In today’s world, where systems are becoming increasingly complex, there is a growing need for multi-disciplinary technical professionals who can understand the systems, their functioning, analyse issues, and solve them. The Systems Science Programme was introduced with this objective at the Indian Institute of Technology, Jodhpur.
It is the study of systems to analyse their behaviour and find the mathematical relations governing them, and to build a model of the system. It is an interdisciplinary field that studies the nature of complex systems in nature, society, and science itself. It aims to develop interdisciplinary foundations that are applicable in a variety of areas, such as engineering, biology, medicine, and social sciences. The programme aims at creating systems thinkers who would develop, construct, operate, redesign, analyse, verify and integrate various systems.
Not only will this programme create professionals and academicians, it will also aim to create entrepreneurs who would come up with startups that solve real life problems.
Course structure
At IIT Jodhpur, Systems Science is being offered at undergraduate, graduate and doctoral levels. Started in 2010, the course offers a wide array of subjects.
At undergraduate levels, the course includes subjects such as Probability and Stochastic Processes, Digital Signal Processing and Networks, Systems Engineering, Dynamical Systems, Operation Research and Optimization, Social Network Communities, Business Dynamics, Systems Design, Risk & Uncertainty Modelling, Cognitive Science, Embedded Systems Design, Statistical Methods, Stochastic Methods of Finance, Data Mining Machine Learning, Large Scale Numerical Simulations, Systems Psychology and Computational Systems Biology. At graduate levels, the course offers a largely similar platter of courses, the emphasis, however being on the underlying mathematical framework, and modelling systems, rather than giving a flavour of other streams of engineering.
The Ph.D programme promotes interdisciplinary research both in theoretical and applied areas of systems science.
Entry criteria
The entry to the undergraduate course is through the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) conducted by the Indian Institutes of Technology. The candidate should clear the advanced-level JEE to qualify for admission to the Systems Science course at IIT Jodhpur. The entry to the graduate programme is by means of GATE score, along with interviews. Admission opportunities are notified on the institute website, as well as in major national dailiesThe Ph.D course is open to students from all disciplines of engineering, with primary focus being on Quantum Information, Cryptography, and Computational Finance.
Career prospects
Systems Science students have a variety of options for higher studies. Various universities across the globe offer graduate and doctoral programmes in Systems Science. Also, they can choose to specialise in any of the core disciplines. A System Science graduate can find employment in a wide array of industries, ranging from finance to space technology to consultancies to banks.
