Santa Cruz, CA—UC Santa Cruz’s Baskin School of Engineering will begin offering a new degree during the 2020-2021 academic year, a Bachelor of Science in Applied Mathematics.
“The new Applied Mathematics BS degree is certainly the most exciting development since the establishment of the department in 2019,” Applied Mathematics Professor and Department Chair Qi Gong said.
The program is designed to provide students with holistic training in mathematical modeling.
“Applied mathematics specializes in the development and application of analytical and numerical tools and techniques for solving complex quantitative problems,” Gong said. “The new major will prepare graduates for careers in industry, academia or government.”
At the core of the degree program are six courses that introduce modern analytical (and semi-analytical) techniques as well as general aspects of scientific computing.
Students gain further depth or breadth by taking two or more electives among a large list of upper-division or graduate courses offered by applied mathematics faculty or in related subject areas. Finally, students learn to apply the techniques and tools learned through two capstone courses that focus on modeling “real-life” quantitative problems in science and engineering.
The major has been designed to allow students to easily pursue an additional minor or major in an area of applications of mathematics — such as physics, astrophysics, Earth sciences, computer sciences, computer engineering, and electrical engineering.
“The BS is associated with the 4 + 1 program into the MS degree program in Scientific Computing and Applied Mathematics also offered by our department,” said Applied Mathematics Professor Pascale Garaud. “Should they choose to, students will be able to graduate with a MS degree in just one additional year beyond the BS.”
The department offers generous financial assistance through its Next Generation Scholars in Applied Mathematics program, which provides scholarships of up to $10K for the senior and MS year.
The Applied Mathematics department also offers a PhD and an MS in Applied Mathematics, as well as the Scientific Computing and Applied Mathematics MS and contiguous Bachelors/Masters pathway.
For information about the program, please visit: https://engineering.ucsc.edu/departments/applied-mathematics
