The emerging field of computational science and engineering will be the focus of a new center at UC Davis. The Center for Computational Science and Engineering will be launched next month with a provost's distinguished speaker series, featuring some of the world's leading experts in the field.
The new center (http://yclept.ucdavis.edu/CSE/) will work to enhance the involvement of the campus science and engineering community in the study, development, application and teaching of computational methods, according to Warren Picket, professor of physics.
"It is a field that transcends conventional disciplines, and is a unifying force for interdisciplinary research," says Vice Provost for Academic Personnel Barry Klein. The center is the beginning of an anticipated robust program of new instruction and research at the university, Klein says.
Computational science uses numerical methods to solve real-world problems, for example, in physical, biological, environmental and social sciences. This means developing linear algorithms to approximate complex, non-linear problems, and then repeating these calculations millions of times with high efficiency, says Alan Laub, former dean of engineering. Many of the algorithms developed in Laub's own research are used in computer-aided control system design, such as in the design of telephone networks.
While computational science and engineering has strong links to mathematics, physical sciences and engineering, it is rapidly emerging as a field in its own right, just as in previous decades computer science emerged from mathematics and electrical engineering departments, and biochemistry from more traditional science disciplines.
"This is an important new paradigm in science and engineering," Laub says. Most complex problems require a multidisciplinary team of computer scientists, mathematicians and physical scientists, he says, and the new center will encourage and strengthen these connections.
Peter Rock, dean of mathematics and physical sciences, predicts that many joint programs will develop between the center and existing departments. "It's a field whose very nature is evolving with time," he says. Rock thinks that computational methods will have an impact not just in the sciences, but will find applications in the arts and humanities.
"I expect that it will have a substantial impact on existing departments," he says.
First steps for the center are to recruit a director by spring 2001, who will set the research directions of the center, and recruit the first group of five faculty.
"We'll be looking for someone of national or international stature in this very competitive area," Rock says.
Faculty for the center will initially be hired into existing departments. A second wave of five full-time positions will then be recruited, together with appropriate faculty from on-campus. Eventually, all center faculty members will move to a new Department of Computational Science and Engineering.
To inform the campus community about the center and about this new field, the university is running a provost's distinguished speaker series on computational science and engineering.
The series will open with a talk by Professor Michele Parrinello, of the Max Planck Institute, Stuttgart, Germany, on Wednesday in Engineering II, room 1065. Parrinello's laboratory has used computers to build simulations of water and water based solutions, and he is now applying the results of this work to modeling biological processes.
The title of his talk will be "Ab initio Molecular Dynamics: Present Status and Future Perspectives."
The Center for Computational Science and Engineering is the outcome of the Computational Science and Engineering Initiative, one of 10 launched by Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef and Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Robert Grey. The initiatives represent new research opportunities for the campus, and are also a response to Tidal Wave II, the expected increase in enrollments over the next 10 years.