Computational science as an interdisciplinary bridge

The computer science department at Macalester College recently implemented a new undergraduate course sequence in computational science. This was done to better meet the course work needs of students in the physical and natural sciences as well as introduce into our curriculum an important and growing area of application. One of the unexpected benefits of our new program has been the creation of academic links between our department, mathematics, and the other sciences. In this paper we describe the role of computational science as an interdisciplinary bridge between computer science and other academic disciplines.