Recruiting

We are on the lookout for Engineers, Mathematicians, and Computer Scientists who are interested in Scientific Computational Mathematics, and in pursuing a career in Energy.

We look for candidates with at least:

1. Primary (deep) strengths in one of our three core areas,
2. Secondary (broad) interest in another area, and,
3. Interest in learning about the third.

COMPUTING

Examples of what we consider as a breadth or secondary focus in this area:

1. Structured programming using a compiled language. Familiarity with Data Abstraction tactics. Familiarity with standard libraries.
2. Knowledge of, and skill in, several interpreted scripting languages: e.g. Python or MATLAB.
3. Linux, Windows, and Solaris Unix.

In addition to the breadth skill set, we consider demonstrated coursework or experience with the following to be a deep or primary focus:

1. Computer Organization for programmers: x86, pipelining and instruction level parallelism, the memory hierarchy, speculative execution and prefetching.
2. Compilers optimizations and programming for them including SIMD via SSE.
3. Data structures and algorithms.
4. Object Oriented Programming, Generic Programming, and Metaprogramming.
5. Familiarity with parallel methods using OpenMP, MPI, and/or CUDA.

MATHEMATICS

Breadth or secondary focus in this area:

1. Basic engineering Ordinary and Partial Differential Equations.
2. Some Linear Algebra (e.g. LU Decomposition).
3. Newton’s method.
4. Numerical Methods.

Depth or primary focus in this area:

1. Partial Differential Equations (Parabolic and Hyperbolic),
2. Matrix Theory and Linear Algebra (Iterative and Direct Methods),
3. Basic functional analysis and proof techniques such as homotopy continuation, and,
4. Awareness of discretization methods; e.g. finite volume, finite element, and/or spectral methods.

PETROLEUM ENGINEERING

Breadth or secondary focus in this area:

1. Reservoir Engineering; bulk material balance, conservation equations, constitutive relations
2. Well test analysis

Depth or primary focus in this area:

1. Pressure equation: Laplace transforms, Green’s functions, and transient analysis,
2. Multiphase flow: the method of characteristics for two and three phase flow,
3. Reservoir simulation: Fully-implicit methods, two/multi point flux approximations, multistage preconditioning.
4. Thermodynamics of equilibria.

ADMISSIONS

• I do not have a Petroleum Engineering background. Am I still eligible to join FuRSST?

We routinely admit candidates with an educational background in a quantitative field such as Physics, Mathematics, Computer Science, or other Engineering disciplines. Such candidates may be required to take three deficiency undergraduate courses in their first semester; Drilling, Production, and Reservoir Engineering. These three courses are extra, and will not count towards graduate credit. A grade of at least a ‘B’ must be attained in each of these courses.

• How hard is it to get an offer to work with FuRSST?

We typically review well over 300 applications. We look for evidence of academic achievement and  technical alignment with our objectives. We will typically interview about 30 applicants in our first round. Of those, we may interview a dozen in the second round. Our capacity to admit talent depends on our openings. We anticipate admitting a handful of students every year.

• Should I contact a Principle Investigator directly?

We are happy to hear from you regarding your unique experience or talent as relevant to our core competencies. Let us know about special projects or research ideas that you are interested in. General inquiries with a CV or broad list of activities are discouraged.

• I am unsure of whether I want to join FuRSST. Should I keep my Statement of Purpose general?

Certainly! There are numerous exciting projects at TU that you should consider.

• I do not have a Masters degree, but I would like to pursue a Ph.D. Can I apply directly?

Yes. Candidates without a graduate degree may be admitted directly to the Ph.D. program. Under such circumstances, the candidate will be held to a higher GPA standard (we generally place students with a GPA of less than 3.0 on probation for a semester, and if the GPA is not subsequently higher than our minimum, the student may be dismissed). Such candidates will have two years before being required to pass our qualifying exam. If you feel well prepared and academically qualified, you may apply.

MENTORSHIP STYLE

• How often will I meet with my advisor?

This will depend on your particular advisor(s). The following is Rami’s answer:

We are a tight knit team. Are offices are in the brand new Stephenson Hall building and faculty and students work within the same office suite. My students have direct access to me anytime.

Rain or shine, we meet individually once a week for an hour. In your first six to twelve months at FuRSST, I will do a lot of the talking and teaching. Typically, after that, the student becomes the teacher. Individual research meetings are not only about progress. More importantly, they are about teaching and learning.

We also meet once a week as a group. Every week, one of us delivers a technical presentation on any subject. The more senior students will typically talk about their own research. These talks are aimed at three things: giving you presentation experience, teaching you how to think and answer questions on the spot, and provide you with a safe environment to test out and pitch new ideas

Finally, if you are involved with our software focus, you will participate in our biweekly software war-room sessions. We meet to iterate on designs, do peer-review on software, and establish testing harnesses.

• How are research topics assigned? Can I choose my own topic?

Incoming students are not assigned topics. Rather, based on your competencies and interests, you are initially assigned to one of our three core areas: inventing seed ideas for new technologies using simulation, software, or solvers.

In your first few months, we will work with you on a crash course on everything we think is puzzling, exciting, and/or new in your core competency. With time, you may come up with you own compelling topic. Alternatively, you may find yourself absorbed with one of the topics introduced to you by your advisor. Either way, we expect that you can contribute high value research that is original.

ACADEMICS AND RESOURCES

• Can I take courses from other departments? Can I enroll in multiple degrees?

Our students can enroll in courses from Mathematics, Computer Science, and the Engineering branches at TU. We are also open to supporting our students should they choose to enroll in dual Masters degrees.

• Does the program offer coursework in relevant areas to Reservoir Simulation?

Our graduate program offers two courses on simulation, as well as two advanced programming courses, and one course on High Performance Computing. Additionally, we offer Special Topics courses that will focus on various advanced aspects of simulation. Recently offered topics have included Linear and Nonlinear, Direct and Iterative Solvers.

• What facilties are available to FuRSST students?

We do much of our brainstorming work on whiteboards that are available throughout our office suite. Each student is assigned office space equipped with a multicore Xeon workstation with 16 to 64GB RAM and access to GPUs. Large scale computing is performed through our collaboration with the Tandy Supercomputing Center.