[resent since mail users would not see the original post] It's been about a year since I posted this, and it is still a good idea. -ds
On Tuesday, October 21, 2014 at 5:44:16 AM UTC-4, dslice wrote: > > This comment relates to exceptional undergraduate students with whom you > work and who might be considering graduate school. The following comments > are unofficial and generally "off the top of my head", so I cannot > guarantee there are no factual errors within. None are intentional. -ds > > === > I am a faculty member in the Department of Scientific Computing at Florida > State University (https://www.sc.fsu.edu/ - we are in the process of > overhauling our rather uninspiring website). Our department provides a > rather unique, interdisciplinary opportunity to combine math and > computation and domain-specific knowledge to address issues across a wide > range of research fields. > > Specialties within our department include: astrophysics, ground-water > modeling, fluid mechanics, population genetics, phylogenetics, > computational geometry, morphometrics, medical imaging, optimization, > materials modeling, bio-membrane modeling, game design, etc. > > In my own lab (http://morphlab.sc.fsu.edu/), current projects include > applied and methodological work on: non-linear image analysis, artificial > cranial deformation, surface analysis, visualization and graphics, > functional morphology, animal vocalization, visual searching, integration > of complex data types, age-at-death estimation, classification methods, > motion analysis, etc. These projects have direct application (and often > collaborators in): anthropology (paleo, forensic, physical), archaeology, > art history, evolutionary biology, ecology and conservation, safety and > industrial hygiene, design, medicine, etc. > > The department offers several Master's and Ph.D. degree tracks. Both > thesis and coursework Master's tracks are available. Doctoral students are > required to take a preliminary comprehensive qualifying exam. > > The design of our programs not only allow, but require, taking graduate > courses outside of our department. So, for instance, one could take > advanced evolutionary biology in the Bio department or courses in Anthro, > Stats, Math, Earth_Ocean_and_Atmospheric_Science, Art, Criminology, Music, > etc. > > I think someone interested in pursuing a doctoral degree in a more > traditional field, like anthropology, evolutionary biology, ecology, or > many others, would be well-served by getting a Scientific Computing > Master's degree. A strong background in a traditional field and a M.Sc. > from our department would surely move a candidate to the top of almost any > doctoral-program admissions list in these areas. Furthermore, if such a > student were to continue to develop and apply their sci-comp skills in > their doctoral work, they would be well-positioned to rise to the top of > their respective field, as quantitative and computational skills in many > areas are often rather lacking. In fact, it is not that far fetched to > imagine someone with a freshly minted Ph.D., who was not utterly sick of > coursework, coming to our department to add a very marketable skill set to > their résumé. > > What would be required for success in our program are good, but basic, > backgrounds in math and programming and a passion for at least one of > these. That is, top grades in related coursework (calculus, stats, a > programming course) usually required as part of a science degree should be > sufficient. One can make up a deficiency in one of these areas, but it > would be difficult, I think, to master all of them with no recent > background. As an example, one of our current top, award-winning graduate > students did not know (or had completely forgotten) linear algebra when he > arrived, but had done previous work in modeling and programming. > > I can attest to the outstanding quality of our faculty in the realm of > teaching. My office is near the computer classroom, and I regularly listen > in the lectures. I would love to have had the opportunity to take courses > from these instructors in the course of my career. > > This posting is certainly not a guarantee of acceptance into our program > or of research support of students from traditional fields. We have a > limited number of slots depending upon graduation, current funding, etc. - > probably 6 or so for next year. But, we make no distinction between > Master's and doctoral students in our admissions and generally try to > provide financial support. I would expect there could be a place for an > exceptional student with interest in a traditionally less-computational > field. > > These are just comments and suggestions I expect might be useful to some > of your undergraduates. Please pass them along as you see fit. Interested > students could also contact me, but they may need to be repetitive and > persistent as I probably average 40+ emails per day - I am sure many of you > can relate. > > -Dennis E. Slice > > -- > Department of Scientific Computing, The Florida State University > Department of Anthropology, University of Vienna, Austria > Website: http://morphlab.sc.fsu.edu > > > > -- MORPHMET may be accessed via its webpage at http://www.morphometrics.org To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to morphmet+unsubscr...@morphometrics.org.
