Department of Computer Science
CPSC 303: Numerical Approximation and Discretization
Fall Term, September--December 2010
Instructor:
Uri M. Ascher
Office: ICICS/CS 223
Email:