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PLAN 2010 for School of Computational Sciences
Combining science and computing to meet human needs

Background:

Mission

The mission of SCS is to provide quality education, research, and service to meet national and internation needs, emphasizing the central role of computational methodologies in the biological, biomedical, physical, mathematical, and data sciences.

Uniqueness of SCS

SCS is a unique School that has the distinction of being one of the first units nationally to focus on the computational methodologies as a core expertise (interdisciplinarity). SCS also houses semi-autonomous, academic units called Programs (discipline-based focus) that are adaptive in the fast changing academic and R&D environment of today. It houses the Center for Earth Observing and Space Research (CEOSR), the largest Center within GMU (funding and personnel - 75). SCS provides doctoral and master-level education in the sciences and a vigorous and expanding R&D enterprise. The School has moved to the forefront nationally and internationally in its R&D activities and provides a fertile ground for the education of the next generation of graduate students across many of the scientific disciplines. As such, SCS is a prestigious scientific unit.

SCS focuses on computationally intensive research and education (e.g., climate dynamics, bioinformatics, atmospheric dispersion, astrophysics, N-body simulations, computational chemistry, computational fluid dynamics, blast simulations, space sciences, quantum computing) and data-intensive research and education (e.g., Earth systems science, GIS, data sciences, machine learning, space weather). In SCS, applications drive computation.

Present Status of Graduate & Research Programs

The quality of SCS faculty is very high. Many of the faculty are top scientists in their own fields with international recognition, serving in national academies, prestigious panels, members of international academies of science, etc. The SCS research scientists are also of highly qualified individuals who work in a variety of state-of-the-art projects. Students are chosen competitevely, and assistanships are offered only to the best. In several programs, the acceptance rate is 30% or less.

The SCS offers three quality Ph.D. graduate programs: Computational Sciences and Informatics, Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, and Climate Dynamics. At the Master’s level, the School offers degrees in Bioinformatics, Earth Systems Science (jointly with CAS), and Computational Science and Informatics.

In collaboration with CAS, SCS has submitted two new doctoral programs to SCHEV - Physical Sciences and Neuroscience (the latter also with Krasnow). The mix of graduate programs has witnessed > 40% increase in enrollment over the last three years. SCS is submiting a Earth Systems and Geoinformation Sciences doctoral program, in collaboration with CAS and SPP.

The SCS is the most productive R&D enterprise at GMU when normalized to State supported FTE. Sponsored expenditures in SCS in the last three years have grown by 15% - 25% per year and exceeded $11M for FY ’03; State funding was $3M, accounting for only 21% of the unit’s total expenditures.

The SCS focuses discipline-based science education in autonomous units called Programs, similar to departments but with more flexibility and non-traditional focus. Seven Programs have been formed with their own Chairs, faculty, and mission statements. Stewardship of most SCS degrees resides in the Programs, with the exception of the interdisciplinary degrees in computational sciences which cut across all Programs. The SCS also offers certificates, short courses for industry and intensive workshops.

In SCS, collective leadership assures not just more say for the faculty but also assures quality. SCS leadership resides in the Dean’s and the Chairs’ offices. The Dean is responsible for overall faculty matters, budget, faculty appointments, and strategic developments across all research and educational initiatives. To promote the mission of SCS, the Dean and SCS faculty work with the external Advisory Board, populated with prominent members from industry and the federal agencies.

2010 Goals:

Achieve international reputation in all current programs & establish several new state-of-the-art basic and applied scientific areas

The SCS has established a reputation as an agent of growth, excellence and change in science and associated technologies within GMU. It is envisaged that SCS’ visionary R&D and educational enterprises around adaptive interdisciplinary science research programs will become the norm for GMU and for future advanced programs at universities in the nation. As such, the competitive edge of GMU in the sciences will increase by 2010 and SCS will become nationally ranked in multiple areas. SCS will achieve recognition in each of its existing basic and applied programs: Astrophysics, Planetary and Space Sciences, Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, Climate Dynamics, Computational Neuroscience, Computational Fluid Dynamics, Data Sciences/Machine Learning, Earth Systems and Geoinformation Sciences, Remote Sensing, and Materials Science. Moreover, while continuing the fundamental computational research in the natural sciences, SCS will increase its commitment to new initiatives in applied research using large teams, including homeland security, distributed geoinformation, bioinformatics and biotechnology, space weather, nanotechnology, quantum computing, computational social sciences, computational economics and finance, neuroscience and human consciousness.

