1. An interdisciplinary curriculum balancing discrete mathematics, continuous mathematics, computer science, information sciences, and statistics.

To successfully model complex scientific, engineering and business problems, students need a knowledge not only of discrete mathematics, including algorithms, combinatorics, data structures, and programming, but also of classical topics in applied mathematics, including differential equations, numerical analysis, mathematical modeling, and analysis. This curriculum balances discrete mathematics, which forms the foundation of a computer science curriculum, with the continuous mathematics used to model complex scientific, engineering, and business problems. In addition, students receive a solid foundation in software science, computer modeling, and simulation.

Each student will complete a major project in his or her area of specialization and several minor projects. Projects allow students to work in depth on a problem of interest to both themselves and industry. Projects also allow students to see current, ongoing research in new and emerging fields, as well as those fields containing a strong computational component.

3. Workshops & projects to improve student's technical oral and written communications skills.

Workshops and projects provide students with the opportunity to learn to work in a team and to improve their technical oral and written communication skills.

The program's approach is to have students concentrate on a core set of required Industrial Mathematics concentration courses and on a curriculum which is project-oriented. As outlined below, concentration courses are required in the areas of Discrete Mathematics, Applied Mathematics, Information and Software Sciences, Statistics and Probability, and Industrial Science. In addition, students graduating from the program will have worked as team members on one major project and several minor projects; each project chosen based on its applicability to current industrial needs and based on its ability to provide results which are meaningful to industry.

The program has been designed to focus simultaneously on the student graduating from the program and the industry that will potentially hire him or her. One focus is on the graduate student seeking a master's degree in mathematics but intending to seek employment in a non-academic career. The other is on companies in need of employees with an advanced degree in industrial mathematics and/or in need of UIC's expertise to assist them in finding solutions to projects of many types.

Graduate Students
The one and a half year MISI Master's Degree Program is structured so that graduates will have developed three overlapping skill sets:

1. the breadth & depth of their mathematical knowledge will allow them to make meaningful contributions to the solutions of complex problems requiring sophisticated analysis;

2. their knowledge of computer science will give them the ability to develop algorithms and software which allow "real world" solutions to complex problems; and

3. their oral and written communication skills, along with project management skills, will allow them to formulate and express easily understood technical goals and to insert new technology into an organization.

For these reasons, the program is interdisciplinary and places equal emphasis on mathematics, information sciences, oral and written communication skills, and project management.

Business and Industrial Participation
UIC envisions three ways in which companies can participate in the MISI program:

1. Companies can sponsor one of their own current employees who enrolls in the program,

2. Companies can submit projects to one of the department's laboratories,

3. Companies can sponsor ongoing research undertaken by MISI program graduate research assistants in one of the department's laboratories.

Benefits
Everyone who participates in UIC's MISI program will find that there are numerous benefits for all involved. Some of these benefits can be summarized as follows:

Benefits to Industry include:

• Access to the latest developments in scientific research.
• Access to state of the art computing facilities.
• Access to the expertise of faculty members who can help identify and solve critical problems.
• Access to excellent knowledgeable students.
• Active participation in the educational process.
• The opportunity to identify and help train potential future employees, who can then make immediate, valuable contributions in the workplace.

Benefits to Students include:

• Real-life problem-solving experience.
• Professional development in a professional setting.
• Development of problem-solving and communication skills crucial for today's workplace.
• Possible summer and post-graduate employment opportunities.

Benefits to the University include:

• The opportunity to identify new areas of research with relevance to current technical and societal issues.
• An increase in graduate and undergraduate student enrollment.

Computing Facilities
As mentioned above, participants in the program will find that they have access to state of the art computing facilities at UIC. In addition to the campus-wide facilities available to all students, there are three laboratories available for use in the department, including the Statistical Laboratory, the Laboratory for Advanced Computing, and the Graduate Student Computer Laboratory.

The Statistical Laboratory The Statistical Laboratory was established in 1985. It is a joint faculty-graduate student enterprise that provides statistical consulting. The laboratory has experts in a wide variety of areas of statistics, probability and operations research including:

• Statistical Data Analysis
• Design of Experiments
• Survey Sampling
• Linear and Nonlinear Modelling
• Linear and Nonlinear Programming
• Reliability

A list of Laboratory equipment will be posted in the near future.

The director of the Statistical Laboratory is Dibyen Majumdar.

The Laboratory for Advanced Computing
The Laboratory for Advanced Computing was founded in early 1990 and has the following goals:

• The development of fundamental algorithms, software tools and systems for data mining and data intensive computing.
• Data intensive scientific and engineering applications.
• Data intensive medical and health informatics applications.
• Data mining projects with industrial partners.

The director of the Laboratory for Advanced Computing is Robert Grossman.

The Laboratory maintains multiple clusters of single and multi-processor high performance workstations, a high-performance 3D-visualization environment, and multi-terabytes of spinning disk and tape storage which can be accessed and managed with LAC's scalable, object oriented, data management middle ware. The visualization environment consists of an ImmersaDesk virtual reality environment.

A super high-speed ATM/SONET multi-switch backbone network connecting each cluster to the outside environment is currently being maintained. Parallel programming and cluster management software has been deployed to harness processor cycles and distribute computational loads across the clusters. Connections to the major national research networks are also maintained, including NSF's vBNS, Internet2, MREN, and CANARIE.

The Graduate Students Computer Laboratory
The Graduate Student Computer Laboratory maintains a mix of single and dual-processor high-performance workstations all connected to the outside environment through a high-speed network. Numerous software packages are available including Maple, Matlab, Magma, TeX, Pine, and Netscape. In addition to this Laboratory, many Graduate Students have desktop computers in the offices assigned to them during the academic year. It is the goal of the department, though, to put a computer in every graduate student office.

Industrial Advisory Board
As it is expected that the majority of program graduates will take jobs in industry, it is felt that this particular combination of disciplines, combined with a practical project orientation, provides them with a significant advantage when looking for jobs. As a further assurance of the program's effectiveness, an industrial advisory board ensures that all projects selected for inclusion in the program, and all students graduating from the program, are of interest to industry.

This program has been designed as a collaboration between the university and industry and full corporate participation is essential. As mathematical modeling and computer simulation play an increasingly important role in industry, mathematical scientists and industry must work ever closer together. Companies and academia bring different needs and talents to this program but, together, solutions can be found to many of the problems currently facing industry.