J. Tinsley Oden’s Vision for an Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Computational Engineering and Science

Professor J. Tinsley Oden had a tremendous impact on graduate education at the University of Texas at Austin and beyond. An attempt is made to explain his overall vision for a true interdisciplinary education in computational engineering and science. The graduate program he established in 1993 is discussed. The early program was relatively small and called the Computational and Applied Mathematics graduate program. Around 2003, the program entered an expansion phase, culminating in a change to the name Computational Science, Engineering, and Mathematics. Issues of administration, coursework, and expectations for success are examined.