Computational Science Honours Program

The Fourth Year Honours Program in Computational Science is offered by the Department of Mathematics and the Department of Computer Science. In this program students will undertake a computational research project that demonstrates the multi-disciplinary nature of computational science. The project will normally involve the application of computational techniques to the solution of a real world problem. This program can be undertaken by students enrolled in either the Bachelor of Computational Science (Honours) or the Bachelor of Science (Honours). Note that students enrolled in the Bachelor of Computational Science (Honours) may also consider enrolling in other fourth year programs, such as Physics, Chemistry, etc if they satisfy the entrance requirements for those programs.

Admission

Students who have completed the Bachelor of Computational Science or the Bachelor of Science will be considered for admission to the honours program within their respective honours degrees provided they have undertaken, either

1. the requirements of the Bachelor of Computational Science degree, or
2. a major in computational modelling, or
3. have completed 24 units (4 courses) of level C computer science and/or computational mathematics courses.

Admission will be considered on a case by case basis, but an average mark of 65 is expected. Contact the convenor of the computational science honours program to see if you qualify. Procedures for admission into the program can be obtained from the general admissions information page.

Scholarships

Numerous Honours Scholarships are available for Computational Science Students. 

Structure

The fourth (or honours) year in Computational Science normally consists of coursework (50%) and a thesis (50%). Students need to take 4-5 courses chosen from the 3rd and 4th year computational mathematics, computer science or their application area. Usually (2-3 4th year honours courses, 2-3 3rd year honours pathway courses). They will also present two seminars on suitable topics of their own choice. (Under some circumstances it may be possible to increase the percentage of coursework.) The program is spread over 10 months from the beginning of February to the end of November. It is also possible to begin in the middle of the year.

Thesis

The following is a list of possible fourth year honours topics or areas. It is neither definitive nor exhaustive, and will be modified from time to time. But it should give you an idea of the wide range of possibilities. Contact the relevant people for further discussion and ideas. It is often possible to undertake your honours project with a supervisor in areas such as Computer Science, Physics, Statistics, or elsewhere, provided there is sufficient computational content. Students have the choice of studying computational mathematics and statistics in their own right and/or applying them in disciplines such as bioinformatics, financial mathematics, astrophysics, environmental science. Joint supervision with various Research Schools is often available to students when relevant. For further information contact the fourth year computational science honours coordinator.

Researcher	Area	Projects
Dr Markus Hegland	Computational Modelling, Data Mining	Sparse Grids, Smoluchowski Equation, Datamining
Dr Stephen Roberts	Computational Modelling	Tsunami Modelling, Navier Stokes Equation, Thin Plate Splines, Sparse Grids
Dr Linda Stals	Computational Modelling	Thin Plate Splines, Adaptive Optics
Dr. Jochen Garcke	Computational Modelling	Sparse Grids, Smoluchowski Equation
Prof Richard Brent	Computational Modelling	Computational complexity and analysis of algorithms
Dr Matthew Hardy	Computational Modelling	computational fluid dynamics, and parallel domain decomposition methods
Dr Alistair Rendell	Computational Chemistry	Molecular Dynamics
Dr Henry Gardner	Plasma Physics	Virtual environments, Plasma Physics Research
Prof Sue Wilson	Bioinformatics	Bioinformatics, mathematical genetics - epistasis
Dr Mark Knachtstedt	Computational Mesoscale Physics	Properties and characterisation of composite materials
Dr Malcohm Sambridge	Computational Geophysics	Projects in Physics of the Earth
Prof Tony Jakeman	Environmental Modelling	Topics in environmental modelling
Dr Geoff Bicknell	Mount Stromlo	High energy astrophysics
Dr Lilia Ferrario	Astronomy and Astrophysics Program, MSI	Topic in Astronomy and Astrophysics

Also check out the Mathematics Honours page for other possible supervisors and projects.

Other Programs

The School of Mathematical Sciences offer an Honours Program in the Mathematical Sciences. The Department of Computer Science offers an Honours Program. The Department of Mathematics and the Department of Physics and Theoretical Physics, together with the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics (Mt Stromlo Observatory), also offer a joint Honours Program in Astrophysics.

Contact

Further information contact the coordinator of the honours program, Dr Stephen Roberts, at stephen.roberts@anu.edu.au.