VUSE Minors

Computer science blends scientific and engineering principles, theoretical analysis, and actual computing experience to provide undergraduate students with a solid foundation in the discipline. Emphasis is on computing activities of both practical and intellectual interest, and on theoretical studies of efficient algorithms and the limits of computation.

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Data science is an interdisciplinary field whose goal is to extract knowledge and enable discovery from complex data using a fusion of computation, mathematics, statistics, and machine learning. Datasets can be as varied as maps of the universe, MRI images, human genomes, medical records, stock market transactions, educational data, infrastructure systems, or website clickstream data. Over the coming decades, data science is expected to have significant impacts on basic and applied research in computer science and engineering. Data science has the potential to improve individual and community health and education; develop smart communities that enable efficient circulation of people, goods, and services; enable informed decision making in public and private sectors; and enhance environmental sustainability and overall quality of life.

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The minor in digital fabrication is designed to provide students with a working knowledge of how to advance design ideas to computer models, physical prototypes, and ultimately commercial parts. Digital fabrication technologies have revolutionized manufacturing by reducing the time required to design and build prototypes. This minor combines advances in computer-aided design (e.g., generative design) with state-of-the-art rapid prototyping technologies, including 3D printing, laser cutting, CNC milling, extrusion, and injection molding. Emphasis is on material and manufacturing technology selection based on conceptual design criteria and process simulation through project-based learning.

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The minor in electrical and computer engineering is available to all students except those majoring or minoring in computer engineering or electrical engineering. The electrical and computer engineering minor requires a minimum of 17 hours of courses, including the completion of all laboratory corequisites for courses selected for the minor.

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The minor in energy and environmental systems is designed to provide students with a working knowledge of the fundamentals of energy systems and their impact on the environment. The future health and well-being of humanity hinge in large part on smart production and use of energy, water, and related resources, as these are central determinants of climate change, habitable space, and human and ecological health.

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The engineering management minor is designed to provide a student majoring in an undergraduate engineering program with a working knowledge of the fundamentals of management as they apply to technology-based enterprises. Engineering management courses include such topics as accounting and finance, applied behavioral science, engineering economics, technology marketing, technology strategy, manufacturing and supply chain management, project management and planning, systems engineering, and technology-based entrepreneurship.

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A minor in environmental engineering is available to all non-civil engineering students. It requires a total of 15 hours of environmental engineering courses, comprised of 6 hours of required courses and 9 hours of electives. Required courses are CE 226 (Intro to Environmental Engineering) and ENVE 271 (Environmental Chemistry).

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The materials science and engineering program is integrated into the extensive ongoing nanotechnology research. The Vanderbilt Institute for Nanoscience and Engineering (VINSE) is at the center of this effort. This interdisciplinary research involves faculty from all of the engineering disciplines as well as faculty from chemistry, physics, and the medical school.

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The nanoscience and nanotechnology minor presents principles and methods used in this rapidly growing field. The core originates in the physical sciences by providing key approaches for describing the behavior of matter on the nanoscale. Synthetic approaches are used to manipulate matter systematically, for creating uniquely functional nanomaterials that can be inorganic, organic, biological, or a hybrid of  these. With a third component of characterization, a process for designing systems to have particular properties as a result of their composition and nanoscale arrangement emerges.

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Faculty in the School of Engineering and the College of Arts and Science offer an interdisciplinary minor in scientific computing to help natural and social scientists and engineers acquire the ever-increasing computational skills that such careers demand. Computation is now an integral part of modern science and engineering. In engineering, computer simulation allows the analysis and synthesis of systems too expensive, dangerous or complex to model and build directly. 

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