Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Computational Mechanics

  A major mission of the proposed Center for Computational Mechanics is to enhance graduate education. Unlike many other major universities, FSU has no targeted program to produce the next generation of scientists and engineers specifically trained in the application of advanced numerical techniques to the new problems of mechanics. To fill this important gap, the center faculty plans to establish an interdisciplinary graduate program in Computational Mechanics.

The center does not at this time propose to award a separate Ph.D. degree in Computational Mechanics. Instead the center will work with existing academic departments such as Mathematics, Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, and Chemistry to provide a special track in computational mechanics within the existing degree programs. Thus students interested in Computational Mechanics will choose a home department from which they will obtain their actual degrees, and the flexibility within these existing programs will be used to satisfy the additional requirement of the students to become familiar with the theory and application of advanced computational mechanics.

Conceivably, if the program turns out to be very successful with both students and employers, it might become desirable to initiate a separate degree to further enhance the specialization. However, currently we believe an effective specialization is possible within existing programs. Also, under the present university governance structure in the State of Florida, it would take two to three years to get a degree program approved.

Students in the Computational Mechanics program will need to take a number of computing courses including parallel computing, as well as mechanics courses such as fluid dynamics and continuum mechanics. They will choose a center faculty member as their major professor. The required courses will be chosen so that students who graduate through this program will have significant experience in large scale computing using massively parallel and distributed computers. They will also have a strong background in general mechanics in addition to the speciality that they have chosen for their dissertation work.

Initially, the Center can support 7 graduate students (5 by the center budget and 2 by CSIT). This is a modest start. It is expected that individual grants of the Center faculty members will provide extra support to enlarge the student population. It is not unreasonable to hope that by the third year, the number of graduate students in the program would reach 15.