2013–2014 UNIVERSITY CATALOG - Florida Institute of Technology

Curriculum
Major Technical Area Requirement
A minimum of 21 master’s degree-eligible semester credit hours beyond
the bachelor’s degree must be taken in a chosen major technical area
that includes aeronautics, biology, chemistry, computer information
systems, computer science, engineering, environmental science,
oceanography/earth science, physics or space science and systems,
or psychology. These may include courses from previous graduate
degrees as well as courses taken as part of the Ph.D. program and
must include Legal and Ethical Issues in Aviation (AVM 5101) if the
major technical area is aeronautics.
Comprehensive Examination Requirement
Written comprehensives and oral comprehensives must be completed
in the same semester. The doctoral comprehensive examinations are
given in the last full week of September and January.
RESEARCH
Departmental faculty and students are involved in many research
projects as outline below.
National Environmental Literacy Assessment (NELA) Project:
Funded by NOAA and EPA, and administered by the North American
Association for Environmental Education, the NELA project is a
multi-phase research project to help determine how environmental
education practices support the development of environmental literacy
among middle-school students around the U.S.
Quarknet: The national Quarknet educational outreach research program
exposes high school physics teachers and students to particle
physics through hands-on experimental workshops. The program has
built and is operating an educational cosmic ray air shower array distributed
over participating high schools in Brevard County.
Sustainable Coastal Management: Graduate research in sustainability
often involves coastal management issues such as climate change,
marine parks or reef fisheries. Undergraduate research includes
campus sustainability projects such as green building design or water
efficiency. Additional opportunities are based on varied student interests
(sustainable business practice, green aviation).
Mathematics Education: Diverse research activities arise from student
interest, are conducted in collaboration with student advisers
and span the entire K–16 community. Research is guided by current
research and related issues that emerge from within the mathematics
education research community.
Science Education: Research activities in science education vary
across all major science disciplines including aeronautics, biology,
chemistry, computer science, environmental and earth science, physics
and psychology. Students are encourage to pursue research topics
commensurate with their science background and teaching experience
and represent the application of science to the K–16 education
community.
DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES
Semen Köksal, Ph.D., Head
Degree Programs
Applied Mathematics, M.S., Ph.D.
Biomathematics, B.S.
Mathematical Sciences, B.S.
Applied Mathematics, B.S.
Operations Research, M.S., Ph.D.
Undergraduate Minor Program
Computational Mathematics
Professors
Ugur G. Abdulla, Ph.D., partial differential equations, potential theory,
reaction-diffusion equations, free boundary problems, multidimensional
Brownian motion.
Jewgeni H. Dshalalow, Dr. Sci., real analysis, stochastic processes, queuing
theory, operations research.
Charles T. Fulton, Ph.D., ordinary and partial differential equations, spectral
theory of differential operators, numerical linear algebra, numerical methods
for two-point boundary value problems, parallel processing.
Cecilia A. Knoll, Ph.D., calculus mastery, differential equations, integrating
technology into the curriculum.
Semen Köksal, Ph.D., mathematical biology, neural networks, dynamical
systems, mathematical modeling.
Kanishka Perera, Ph.D., variational and topological methods for nonlinear
partial differential equations, semi- and quasi-linear elliptic boundary
value problems, problems and singularities, critical point theory, infinite
dimensional Morse theory.
Syamal K. Sen, Ph.D., computational error and complexity, computational
mathematics, deterministic and stochastic operations research, error-free
and finite-field computation, random sequences and generators, randomized
algorithms, optimizations.
Gnana B. Tenali, Ph.D., wavelet analysis, differential operators, dynamical
systems.
Associate Professors
Tariel I. Kiguradze, Ph.D., partial differential equations, hyperbolic equations
and systems, boundary value problems, qualitative theory.
Jay J. Kovats, Ph.D., elliptic and parabolic partial differential equations,
diffusion processes.
Michael D. Shaw, Ph.D., nonlinear differential equations, Lyapunov stability
theory, variation of parameters methods, initial time difference.
Assistant Professors
Jian Du, Ph.D., scientific computing, numerical analysis, modeling and
mathematical biology.
Ben Hutz, Ph.D., arithmetic dynamics, computational problems and number
theory, dynamical systems.
Nezamoddin Nezamoddini-Kachoiue, Ph.D., biostatistics, bioimaging, signal
processing, computer vision.
Munevver M. Subasi, Ph.D., stochastic programming, mathematical
modeling, bioinformatics, combinatorial data analysis, data mining.
Professors Emeriti
George E. Abdo, Ph.D.; Frederick B. Buoni, Ph.D.; Frank C. DeSua, Ph.D.;
2013–2014 Degree Programs—College of Science 209