Our department provides a full complement of support for strong graduate students, including Fellowships, Teaching Assistantships, free tuition and free health insurance.

Our Research Program: Why study Computational and Applied Mathematics?

Computational and Applied Mathematics is an exciting and challenging area. The advantages of accepting the challenge with our group include:

• A record of excellence and accomplishment of our current and former students.
• You get the full support of our intellectual family.
• An intellectual environment that is stimulating and rich in ideas.
• Full preparation for every aspect of your professional career.
• The knowledge that you will be doing deep mathematics that is important to the world around us.

• Year 1. During year 1, an initial advisor is assigned. (As your interests change and evolve, it is normal to move from one advisor to another in our department.) Please feel free to request an advisor in Computational and Applied Mathematics. At the end of year 1 come the Preliminary Examinations, Syllabus. The goal of your first year is to prepare for the prelim , pass it and move on to research as quickly as possible. Course work:
  • Advanced Calculus, part 1 and part 2
  • Graduate Linear Algebra, part 1 and part 2
  • Prelim preparation course "Progress in mathematics"
  • A gateway course in Computational and Applied Mathematics.
• End of year 1: Preliminary Examination. This consists of two, 3 hour exams, one on advanced calculus and one on linear algebra. Currently, these are offered in May and in August. There is no penalty for failing; thus we encourage all of you to take them at every opportunity to get a feeling for what the exams are like, including your first August in Pittsburgh. Old exams are available for study Old Exams.
• Summer Year 1. There are many options for your summer. These include:
  • Programmatically important classes in other departments
  • Workshops at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center PSC .
  • Advanced Mathematics Graduate courses, and
  • Independent study of topics in computational and applied mathematics.
  As your studies advance you also take advantage of our 4 month summer term for foreign research travel, visits to summer research institutes, and work at internships in Computational Laboratories.
• Year 2. Typically year 2 is consumed with taking advanced courses in computational and applied mathematics and getting ready to read research papers in the area. Our students also begin participating in our research training seminars in year 2.
• End of Year 2: Comprehensive Examination. At the end of year 2 comes the comprehensive examination. This exam is based on plan drawn up by a committee of faculty in computational and applied mathematics with input by you, comps . The Computational and Applied Mathematics Group's philosophy of this exam is that it tests if you're really ready to begin reading research papers in computational and applied mathematics. Our goal is for you to be an independent and accomplished research scientist in the area. We design our comprehensive exams with this in mind.
• Summer Year 2. The options of summer year 1 are open in year 2, and every subsequent summer. In addition, we feel it is very important to began research in the area of Computational and Applied Mathematics at an early date. Summer year 2 is an ideal time to begin working on a group research project.
• Year 3. You typically take an advanced topics class in computational and applied mathematics and forge ahead in your research. During year 3 you will typically begin a group research project within our research training group. You will be ready to read papers the area and be fully integrated with our faculty and researchers in the area. By this time you'll be ready to select your Ph.D. thesis advisor from among the relevant faculty in the area. In computational and applied mathematics students are extremely lucky. All our faculty are highly active in research. All have an excellent record in funded research and experience directing Ph.D. theses.

  Pick any faculty member as your thesis advisor in computational and applied mathematics and you will "Hitch the wagon to a star".

  Computational and applied mathematics is not an area in which research can be done in isolation. If you work with one faculty member, you will receive the full support of all the faculty members in the group. You'll have an academic advisor (sometimes called an academic father or mother) but also the support of academic aunts and uncles. We work as a fully integrated intellectual family .

  Upon selecting your thesis advisor you'll begin to plan and prepare for your Ph.D. thesis. This means forming a Ph.D. thesis committee and preparing a research plan and work plan for accomplishing the research. Once this is prepared you present a Ph.D. thesis "Overview presentation" to the faculty in the area. These are all faculty that you will have been working with and taking courses from for 2+ years now.

• Summer year 3. Our summer program focuses on research, research and more research. This is supported by international travel, attending special research workshops at our Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center and summer research institutes.
• Year 4. The focus of year 4 is your Ph.D. thesis research. To graduate in year 4, you must be be prepared by November or December to enter the job market. This means, we will train you in the important skills of a scientist:
  • Creating new mathematics through individual and cooperative research.
  • Writing papers which have been accepted for publication by now.
  • Giving scientific talks at conferences.
  • Developing a research plan which is connected to the current themes in computational and applied mathematics and science.
  At the end of year 4 (or year 5 if required) comes the Ph.D. thesis defense in which you present your work. By this time you will be excited to give a talk and proud of the work you have done.