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Math 394R: Software for
Mathematical Computations 
- Instructor:
- Mark
Pernarowski
- Office: Wilson 2-236
- Office Hours: M 12-1pm,
Tu 12-2pm, Th 12-1pm ( schedule
)
- Email: ims0101@math.montana.edu
-
Phone: 994-5356 (email
is recommended over phone)
-
Prerequisite: Math 221, Math 224, and Math 225
- Goal:
- The goal of the course
is for you to
learn in an exploratory fashion how to use symbolic mathematical
software to efficiently assist you in solving a variety of mathematical
problems. By the end of the course you should be familiar enough with
Maple that you will be comfortable in using it to help with
calculations that you need to do, including homework assignments in
other courses and future research.
- Format and
Departmental Resources for Assignments:
- The course will be
conducted exclusively in the computer
lab.
Material will be presented through use of the multimedia facilities in
that lab and thru assignments given as Maple worksheet
projects (link on
left menu).
The worksheets will become available from the Worhsheet link
as
the course evolves. In general
the worksheets will introduce an aspect of Maple to work with and/or a
mathematical problem. Each worksheet project will require some
exploration on your part to answer some mathematical questions. These
will be turned in as assignments. Typically you will have to spend
significant time beyond class time to finish the projects. For
non-class hours you may use the computers in the adjacent undergraduate
computing lab in Wil 1-145 during office hours (8am-4pm) or purchase
your own student discounted version for your personal computer. The
computer lab (as it is scheduled for other classes) will not be
available for your use outside of class time.
-
- Wil 1-144 TR 9:30-10:45am (class time)
- Wil 1-145 M-F from 8am-4pm
- If
Wil 1-145 is locked, go upstairs to the main math office and ask a
staff member to let you. Let them know you need to work on your Math
394 homework.
- Course
Grade:
In
the past I typically have used the following grading scheme to arrive
at a letter grade:
| Course
% | 0-59 | 60-63 |
64-66 | 67-69 | 70-73 |
74-76 | 77-79 | 80-83 |
84-86 | 87-89 | 90-100 |
| Letter Grade |
F | D | D+ |
C- | C | C+ |
B- | B | B+ |
A- | A |
- 85% on the Worksheet Assignments you
can work on during class. Each worksheet assignment will have an equal
weight but varying difficulty. Due dates will be announced on the Worksheet Website.
Worksheets assignments are to
be
handed in to me in paper form.
- 15% on an
independent Research
Project.
The project will consist of both a
written and oral component. You will submitt the written component to
me but may use it for your oral presentation (to be given in this lab).
The way you should view this project is that you have just finished and
submitted a manuscript to a journal. While your "paper" is in review
you go to a conference (in Amsterdam, Netherlands) to present your new
work. There may or may not be a reviewer in the audience but if there
are, you are hoping to impress them with your work as being relevant
and worthy of publication. The RULES are for INDIVIDUALS and GROUPS
less than four people per group:
-
- Written
Component: May be
on any area in mathematics or applied mathematics preferably with
original content in it. I will meet with each of you
individually to discuss your interests and steer you in the right
direction. You may turn in some writeup as an individual or a group
writeup which is written in some software other than Maple. However,
you must append some kind of Maple worksheet that shows examples that
is well annotated. I would prefer no other software used though. It
will not affect your correctness grade in any way. Your correctness
grade is 70% and only I assign that vale. The written componet will be Due Thursday December 6
at the start of the first oral presentations.
- Oral Component:
Whether you are an individual or in a group you will each be required
to talk for 10 minutes and answer questions for at least 5 minutes.
This is a new shortened format. If you are in a group, each of you MUST
speak 10 minutes. If it is a group of 3 people then there
will be 30 minutes speaking by the three of you followed by 15 minutes
of questions.I will at least ask each of you a question in the group
setting. Other fellow researchers may also ask questions. For a group
of 3 people the questions could go also be 20 minutes max -- say.
- Grading:
I will assign a "Correctness Grade" valued at 70% for the written
component. As we watch the other speakers we will all have a form with
the speakers names on it with two columns: "Ingenuity" and "Annotation"
with the latter meant to mean how well the speaker did in getting their
point across both verbally and thru the use of their chosen media. FOR
EACH INDIVIDUAL STUDENT BE THEY IN A GROUP OR NOT YOU WILL BE GIVEN A
GRADE SHEET TO BE TURNED IN. EACH OF US (ME WITH ONE VOTE) WILL ASSESS
EACH PERSON'S PERFORMANCE. THAT MEANS IF GROUP MEMBER 1 ANSWERED
QUESTIONS POORLY BUT MEMBER 2 DID NOT THEN THEY SHOULD BE ASSIGNED A
DIFFERENT GRADE. ALSO, IF THEIR PORTION OF THE TALK WAS NOT DONE AS
WELL (PERFORMANCE WISE ONLY NOT CONTENT) THEN THEY THEY SHOULD NOT
RECEIVE AS GOOD A GRADE. FOR EXAMPLE, IF YOUR SPEECH IS UNCLEAR OR YOUR
"POWERPOINT, MAPLE PRINTOUT, PEN AND PAPER, ETC" IS DONE POORLY, YOU
SHOULD NOT GET A GOOD GRADE.
- 10% verbal clarity of presentation
- 10% media clarity
- 10% ingenuity the individual's part
- Software
- Maple
will be used as
the mathematical software program for the course. It is provided on the
computers in the Wilson 1-144 computer lab. As time permits, I may
toward the end of the course demonstrate other software such as MATLAB
(also
provided in the computer lab.) and/or possibly xppaut
(a free mathematical package for exploring dynamical systems).
-
Maple 11 Links
-
Maple 11 has both a fancy "Java" front end and a "Non-Java" front end.
I have used Maple thru its many versions 6-11 and have found using the
non-Java mode most useful to me since it does not change appearance
from version to version. If you want to learn the Java version then all
power to you!
- The best way to learn Maple (I
believe) is to explore their "Topic Search" help menus which are
replete with useful and intuitive examples. If you want additional web
resources I have summarized a few below:
-
Topics: (will evolve with course so check back
periodically)
- Some of the topics covered may include (not necessarily in
this order):
-
- Overview of course and an
introduction to Maple 11 (Non-Java)
- Logging in,
UNIX Primer and email hell
-
Maple as a (supercharged) calculator
- Plotting and
visualization
- Variables, expressions, and functions
- Data structures: sequences, sets, and lists
- Linear algebra: arrays and matrices
- Writing programs
- Univariate and vector calculus
- Solving algebraic equations
- Solving and modelling with differential equations
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