Dr. David Riley

Computer Science Department
University of Wisconsin - La Crosse
134 Morris Hall
La Crosse, WI 54601
riley@csfac.uwlax.edu

Computational Science Academic Minor

In the fall of 1994 the College of Science and Allied Health organized a committee to investigate a new program in Computational Science for the University of Wisconsin - La Crosse. The Committee, chaired by David Riley, proposed an academic minor in computational science which received final approval in the spring of 1996.

Five curricular goals were used in the design of the program. The computational science minor curriculum must...

  1. include broad exposure to multiple scientific disciplines.
  2. incorporate sufficient computer science and mathematics study to support meaningful computational investigation.
  3. introduce numerous problems/solutions from various areas of computational science.
  4. provide competency with the use of basic computational science tools.
  5. include a significant undergraduate research experience in computational science.
In addition to the above-mentioned goals the Committee recognized campus environmental constraints. Such constraints resulted in three programmatic goals. The program must:

  1. be accessible to all undergraduates majoring in a physical science, mathematics or computer science.
  2. minimize additional credit requirements while providing sufficient depth of study and practice in computational science.
  3. minimize incremental staffing requirements.

Thomas L. Marchioro II
uces_info@krellinst.org
17 July, 1997