Program Introduction

Program Description

Mathematical and Computational Sciences is an interdepartmental undergraduate program designed as a major for students interested in the mathematical sciences, or in the use of mathematical ideas and analysis of problems in the social or management sciences. It provides a core of mathematics basic to all mathematical sciences and an introduction to the concepts and techniques of automatic computation, optimal decision-making, probabilistic modeling, and statistical inference. It also provides an opportunity for elective work in any of the mathematical science disciplines at Stanford.

The program utilizes the faculty and courses of the departments of Computer Science, Mathematics, Management Science and Engineering, and Statistics. It prepares students for graduate study or employment in the mathematical and computational sciences or in those areas of applied mathematics which center around the use of computers and are concerned with the problems of the social and management sciences.

Goals

Mathematics, by its nature, is a broad and varied discipline, straddling virtually all fields of science. The advent of computers has further broadened the importance and impact of mathematics. As a consequence, there has been an increased demand in academic institutions and industry for employees trained in mathematics and operations research.

The goals of our program are ambitious: we aim to provide a broad and deep understanding of mathematical issues in the information sciences. The variety of topics covered in the courses making up the degree program require expertise in a wide selection of subject disciplines; by utilizing the resources of several departments in teaching the courses, we hope to grant the students the best possible introduction to mathematical and information sciences.

History

In 1971, four professors created an interdisciplinary group: Rupert Miller from Statistics, Arthur Veinott, Jr. from Operations Research, John Herriot from Computer Science, and Paul Berg from Mathematics felt the need to have an undergraduate program for students interested in applied math.

In the 1980s, the Department of Computer Science branched off into its own undergraduate program. In recent years, the average number of MCS majors is about 70 students.

Reflections from MCS Alumni

The MCS department is fantastic. I truly think it is the most useful, relevant, interesting, and mind-expanding major at Stanford. It does a great job of introducing a broad range of useful topics to prepare students for work, or further study. Someday, once I have made my millions, I plan to donate directly to the MCS department. Maybe then they'll even have their own building and/or classes!

I think MCS is one of the best majors offered at Stanford; it is a "liberal arts" major for the computationally-minded. It has served me very well and it was fun to work towards the major because the classes were easy to balance since they were so different and exciting. I really think it is a gem that showcases Stanford's best departments all under one degree. It prepared me well for my doctoral work and my postdoc.

The breadth of areas covered and the incredible flexibility of the program to support areas of study ranging from: biostatistics, applied math, theoretical CS, pure statistics (since Stanford doesn't actually have a statistics undergraduate degree) and preparation for Economics grad school. The program is unique in its strong support for both academic and industry opportunities for its graduates. In the math department, I always felt the professors looked down on working in industry, and I never felt comfortable discussing my non-academic desires. MCS is completely different in this respect.

Overall a great program, the only thing I would recommend is doing a better job advertising to freshman who are thinking about CS, Math Econ, or MS&E....this is a pretty good combination of everything.

Breadth that allows students the opportunity to be exposed to a wide variety of areas and ways of thinking. It serves as an excellent launching point into a master's degree for depth to add to the unique breadth of the program.

...MCS is demanding but because computational courses all build on each other, it's not hard to progress at a good clip. And it leaves open the time to double major (if one plans early) or do research.

What MCS Graduates Are Doing Now

I just completed my Ph.D. in Medical Informatics and Oregon Health & Science University. The topic of my dissertation was a method for sharing and syndicating clinical decision support systems. There was actually a press release which describes some of my work in a little more detail here: OHSU To Award Its First PH.D. In Biomedical Informatics (June 4, 2007). I'm now in Boston, MA, where I'll be starting a job Brigham and Women's Hospital / Harvard Medical School and Partners HealthCare system at the beginning of August. The job is a combination of research and applied work, with a faculty appointment at the medical school.

- Adam Wright, Class of 2004

This Spring I got a PhD in Mathematics from Carnegie Mellon, specializing in logic. (My thesis had the exciting title of "Some Results in Logic and Ergodic Theory." One of the main results from there was selected as a finalist in the Kurt Gödel Centenary Research Prize competition.) This semester, I'm a postdoctoral researcher at MSRI (the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute) in Berkeley, where they're having a semester long program on Additive Combinatorics and Ergodic Theory. Starting next semester I'll be a postdoc at UCLA.

