program, the student will be assigned two faculty mentors, one from SDSU and one from UCI, as appointed by the program director. After completing the first year of study and receiving a progress evaluation, the student will select the following: a primary doctoral adviser (from either SDSU or UCI), a co-adviser (not from the same campus where the primary adviser is a faculty member), two other faculty members affiliated with the program (one from each campus), and one outside member (a UCI faculty member not affiliated with the program) to serve on a five-person doctoral committee. The doctoral adviser will aid in the development of a suitable course of study for the student, administer the student’s qualifying examination, monitor progress of student research and administer the defense of the doctoral dissertation.