To continue supporting its strong interdiscpline-based and interdisciplinanry mission, the SCS will explore the feasibility of establishing departments. These will be chosen based on programs having a critical mass, educational potential (graduate and undergraduate), and faculty assessment and endorsement.

Growth in Students

The SCS will continue to grow in reputation and funding. We anticipate that most of the growth in student FTE will be at the M.S. level (which will allow growth from student tuition), while the Ph.D. programs will increase at slower rates and level off as their reputation and competiteveness mature. We anticipate a growth to 175 M.S. students and 250 Ph.D. students by 2010. These correspond to the yearly rates of increase of 15-20% in the M.S. programs and 5-7% in the doctoral programs (the former will crease by 100% over the next few years). We anticipate course FTE enrollment to increase by more than 80%, while the headcount will increase by more than 40%, approaching 400 by 2010. In collaboration with other colleges/schools (e.g., CAS), we expect to be involved in undergraduate programs, which will provide additional student enrollments.

Growth in Faculty and Research Funding

To fulfill its academic and research mission, SCS will expand its faculty, with more proportional involement with teaching. As most of our faculty are relatively young, we will be hiring additional faculty, rather than replacing faculty who would otherwise be retiring. From our present 43 FTE, we expect a growth of 25 additional faculty FTE to address the student growth in our graduate programs, appraoching 70 FTE by 2010. Additional hires will be needed if SCS becomes involved in undergraduate teaching.

At present, SCS has the highest research expenditures at GMU as well as the highest esearch funding per state-supported faculty FTE - $430K. The new faculty hires will result in $11M additional expenditures by 2010. Taking into account inflation and unanticipated growth, it is proposed that SCS sponsored R&D will exceed $25M by 2010, a doubling of our current portoflio.

There are caveats to these projections. We cannot expect a linear increase in productivity per faculty member, as this assumes our faculty will do more research and teaching with constant resources. Additional hires are important to fulfill the growing educational needs. As such, we propose a higher State to external funding ratio from the present 20% to 30-40% by 2010; this would still be the lowest at GMU. This will reduce our liability associated with too high a revenue stream from external sources. Along with new hires, infrastructure support and adequate space are necessary, as unrestricted growth without this support is risky.

Private Funding

SCS will pursue private funding initiativies in support of of graduate fellowships, infrastructure support and endowed chaired appointments in areas of excellence. Working with the Advisory Board, university offficials and our own faculty and alumni, we expect exciting new initiatives to provide private funding and donations to help meet these goals.

Collaborations

Many of the SCS R&D activities are and will continue to be collaborative, involving faculty from CAS, CSS, IT&E, Krasnow, and the SPP. Similar collaborations with external federal labs will continue to be pursued, including cooperative agreements with NASA, NOAA, USDA, etc., as well as other universities in the Mid-Atlantic region. By 2010 it will be recognized that the collaborative spirit in SCS will not only be good for the educational mission of GMU but also a good business model as it increases the competiveness and prominence of GMU regionally, nationally and internationally.

We anticipate additional degree programs with schools and colleges as is now occuring with CAS. Beside graduate programs, these will include undergraduate degrees (e.g., neuroscience with CAS and Krasnow), undergraduate courses (e.g., general education), and programs (e.g., climate change science and applications). SCS will continue to work closely with CAS and IT&E, as well as other colleges at GMU, to advance science education and research. We emphasize this to advance the sciences and move toward the stated goal of a Research I university status. A mixture of structural conflicts and artificial boundaries at GMU that separate schools and colleges is not intrinsic, and we will strive to creatively find new ways to blur boundaries and increase synergy among faculty, researchers and programs.

SCS international programs

International students make up a large proportion of science graduate programs in this country, and this holds for SCS. Attracting international students not only helps to retain the lead of the U.S. in science and technology, but also creates goodwill internationally. SCS is committed to diversity of the student body at GMU, an important aspect of which is international students. We will be actively working with the Provost’s office to expand collaborations, MOU’s, and exchange programs with many countries in all continents (i.e., Europe, Middle East, China, India and South America). For SCS, international visiting faculty/scientists make up 5-10% of FTE, and these prestigious appointments will continue to be executed to enhance the visibility of GMU and SCS on the international stage.

