Final Report of the Committee on
Computational Science and Engineering
Committee Chair:
Joel E. Keizer, Institute of Theoretical Dynamics
Acting Committee Chair:
Bernd Hamann, Ctr. for Image Processing & Integrated Computing
Other Committee Members:
Harry A. Dwyer, Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering
Daniel Gusfield, Computer Science
Alan M. Hastings, Environmental Science and Policy
Winston Ko, Physics
C. William McCurdy, Jr., Lawrence Berkeley Lab., Applied Science
David M. Rocke, Graduate School of Management
William P. Thurston, Mathematics
June 10, 1999
century, UC Davis will have to make
significant investments in its computational infrastructure enabling
efficient research on large-scale problems. The research aspect of
this Initiative is to be viewed as at least as important as the
teaching component.
The teaching, development, study, and application of
computational methods is already crucial for a large
variety of disciplines at UC Davis. To ensure the
competitiveness of UC Davis in science and engineering education
and research UC Davis must substantially strengthen and focus its
efforts concerning CS&E in the coming years.
The main objective of the CS&E Initiative must
be the creation of an educational and research environment
that is both attractive and accessible to
students2,
current faculty, and faculty to be hired. Linking this objective to
the established and highly visible programs of UC Davis in the sciences
and engineering should allow a maximum degree of leverage through
potential joint appointments for new faculty hires.
One must be careful not to confuse CS&E with the established discipline
of computer science, with its focus on the organization, design,
analysis, theory, programming, and application of digital computers and
computing systems3.
Nonetheless, the rapid growth of CS&E has been triggered by key hardware
and software developments in computer science and engineering.
It will be crucial for the success of the CS&E Initiative to foster a strong
relationship with the Computer Science Department as well.
Computer Science will play a significant role in the basic preparation
of both graduate and undergraduate students minoring or specializing in CS&E.
Moreover, the Computer Science Department already has a dedicated
sub-group of faculty working on CS&E problems (e.g.,
visualization/computer graphics, computational biology,
medical informatics, database/information systems,
combinatorial optimization, cryptography, and other fields)
and thus would be a natural home for several of the FTEs or joint
CS&E appointments resulting from the Initiative.
To accomplish the desired major impact of CS&E on the campus,
it will be crucial to have a strong interaction with all CS&E-impacted and
-interested science and engineering units. CS&E is a field that must not be
viewed in isolation from applications or as a field that could thrive by
merely looking inward. CS&E must reach out to science
and engineering in order to justify its existence, improve and strengthen
ongoing computing-based efforts, and promote an increase in the
utilization of CS&E across science and engineering in general.
It is the view of the majority of the Committee members that UC Davis
needs a CS&E facility and that it should couple CS&E activities and
the tackled science and engineering applications very closely.
Without this coupling there would be the danger that departments and
units across campus might initiate their own independent CS&E-like
activities, and this would surely deprive a potential CS&E unit of
students, interactions, and funding. The development of CS&E on campus
must not be done in isolation from the campus community at large. Only
this will ensure the success of a centralized CS&E effort, an effort
that would be accepted broadly, would minimize the risk of duplicating
efforts, and would lead to the desired interdisciplinary faculty
interactions in CS&E.
Another important aspect of the development of CS&E relates to the
existing Graduate Group in Applied Mathematics (GGAM).
This Graduate Group consists of approximately sixty faculty members
and was formed to train applied mathematicians to carry out
research in the physical sciences and engineering. GGAM aims at
satisfying the need for applied mathematics education as it relates
to science and engineering applications. GGAM offers MS and PhD
degrees, and students may be supervised by any faculty member of the
Group. The areas represented by this Group span a wide variety of
fields, currently including population biology, atmospheric
sciences, continuum mechanics, optimization and control, theoretical
chemistry, computer and engineering sciences, mathematical physics,
scientific visualization and geometric modeling, and mathematics.
GGAM should play an important role in the development of CS&E.
The reason for this is that the ``three pillars'' of CS&E are
(i) science and engineering applications;
(ii) methods of applied mathematics;
and
(iii) computer science techniques for practical algorithm implementation.
The development of CS&E should build on these three components
and ensure that more and improved interactions will result.
Moreover, the Graduate Group in Statistics could play a similarly
important role in this context.
Both applied mathematics and statistics principles are of crucial
importance for algorithm development to solve CS&E problems.
There is no lack of funding opportunities in CS&E. Examples are
large-scale programs such as the Accelerated Strategic Computing
Initiative (ASCI), the Next Generation Internet Initiative, and
the Information Technology for the
Century program.
ASCI is the result of a nuclear test ban treaty prohibiting the U.S.
from testing nuclear devices. ASCI is concerned with the development
of large-scale CS&E technology allowing the computer simulation of
the behavior of nuclear devices. ASCI and the other cited programs
require a major involvement of academic institutions, which is a
significant asset concerning the development of CS&E at UC Davis.