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Research Areas which combine Computer Science with Physics?

Posted: Sat Jul 24, 2010 1:52 pm
by shahensha
Throughout my high school i loved physics very very much. I always wanted to a PhD in physics. Along with i thought of pursuing space science. But due certain reasons i ended up in Computer Science. I have started with the third year of my bachelors degree. I don't hate computer Science, it's just that i loved physics a lot(I dunno about now, maybe yes even now and that's the reason i am nostalgic). Suddenly i have become nostalgic about physics. And i was thinking whether it is advisable to chose physics for my MS. So my questions are as follows:-

Are there research areas (I have always wanted to do research) which combine Physics and Computer Science? If Yes, what should i do to get into it? I am doing Bachelors from India and i don't mind doing MS from the US (as in US they allow to change your branch in MS, it is not allowed in india)

What should be my strategy to get into a research career which involves both physics and Computer Science? (Right now I am in the third year of a 4 year Bachelors Course in Information Technology). I want to do a PhD.

Will there be future research career options in the combined field of Physics and Computer Science?

Following are certain points i would want to stress out:-

1)I talked to some of my friends who are good coders and they suggested me to get into making apps that simulate certain physics fundae. But that is not what i want. I would want to stress again that i liked actual physics. So i don't think i would enjoy just simulating stuff. I am more of a research kinda guy not an application oriented person.

2)Once again i want to stress that it is not at all that i hate computer science or i consider it bad. It's just that i want to do what i loved more and rather than completely changing my stream (which is difficult as well as risky and above all makes me guilty conscious as i would waste four whole years), i want to strike a balance between what i want and what i have.

3)Anything which would allow to me study Computer Science with Physics or Space Technology with a decent research career later on in it is what i want.

4)Just to give you all an idea of what exactly i loved in physics... We did not have advanced physics in high school, but i managed to do stuff on my own to a fair extent. I loved mechanics, electrostatics, relativity, fluid, thermodynamics and such stuff and i enjoyed solving the 'very tough' category of problems (for instance books by I.E.Irodov and another one by Krotov)


Added later: this sounds a good option as in to do Masters in CS (with as many physics related electives as there can be..if there are) and trying to get a job which we will allow me to do sum research in physics as well... is this possible? I really liked you line "Just because you're writing code doesn't mean you're not doing "real physics.""... So you mean to say that i can be in touch with real-physics even if i do a masters in CS??

Re: Research Areas which combine Computer Science with Physics?

Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2016 4:02 am
by Somsakjohn
I think this is very good. The knowledge that I never knew before. But I know it very well.


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Re: Research Areas which combine Computer Science with Physics?

Posted: Wed Aug 03, 2016 2:04 pm
by AlexisPrel
I believe that there are quite some efforts to fasten DFT calculations codes, which as far as I know are among the most demanding computations physicists perform.

I know the (physicist) user side of it, but have little idea of what the making of the packages looks like, but it does look very involved in the computational part. Maybe have a look at what those guys are doing: http://vasp.at/index.php/the-vasp-team.

Can you tell more about what your specific interests in physics are?

Re: Research Areas which combine Computer Science with Physics?

Posted: Fri Jul 21, 2017 9:34 am
by LabLad
CERN uses a lot of coding in their experiments, it's common practice for most modern labs.

Re: Research Areas which combine Computer Science with Physics?

Posted: Thu Oct 11, 2018 4:51 am
by goodline
I agree with this opinion.