Computational science curriculum in Utrecht

Abstract

In 1993 Utrecht University has started a curriculum in Computational Science, starting at the undergraduate level and leading to the Dutch `Doctorandus' degree (wich is more or less comparable to the Master's degree). The curriculum has been st up as a joint collaboration between the Departments of Mathematics & Computer Science, and Physics. It aims at a complete and self-contained educational program that should fulll society's growing demand for scientic computing, and it does so by trying to make students familiar with computational models (physics), applied mathematics (with emphasis on numerical analysis), and computer possibilities (computer science). In our presentation we will discuss the ideas behind this new study, the perspectives for students with respect to carreer, and we will report on our experiences during the rst two years of existence of the new curriculum.