Computational mathematical sciences receives NSF grant for undergraduat...( Arizona State Universitys computatio...)

Arizona State Universitys computational mathematical sciences program in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences will power a new set of undergraduate research projects beginning in January with a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation.

The program, targeting juniors majoring in computational mathematical sciences, will initially offer interdisciplinary research experiences involving weather and climate forecasting, environmental fluid dynamics, math biology applications, and the efficiency of complex supply chain models.

ASU is one of only 11 U.S. institutions that have an undergraduate computational mathematics program. Professor Eric Kostelich, the grants principal investigator, says this five-year grant is designed to prepare undergraduate students for graduate research and full-time jobs.

He notes that the Phoenix metropolitan area is a growing technology market, with companies like Intel, Freescale Semiconductor and Honeywell, and that the grant program anticipates establishing a pipeline so students who graduate are prepared for full-time work and internship opportunities.

Im hoping this grant will also help Arizona in terms of its competitiveness in the technology field, he adds.

At the same time, the grant will reinforce the department of mathematics and statistics strong interdisciplinary focus through research opportunities that combine computational mathematics with science.

Today, mathematics is deviating from the traditional and moving toward an interdisciplinary approach. By combining math and the physical or life sciences, students are able to tackle a problem from different angles, says associate professor Bruno Welfert, the grants co-principal investigator.

The goal of this program is for students to have two, one-year sequences in some physical or life science that can be applied to their research, Welfert says.

Cutting edge applications are very collabora
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