University of Pittsburgh

Undergraduate Degree Requirements

The Bachelor of Science in Scientific Computing

The basic major in scientific computing consists of at least 52 credits of courses in mathematics and computer science and, in addition, requires a minor of at least 12 credits of courses in a related area of the physical or biological sciences, economics, or an approved area of engineering.

Students in the program must fulfill the following minimal requirements, earning a grade of C or higher in each course. Students contemplating graduate study should discuss with an advisor at as early a date as possible the additional courses they should take to prepare for graduate study in their desired area.

  1. Basic courses of the program (6 credits total)
    1. MATH 0400 Discrete Mathematical Structures (3 credits) or
      CS 0441 Discrete Structures for Computer Science (3 credits)
    2. MATH 1110 Industrial Mathematics (3 credits) or
      CS 1538 Introduction to Simulation (3 credits)
  2. Basic mathematics (15 credits or 16 credits total)
    1. MATH 0220 Analytic Geometry and Calculus Part 1 (4 credits)
    2. MATH 0230 Analytic Geometry and Calculus Part 2 (4 credits)
    3. MATH 0240 Analytic Geometry and Calculus Part 3 (4 credits)
    4. One of the following courses:
      MATH 0250 Matrix Theory and Differential Equations (4 credits)
      MATH 0280 Introduction to Matrices and linear algebra (3 credits)
      MATH 1180 Linear Algebra I (3 credits)
      MATH 1185 Honors Linear Algebra (3 credits)
  3. Basic computer science (13 credits total)
    1. CS 0401 Introduction to Computer Science (4 credits)
    2. CS 0445 Introduction to Information Structures (3 credits)
    3. CS 0447 Computer Organization and Assembly Language Programming (3 credits)
    4. CS 1501 Data Structures and Algorithms (3 credits)
  4. Advanced undergraduate computational mathematics (9 credits total)
    1. MATH 1070 Numerical Mathematics: Analysis (3 credits)
    2. MATH 1080 Numerical Linear Algebra (3 credits)
    3. One of the following courses:
      MATH 1100 Linear Programming (3 credits)
      MATH 1270 Ordinary Differential Equations (3 credits)
      MATH 1470 Partial Differential Equations and Applications (3 credits)
  5. Advanced undergraduate computer science (9 credits total)
    1. CS 1566 Introduction to Computer Graphics (3 credits)
    2. CS 1645 Introduction to High Performance Computing Systems (3 credits)
    3. One of the following courses:
      CS 1510 Design and Analysis of Algorithms (3 credits)
      CS 1520 Programming Languages (3 credits)
      CS 1530 Software Engineering (3 credits)
      CS 1541 Introduction to Computer Architecture (3 credits)
      CS 1555 Data Base Management Systems (3 credits)
  6. Applications area requirement (12 credits total)

An application area to be approved by the program committee consisting of a coherent sequence of courses in the physical or biological sciences, economics, or an area of engineering.