Homepage for CSC 338, Spring 2012
Numerical Methods
University of Toronto Mississauga
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Numerical methods are algorithms for solving practical problems in
applied mathematics. They are used extensively in many areas of
science, engineering and business. For instance, they are crucial to
computational finance and portfolio management, video games and
graphics, robotics and bioinformatics, data mining and machine
learning, as well as many other areas. In fact, many contemporary
problems would be impossible to solve without numerical methods.
These problems include predicting climate change, designing modern
aircraft, producing special effects in movies, finding hidden oil
reserves, simulating car crashes, computing the trajectory of
spacecraft, estimating the future value of stocks, optimizing the
price of airline tickets, simulating the biological activity of living
cells, and many more. Numerical methods are run on computers of all
sizes, from laptops to workstations to supercomputers. In fact, the
need to apply numerical methods to complex problems is the main reason
supercomputers were developed.
Unlike some previous years, this year's course will place less
emphasis on theory and proofs, and more emphasis on practical problems
and programming. As a fringe benefit, you'll find out what all that
math you learned is actually used for!
Prerequisites:
Informal: a basic knowledge of calculus, linear algebra and programming.
Formal: CSC207H5/270H5, 290H5; (MAT134Y5/135Y5/137Y5)/(MAT133Y5, 233H5), MAT223H5.
Text:
Michael Heath, Scientific Computing: An Introductory Survey, Second Edition, McGraw Hill, 2002.
Roughly the first half of the book will be covered.
The relevant chapters have been made available by McGraw Hill in the textbook store at a special price.
Interactive demos of the material in the text.
Instructor:
Anthony Bonner
email: [my last name] [at] cs [dot] toronto [dot] edu
phone: 905-828-3813 (UTM), 416-978-7441 (St George)
office: CC 3079 (UTM), BA 4268 (St George)
office hours: Wednesday 2-3pm, Friday 1-2pm
Classes: Friday 2-4pm, IB 220.
Tutorials: Wednesday 12-1pm, IB 200.
The first tutorial will be on January 11.
Tutorials may introduce new material not covered in lectures or the text.
Teaching Assistant: Hui Lan
Lecture slides
Course information sheet
Midterm test:
Wednesday February 29, in tutorial.
Open textbook. No other aids allowed.
Assignments:
Assignment 1 No more questions will be added
Assignment 2 No more questions will be added
Assignment 3 No more questions will be added
Assignment 4 No more questions will be added
Additional references:
R.L.Burden, J.D. Faires, Numerical Analysis, 8th Edition, Brooks/Cole, 2005.
Petersen and Pedersen, The Matrix Cookbook.
Free Download
Lipschutz and Lipson, Schaum's Outline of Linear Algebra.
(very handy, very cheap)
Wrede and Spiegle, Schaum's Outline of Calculus.
(very handy, very cheap)
Matlab:
Matlab manual.
A demo on getting started with Matlab.
Other Matlab demos.
A sample Matlab program. You do not need to understand the program. It is just an example of Matlab syntax. Try running the program. If you have done everything correctly, a figure should appear.
A student version of Matlab for home computers can be purchased from Mathworks.
Additional Matlab help:
Matlab Primer.
Matlab Intro.
Prof. Christara's A Brief Introduction to MatLab.
Cleve Moler's Introduction to MATLAB
chapter from his new textbook.
Here
is a good site for Matlab information and tutorials.
Another
good site for Matlab information, tutorials and software.
Octave:
You may use Octave instead of Matlab for homework assignments.
However, we cannot guarantee to help you if you have problems. Octave
is very similar to Matlab and is freely available on the web, but the
user interface is not as convenient.
Instructions
for installing and running Octave in Windows.
More details
on installing Octave in Windows.
Octave manual
GNU Octave Repository
Octave Wiki
Plagiarism and Cheating:
Students should become familiar with and are expected to adhere to
the Code
of Behaviour on Academic Matters, which can be found in the UTM
Calendar. The following web sites may also be helpful:
Code of Student Conduct
Academic honesty
Advice on avoiding plagiarism
Advice on academic offences