KU Scholarships

The KU School of Engineering has generous scholarships for talented high school seniors who apply by Nov. 1, 2011. These scholarships can be added to the University's awards as well as to scholarships from School of Engineering departments. Learn about all the opportunities within the KU School of Engineering on our scholarships page for prospective students.

Interdisciplinary Computing

What do they do?

KU’s Interdisciplinary Computing program currently offers five areas of emphasis: Physics, astronomy, biology, chemistry and geography and careers will vary by program emphasis. Interdisciplinary computing graduates collaborate with scientists or other professionals, applying their computing expertise to large-scale problems. They might utilize grid computing to study the first few picoseconds after the “Big Bang” or process enormous data streams from telescopic mapping experiments to analyze the orbits of potential Earth-crossing asteroids. They could manage and expand biological databases to study the causes of worldwide biodiversity decline, apply machine-learning techniques to design better chemotherapies, or develop optimization techniques to locate tornado sirens for maximum population coverage.

Where do they work?

The graduates of the BS IC program will be able to pursue careers in a wide range of fields in industry, government, and academics. Science industries, business, government, and military sectors are making it a priority to hire people with expertise in computing; and industry has identified interdisciplinary computing as an important need. It is reported that the careers that combine computing with other fields will be the new jobs of the future. Numerous reports indicate the excellent career prospects for future BS IC graduates.

What are they paid?

This is a very new field with very few graduates from which to gather salary information. Engineering and math-intensive science fields are generally among the highest paid entry-level career paths.