Reports

Advances in artificial intelligence, powerful new computing platforms, and an increasingly complex landscape for future computing hardware represent both new opportunities and new challenges. These developments place computational science at an inflection point. In 2023, SIAM commissioned a task force to assess this complex landscape and to craft a strategic vision for the field in the United States for the next 15 years. The overarching finding of the SIAM Task Force on the Future of Computational Science is that computational science is essential and plays a crucial role in scientific discovery, the economy, and national security, and that investments that ensure the continued leadership of the U.S. should be a high national priority.

SIAM hosted a 3-day workshop on October 10-12, 2022 with a broad group of researchers and practitioners from various disciplines and from a variety of institutions and companies around the general theme of climate science, sustainability, and clean energy. The SIAM Convening on Climate Science, Sustainability, and Clean Energy engaged the scientific community in the identification and articulation of emerging research needs related to these areas, and explored what foundational long-term research and plans are needed over the next decade. Recommendations were made to the National Science Foundation (NSF) and other federal research and development agencies. This work was funded by the NSF, under grant DMS 2227218.

This report contains recommendations to the U.S. Congress, federal agencies, and other organizations on areas of research and education related to climate change, environmental resilience, and clean energy that would benefit from involvement of the applied mathematics and computational science community. The SIAM Climate Task Force was created under the SIAM Committee on Science Policy and was made up of a diverse group of experts from academia and national laboratories.

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, SIAM created the Task Force on Future Research Directions for NSF in the Era of COVID-19 under the SIAM Committee on Science Policy (CSP). The goal of the task force was to inform the response of the National Science Foundation (NSF) to present needs associated with COVID-19 and help lay the groundwork for a more robust disaster response regime and future economic security and prosperity. This report presents recommendations on future research directions at the NSF in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The use of modern computers in scientific and engineering research and development over the last decades has led to the conclusion that a third branch of scientific methodology has been created. Advanced work in all areas of science and technology has come to rely critically on the computational approach, in addition to traditional experimental and theoretical methodologies. Learn more in this report.

In response to opportunities created by rapid developments in high-performance computing, in the 1980s, the Federal Coordinating Council on Science, Engineering and Technology recommended several federal agencies convene expert panels to assess high-performance computing. This report is the output of one such panel on issues in large-scale computational science and engineering, held at a SIAM workshop in February 1987, and sponsored by the National Science Foundation.

The enabling role of the mathematical sciences in advanced materials, manufacturing processes, process control, statistical quality improvement, cost-based performance measures, and benchmarking is important in contemporary manufacturing. This report highlights contributions of the mathematical and computational sciences to various contemporary and emerging areas of manufacturing.

The President's budget requests have a significant impact on the STEM community, as they outline forthcoming new initiatives and policy priorities for the Administration. As prepared by Lewis-Burke Associates, these reports include summary and analysis of programs of interest to the applied mathematics and computational science communities in recent years.

In many areas of science and engineering, computation has become an equal and indispensable partner, along with theory and experiment, in the quest for knowledge and the advancement of technology. Numerical simulation enables the study of complex systems and natural phenomena that would be too expensive or dangerous, or even impossible, to study by direct experimentation. Today, computational scientists and engineers are solving large-scale problems that were once thought intractable. Why should you introduce an undergraduate CSE program at your school? There are at least four fundamental reasons - each spelled out in this report.

SIAM has been awarded two National Science Foundation grants to work on increasing mathematical modeling and computational applied mathematics in high school and college curricula, and to add a thread considering the implications and possibilities in the early grades. The grants were used to hold workshops, which grew out of discussions between SIAM and NSF Education and Human Resources representatives early in 2011 on the topics of undergraduate and K-12 courses and programs, college readiness, and career preparation. The following reports were the output of these workshops.

With a global focus on preparing students to enter STEM fields, undergraduate programs in applied mathematics have an important role to play in preparing the future workforce. The purpose of this advisory report, prepared by the SIAM Education Committee, is to describe the components of existing programs in applied mathematics. The intended audience includes people who may be interested in initiating new programs, improving existing programs, or policymakers.

New application areas are constantly being discovered while established techniques are being applied in new ways and in emerging fields. Consequently, a wide variety of career opportunities are open to people with mathematical talent and training. In this guide, you will find answers to questions about careers in applied mathematics and computational science, and profiles of professionals working in a variety of environments for which a strong background in mathematics is necessary for success.

GAIMME enables the modeling process to be understood as part of STEM studies and research, and to be taught as a basic tool for problem solving and logical thinking. GAIMME helps define core competencies to include in student experiences, suggests assessment methods, and provides direction to enhance math modeling education at all levels.

This report includes information and data on skills valued by companies as well as training desired for a successful career in industry. It also discusses opportunities and challenges for the mathematical and computational sciences and makes suggestions and recommendations for matching higher education curriculum to the needs of employing institutions. This is a great resource for any student or professional using mathematics.