Earth Science and Engineering M.Sc. Program

ErSE master’s students must choose one of the available tracks. Students in the Geophysical Fluids and Climate System Science track study flow and transport processes both beneath and above the Earth’s surface, including ocean and atmospheric circulation, flows in subsurface porous media, transport of dust and anthropogenic pollutants in atmosphere and ocean, and their effect on climate. Students in the Geophysics track focus on seismology, geophysics, geodynamics and geomechanics. The Geology track focuses on (carbonate) sedimentology and stratigraphy, petrology/geochemistry and structural geology. The Machine Learning in Geosciences track equips graduate students with the fundamentals of machine learning (ML) methods and their applications to geoscience problems.

 

It is the responsibility of students to plan their graduate program in consultation with their academic advisor. Students are required to meet all deadlines. Students should be aware that most core courses are offered only once per year.

 

The Master of Science (M.Sc.) degree comprises thesis and non-thesis options. It is awarded upon successful completion of a minimum of 36 credit hours. A minimum GPA of 3.0 must be achieved to graduate. Individual courses require a minimum of a B- for course credit. Students are expected to complete the M.Sc. degree in three semesters. Satisfactory participation in every KAUST summer session is mandatory.

The M.Sc. Requirements

  • Core courses (12 credits) designed to provide students with the background needed to establish a solid foundation in the program area
  • Elective courses (12 credits) designed to allow students to tailor their educational experience to meet individual research and educational objectives, with the permission of the academic advisor
  • M.Sc. thesis research or research/capstone experience (12 credits) designed to provide students with the research experience
  • Graduate seminar 398 (non-credit) – all students are required to register and receive a satisfactory grade for every semester of the program they attend
  • Completion of one Winter Enrichment Program (WEP)

Geophysical Fluids and Climate System Science Track Requirements

Core Courses (12 credits). Choose at least 4 - at least 2 from ErSE and at least one from AMCS:

 

ErSE 201Geophysical Fluid Dynamics I

3

ErSE 211Global Geophysics

3

ErSE 213Inverse Problems

3

ErSE 253Data Analysis in Geosciences

3

AMCS 206Applied Numerical Methods

3

AMCS 231Applied Partial Differential Equations I

3

AMCS 251Numerical Linear Algebra

3

AMCS 252Numerical Analysis of Differential Equations

3

Geology Track Requirements

Core Courses (12 credits). Choose at least 4 courses:

ErSE 211Global Geophysics

3

ErSE 217Structural Geology

3

ErSE 221Magmatic Systems

3

ErSE 223Geological Systems of Arabia

3

ErSE 253Data Analysis in Geosciences

3

ERPE 210Fundamentals of Carbonate Geology

3

ERPE 211Data Integration for Geomodelling

3

ERPE 221Geoscience Fundamentals

3

Elective Courses (12 credits). Choose at least 4 courses:

ErSE 210Seismology

3

ErSE 212Geophysical Geodesy and Geodynamics

3

ErSE 214Seismic Exploration

3

ErSE 218Geophysical Field Methods

3

ErSE 219Field Geology

3

ErSE 226Marine Geology – The Oceanic Crust

3

ErSE 294Contemporary Topics in Earth Science

3

ErSE 323Igneous Geochemistry

3

ErSE 331Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) in Earth Sciences

3

ErSE 394Contemporary Topics in Earth Science

3

ERPE 200Energy and the Environment

3

ERPE 220Sediments: Properties and Processes

3

ERPE 230Rock Mechanics for Energy Geo-Engineering

3

ERPE 270/ME 214Experimental Methods in Research

3

ERPE 310Sequence Stratigraphy

3

ERPE 311Carbonate Diagenesis

3

ERPE 315Energy Geoscience

3

MarS 326Coral Reef Ecology

3

MarS 335Oceanography

3

Machine Learning in Geosciences Track Requirements

Core Courses (12 credits). Choose at least 4 courses:

ErSE 213Inverse Problems

3

ErSE 222Machine Learning in Geoscience

3

ErSE 253Data Analysis in Geosciences

3

AMCS 251Numerical Linear Algebra

3

CS 229Machine Learning

3

STAT 220Probability and Statistics

3

Elective Courses (12 credits). Choose at least 4 courses:

ErSE 201Geophysical Fluid Dynamics I

3

ErSE 210Seismology

3

ErSE 211Global Geophysics

3

ErSE 214Seismic Exploration

3

ErSE 260Seismic Imaging

3

ErSE 294Contemporary Topics in Earth Science

3

ErSE 301Geophysical Fluid Dynamics II

3

ErSE 303Numerical Methods of Geophysics

3

ErSE 305Multiphase Flows in Porous Media

3

ErSE 328Advanced Seismic Inversion

3

ErSE 331Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) in Earth Sciences

3

ErSE 353Data Assimilation

3

ErSE 360Mathematical Methods for Seismic Imaging

3

ErSE 394Contemporary Topics in Earth Science

3

AMCS 211Numerical Optimization

3

AMCS 241/STAT 250Stochastic Processes

3

AMCS 308Stochastic Numerics with Application in Simulation and Data Science

3

AMCS 312High Performance Computing

3

AMCS 350Spectral Methods for Uncertainty Quantification

3

CS 201Introduction to Programming with Python

3

CS 204Data Structures and Algorithms

3

CS 207Programming Methodology and Abstractions

3

CS 220Data Analytics

3

CS 323Deep Learning for Visual Computing

3

CS 331Stochastic Gradient Descent Methods

3

CS 340Computational Methods in Data Mining

3

CS 341Advanced Topics in Data Management

3

ERPE 221Geoscience Fundamentals

3

ME 200AIncompressible Flows

3

MSE 200Mathematics for Material Science and Engineering

3

Geophysics Track Requirements

Core Courses (12 credits). Choose at least 4 - at least 2 from ErSE and at least one from AMCS:

ErSE 210Seismology

3

ErSE 213Inverse Problems

3

ErSE 253Data Analysis in Geosciences

3

AMCS 206Applied Numerical Methods

3

AMCS 231Applied Partial Differential Equations I

3

AMCS 251Numerical Linear Algebra

3

AMCS 252Numerical Analysis of Differential Equations

3

Elective Courses (12 credits). Choose at least 4 courses:

ErSE 201Geophysical Fluid Dynamics I

3

ErSE 212Geophysical Geodesy and Geodynamics

3

ErSE 214Seismic Exploration

3

ErSE 215Geomechanics I

3

ErSE 217Structural Geology

3

ErSE 218Geophysical Field Methods

3

ErSE 221Magmatic Systems

3

ErSE 222Machine Learning in Geoscience

3

ErSE 260Seismic Imaging

3

ErSE 294Contemporary Topics in Earth Science

3

ErSE 304Geophysical Continuum Mechanics

3

ErSE 315Geomechanics ll

3

ErSE 323Igneous Geochemistry

3

ERSE 326Computational Geophysics

3

ErSE 327Multiscale Modeling of Geological Reservoirs

3

ErSE 328Advanced Seismic Inversion

3

ErSE 331Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) in Earth Sciences

3

ErSE 360Mathematical Methods for Seismic Imaging

3

ErSE 394Contemporary Topics in Earth Science

3

AMCS 312High Performance Computing

3

AMCS 350Spectral Methods for Uncertainty Quantification

3

CE 202Advanced Transport Phenomena

3

CS 207Programming Methodology and Abstractions

3

CS 229Machine Learning

3

ERPE 270/ME 214Experimental Methods in Research

3

ERPE 310Sequence Stratigraphy

3

ERPE 311Carbonate Diagenesis

3

ERPE 315Energy Geoscience

3

ME 305AComputational Fluid Dynamics

3

MSE 200Mathematics for Material Science and Engineering

3

Research/Capstone Experience (12 credits)

The details of this portion of the degree are uniquely determined by students with the permission of the academic advisor and will involve a combination of research and other capstone experiences. Students are expected to work weekly a minimum of 3 hours/week per each research credit they are registered for. MLG track students are strongly encouraged to include a summer internship at a high-tech company that requires machine learning applications.

ErSE 295Master's Internship

0-12

ErSE 297Master's Thesis Research

0-12

ErSE 299Master's Directed Research

0-12

 

M.Sc. Thesis

Students wishing to pursue the thesis option must have at least a 3.2 cumulative GPA. A minimum of 12 credits of thesis research (297) is required. Students are permitted to register for more than 12 credits of M.Sc. thesis research with the permission of the academic advisor. The selected academic advisor must be a fulltime program-affiliated assistant, associate or full professor at KAUST. The faculty not affiliated with ErSE can become project-affiliated for the only specific thesis project upon program-level approval. Project-affiliation approval must be completed prior to commencing research.

written thesis and an oral defense of the M.Sc. thesis are required. The students have to submit a final copy of the thesis to the thesis committee members at least two weeks prior to the defense date.

The thesis defense committee, which must be approved by the dean, consists of three KAUST faculty. If additional expertise is needed the committee could be extended, subject to dean’s approval. At least two committee members must be affiliated with the program. The chair may be any KAUST faculty familiar with the program rules. This membership can be summarized as:

Member Role Program Status
1 Chair Within or outside program
2 Faculty Within program
3 Faculty Within or outside program
4 Additional faculty or research scientist Within or outside program

Notes:

  • Members 1, 2, and one of 3 or 4 are required
  • Co-chairs may serve as member 2 or 3
  • Adjunct professors and professors emeriti may retain their roles on current committees, but may not serve as chair on any new committees
  • Professors of practice and research professors may serve as members 2 or 3 depending upon their affiliation with the student’s program, they may also serve as co-chairs
  • Visiting professors may serve as member 3

View a list of faculty and their affiliations here.

M.Sc. Non-Thesis

Students wishing to pursue the non-thesis option must complete a total of 12 capstone credits, with a minimum of 6 credits of directed research (299).

 

Students must complete the remaining credits through one or a combination of the options listed below:

  • Broadening experience courses: courses that broaden a student’s M.Sc. experience
  • Internship: research-based summer internship (295) – students are only allowed to take one internship
  • Ph.D. courses: courses numbered at the 300 level

Graduate Seminar

All students are required to register and receive a satisfactory grade in the graduate seminar (non-credit) for every semester of the program they attend.

Winter Enrichment Program (WEP)

Students are required to satisfactorily complete at least one full Winter Enrichment Program (WEP).