- Henry Towsner, Class of 2003

Ok, so I currently work at Google. How did I get here? In June of '03, I ...had only one full-time job offer, from xxxxxx Systems. It was evidently a miserable place to work, but I didn't feel like I had much choice, so I took it. Then their business slumped, so they reneged on my offer and gave me a check for two month's salary to tide me over while I looked for another job. It turns out practice makes perfect when it comes to job searching - I got offers from Oracle, Goldman Sachs, Microsoft, and Google over the next three months. Google made the worst impression on me during the interviews. I chose Oracle, worked there for eight months, then quit and switched to Google. Oracle had better work-life balance than any of the other companies, but Google was a much more exciting place to work. Statistics, AI, math, and even game theory get used heavily in predicting which search results (and ads) the user will click on, in detecting spammy web pages, and in trying to determine the semantic meaning of text.

Some random thoughts on job choice - Divide each firm's annual revenue by the number of employees. This will give you a feel for how much of an impact a single employee can have at that firm. Mature companies with large numbers of employees (e.g. Oracle) are fine places to work, but you won't get the "I'm changing the world" feeling the way you would at a fast growing company with fewer employees (e.g. Google). If you have an offer from a pre-IPO company, get expert help in valuing any options or stock you're offered, and, if you accept the offer, talk to an accountant about handling taxes *before* your first day at the company.

- Steve Young, Class of 2003

I am beginning my third year in the Bioinformatics Graduate Program at UC San Diego in Prof. Bing Ren's group. One of the lab's key areas of investigation is the identification and characterization of functional elements in the human genome such as core promoters, enhancers, and silencers which are sequences recognized by proteins involved in regulating transcription. Thus, my current research generally involves the use of a high-throughput experimental method which combines chromatin immunoprecipitation with genomic tiling arrays to fish out these regulatory sequences using known protein markers. I am involved in developing the tools for the accurate identification of these functional elements from the experimental data and the subsequent characterization and analysis of the selected sequences. A key goal is to develop more comprehensive views of transcription regulation in human.

- Leah Barrera, Class of 2002

After graduating in 2000, I worked for a boutique investment bank in San Francisco for two years before going to law school. Next year, I will be working for a law firm in New York practicing tax law. Looking at the current format of the MCS web page, my employment wouldn't make a good addition to the list since my employer is no longer in business. As for the Graduate Study list, I attend Harvard Law School.

- Greg Hannibal, Class of 2000

Below is a slightly extended version of the bio I've been using for press things: Eric Vishria is currently Director of Product Marketing at Opsware Inc., a software company focused on Data Center Automation. Vishria is responsible for the positioning and marketing of Opsware's solution as well as working with customers & partners to plot the future course of the product. He has been with Opsware (previously known as Loudcloud) for nearly 5 years during which he's had a variety of Product Management and Product Marketing roles. Prior to joining Opsware, Vishria was a technology investment banker at Broadview International.

- Eric Vishria, Class of 1999

Graduates of 2009
Graduates of 2008
Graduates of 2007
Graduates of 2006
Graduates of 2005

Employment

Some of our graduates have received jobs ranging from Wall Street's Goldman Sachs and Solomon Brothers to Pacific Bell in San Francisco; others have been admitted Harvard's Ph.D. program in Econometrics, Stanford Law School, and many other graduate programs. One of our 2005 graduates is a volunteer for Teach for America. Below is a partial list of what some MCS students have gone on to do after graduation.

Graduate Study

Many of those who go on to graduate school choose a from a variety of schools, such as California Institute of Technology, Carnegie Mellon, Johns Hopkins University, Harvard University, MIT School of Architecture, Northwestern University, along with many universities in the UC system.

In addition, students who continue on to graduate school pursue a range of fields of study, among them are bioinformatics, biophysics, communication, economics, engineering, law, medicine, and statistics.