Infrastructure, graduate assistantships and space to underpin the goal of a Research I university

The State needs to assume greater responsibility for an adequate infrastructure to achieve a Research I status. For SCS and other technical units at GMU this means supporting adequate computing environments, fast networks and state-of-the-art visualization platforms. Dedicated research computing infrastructure needs to become an integral part of the 2010 GMU Plan. We will explore joint efforts with ITU to support more vigorously research computing. SCS will continue to do its part in sharing the costs of infrastructure but maintaining and replenishing existing computing systems will have to be shared.

We will work with the Administration to make convincing arguments to Richmond of the value of a strong research university in Northern Virginia. Having a computer system at GMU on the top 500 list for supercomputers will increase GMU’s reputation for excellence. We support the desirability of increased resources for library and associated infrastructure. We also support pulling together resources for GIS labs across GMU.

A greater portion of graduate assistantships need to be provided by the State, which at present is ~ 15%. SCS intends to increase stipends by 2010 to ~ 25K to be more at parity with comparable institutions in North America. Because of its interdisciplinary focus, SCS will argue its case for new graduate stipend and tuition waivers (GTA’s and GRA’s).

Finally, GMU needs to be responsive to adequate space for the sciences as funding increases.

Diversity

SCS is the most diverse faculty unit at GMU as evidenced by the following statistics: minority population of 23% for full time faculty; female doctoral student population of 26%; and female graduate students of 36%. The percentage of full-time female faculty in SCS is 23% (GMU proportion of female full-time faculty is 37%). Gender diversity is a national-level challenge in science and technology and remains a significant challenge at the faculty and graduate student levels.

To address this challenge, SCS percentages at both minority and female categories are increasing. SCS has formed a Diversity Committee of full and part time faculty and students and their charge is to assess/plan for diversity enhancements and participate in GMU-wide diversity initiatives. Starting from our strong foundation of ethnic diversity, SCS is following several initiatives to grow more diverse by 2010, including:

Recruitment and retention of more full-time female faculty to approach 28%;

Recruitment and retention of full-time faculty across the categories of ethnic diversity;

Through outreach science activities, recruitment of minority and female students in science from the undergraduate, high school, and middle school pipelines; and

Participation in national level diversity research and initiatives in science and technology.

Program and Center-specific goals

All SCS Programs work in collaborative and interdisciplinary ways. We anticipate that some if not all of these Programs will become Departments as SCS continues to balance interdisciplinary focus with excellence in particular disciplines. We anticipate more centers and specialized labs, such as geospatial and remote sensing labs, computing labs, etc. The following are specific goals for all the present units/centers in SCS:

Astrophysics, Planetary and Space Sciences

Build on areas of strength in Space Weather, Planetary Science, and Extragalactic Astronomy
Joint faculty positions with the CAS’ Department of Physics and Astronomy
Joint development of the Observatory in Research Building 1
Increase collaborations with regional organizations such as NASA Goddard, the Space Telescope Science Institute, and the Naval Research Laboratory
Expand training for professionals in the area
Engage in fundraising activities to enhance the unit’s graduate fellowships, infrastructure and endowed professorships

Bioinformatics & Computational Biology

Achieve national and international recognition as a center of excellence in bioinformatics and computational biology
Double grant expenditures by 2007 and increase collaboration with other GMU research units (i.e., CAS, Krasnow, CSS)
Develop a coherent strategy to engage industry, medical communities, and major federal R&D sponsors (e.g., NIH)
Host an annual research conference and an annual regional Bioinformatics student conference
Consider 5-year B.S./M.S programs with GMU, JMU or other universities; certificate programs; develop undergraduate course and modules; offer summer internship activities
Enlarge current faculty body with innovative solutions and seek lab facilities
Engage in fundraising activities to enhance the unit’s graduate fellowships, infrastructure and endowed professorships

Center for Earth Observing & Space Research

Become the recognized leader in Earth and space research in the Mid-Atlantic U.S.
Increase funding from current $8.5M to $12M by 2010
Develop web-based and other tools with commercial value (i.e., patents)
Acquire state-of-the-art hardware (i.e., on board satellite computing, quantum computing, spectral imaging, and geospatial software)
Enhance repertoire of methodologies to including data mining, distributed computing, on-line analysis, metadata, etc.
Become an agent of international collaborations for SCS and GMU with Chile, China, Chile, Egypt, Greece, India, Korea, Turkey, E.U., United Nations and Pan American Health Organization
Expand offering of short courses and workshops in collaboration with ESGS, other SCS Programs and other graduate programs at GMU
Engage in fundraising activities to enhance the unit’s graduate fellowships, infrastructure and endowed professorships

