Introduction

The Department of Information and Computional Sciences (DICS) was founded in July 2019, which was formed by merging the Department of Information Science and Department of Scientific and Engineering Computing in School of Mathematical Sciences. The new department consists of two branches: Computational Mathematics and Information Science. The goal of the new department is to build a new research group that integrates data science and scientific computing.

Computational Mathematics Branch:

Founded in 1955, the computational mathematics discipline in Peking University is among the earliest established computational mathematics disciplines and the earliest approved computational mathematics Ph.D. programs in China. It was rated as one of the first national key disciplines in the 1980s and was consecutively included in 2002, 2006, and 2012 by the Ministry of Education.  

The range of research in computational mathematics discipline we covers Numerical Methods for Partial Differential Equations, Scientific and Engineering Computing, Computable Modeling, Numerical Algorithms and Mathematical Theory of Complex Fluid and Complex Flows, Numerical Linear Algebra, Stochastic Modeling and Simulation, Computational Optimization, Deep Learning and Reinforcement Learning, Modeling and Algorithms in Imaging & Data Science, Computational Biology, etc. 

Since China’s reform and opening up in the late 1970s, a series of fundamental contributions have been made in the computational mathematics discipline in Peking University. We have won more than twenty international and domestic honors/awards, among which there are National Prize of Natural Science (twice), the Theodore von Kármán Prize by SIAM (Society for Industry and Applied Mathematics), the Su Buchin Prize by CSIAM (Chinese Society for Industry and Applied Mathematics), the Feng Kang Prize of Scientific Computing (fifth), and the Outstanding Young Scholar Award by the Qiu Shi Science and Technology Foundation.
 
Now there are 15 faculties in total, which includes 7 full professors, 6 associate professors, and 2 tenure-track assistant professors. 11 of them work in the School of Mathematical Sciences, and 4 in the Beijing International Center for Mathematical Research. There are two academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, one Fellow of the World Academy of Sciences for the Advancement of Science in Developing Countries, three chair professors of the Changjiang Scholar Program of the Ministry of Education, one professor of National High-level Personnel of Special Support Program, and five recipients of the National Natural Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars. Three of them were invited to speak at the International Congress of Mathematicians, and three were invited to speak at the International Congress on Industrial and Applied Mathematics. In addition, more than eight members serve as editorial board members of international journals, and three serve as the current presidents of scientific societies in China.

Peking University’s computational mathematics discipline has fostered numerous talents, including the renowned Academician Xuan Wang and Academician Fuqing Yang from the early days, and in the recent 15 years, Profs. Jinchao Xu, Jie Shen, Linbo Zhang, Shi Jin, Xiaochuan Cai, Tao Tang, Xiaoping Wang, Pingwen Zhang, Hongkai Zhao and many other globally recognized computational mathematicians, as well as Profs. Ruo Li, Tiejun Li, Weiying Zheng, and many other distinguished young scholars in computational mathematics.

Information Science Branch:

The Department of Information Science in School of Mathematical Sciences was formally founded in 1995 as the successor of the Information Research Section, but undertook teaching and research since 1971. The department also started the undergraduate and graduate programs on information science in the 1970s. Years later, in 1985, after approved by the Ministry of Education, the information science major was established. Currently, the department has 10 faculty members, including one Changjiang scholar, two Distinguished Young scholars, and six professors. They are engaged in information processing, theoretical computer science, software formality, information security, and other areas. The department aims to cultivate high-level specialized professionals that are proficient in both mathematical and computational theories and modern techniques on information science and computer science.

Information science is a rapidly-growing inter-disciplinary branch of science, of which the modern mathematical theories and methods are the most important basis. The department aims to enhance the competitiveness of students in different areas. For example, the ability for mathematical and computational thinking, as well as for applying mathematical and computational theories to solve practical problems. 

Now the opened courses include: mathematical logic, set theory and graph theory, foundation of information science, foundation of theoretical computer science, computer programming technologies and methods, digital signal processing, computer graphics, computer algebra, design and analysis of algorithms, artificial intelligence, data mining, machine learning, pattern recognition, formal methods, symbolic computation, information security, etc. The major research directions include image reconstruction and processing, artificial intelligence and intelligent software, program theory and software formal methods, symbolic computation, automatic reasoning and program verification, statistical learning and intelligent information processing, cryptography and information security theory, information security engineering, cyber-physical systems, etc. 

The department has close cooperation and provides exchange programs with universities and research institutes in Europe, the United States, Australia, Japan, Singapore, and other places. Undergraduates and graduate students with outstanding scientific research ability can be recommended to go abroad for exchange or doctorate. Graduates can either continue their studies as masters or PhDs (on applied mathematics, signal and information processing, theoretical computer science, software engineering, financial information engineering, etc.), or be directly engaged in related areas of work. After graduation, students of this department usually serve in research departments or companies, either continue their scientific research or apply their knowledge in practical scenarios. Many of them have made outstanding performance in industries like Alibaba, Huawei, etc.