Climate Dynamics

Become fully established and recognized as one of the major academic programs nationally and internationally
Balanced teaching and research activities in various aspects of the physical climate system (atmosphere, ocean, land, etc.), providing support for 20% growth in students per year
Expand the program to include chemical and biological cycles of the climate system and include aspects of climate and society
In collaboration with COLA scientists, develop a state-of-the-art "Climate Simulation Laboratory” to test climate change and climate variability hypotheses
Work with GMU to house COLA faculty, students and infrastructure on GMU campus
Engage in fundraising activities to enhance the unit’s graduate fellowships, infrastructure and endowed professorships

Computational Neuroscience

Goal of the joint PhD program in Neurosciences to the top 100 as ranked by US News and World Report
New undergraduate major in Neurosciences in collaboration with CAS and Krasnow
Three new and two chaired positions to strengthen new fields
Computational Neuroscience Conference to be held/hosted at GMU
Eight extramurally funded graduate fellowships at market competitive rates
Develop areas of strength in hippocampal modeling, striatal system modeling and quantum neurocomputing
Engage in fundraising activities to enhance the unit’s graduate fellowships, infrastructure and endowed professorships

Data Sciences

Serve as the nexus for the science of learning from data, utilizing methods of visualization, simulation, machine learning, modeling and statistics
Enlarge computational statistics and the computational finance tracks in the CSI PhD program;
Ensure the computational statistics’ international standing as a premier PhD program
With the CCS, develop academic programs in the computational social sciences
Explore development of a joint PhD in Statistics with the Applied and Engineering Statistics Department (AES) in IT&E
Work collaboratively with ICES for a joint degree
Engage in fundraising activities to enhance the unit’s graduate fellowships, infrastructure and endowed professorships

Earth Systems and Geoinformation Sciences

Participate in a new inter- / multidisciplinary undergraduate program/degree in Global Change (with CAS) and Earth Systems Science and Geography
Spin-off degrees in Earth Systems Science, Atmospheric Modeling, and Remote Sensing from the proposed new Earth & Geoinformation Science Ph.D. degree
Explore distance-learning or course delivery through Internet in the areas of Earth Systems Science, Remote Sensing and GIS, and implement delivery by 2010
Offer MS in ESS and the RS-Image Processing Certificates through distance learning abroad
Offer a graduate certificate/short training courses for senior scientists to assist in decision making related to the use of computational methods, modeling and simulation for Earth Science phenomena
Engage in fundraising activities to enhance the unit’s graduate fellowships, infrastructure and endowed professorships

Fluids & Materials

Fund promising areas of research, including nanotechnology, quantum-computing based CFD/CSD, and emerging applications/topics in medicine/health sciences
Develop distance-learning or course delivery through Internet in the areas of Computational Fluid Dynamics, Computational Structural Dynamics, Computer Design of Materials, Molecular Dynamics and Computational Quantum Chemistry by 2010
Offer certificate/short training courses in widely used codes for CFD, CSD, MD, etc., attractive for a large number of local government institutions and companies
Continue expanding international collaboration, both in house and external (Barcelona, Braunschweig, Mexico City, Bariloche, Bogota, Pusan, Paris VI, etc.)
Engage in fundraising activities to enhance the unit’s graduate fellowships, infrastructure and endowed professorships

Summary

The SCS will continue to be an agent of growth and collaboration within GMU and the region. Our progress will include traditional metrics through which individual faculty are recognized (e.g., citations, national and international panels, editorships, hiring competitevely, competitive grant awars, etc.). The growth of sponsored research will more than double, although it is recognized that creative solutions have to be identified to (i) provide the stability of State funds to retain our top faculty and (ii) enhance the infrastructure (e.g., computational platforms, graduate fellowships, IT solutions, etc.). Recognizing that top research universities house Nobel laureates in the sciences, we will attract such scientists. At the same time, we will be creative in mentoring our younger faculty so their productivity continues to grow individually and collectively. Students and faculty will increase in the range of 50-80% (in some programs by 100%) as SCS continues to fulfill the mission entrusted to it by the university and the Commonwealth. We anticipate that the next 5 years will be years of rapid change as we seek more creative solutions, such as being involved in undergraduate teaching and forming departments. To accommodate these aspirations and realizing that the playing field in which higher education operates is dynamic, the SCS will continue to be proactive in planning for the future and being entrepreneurial.

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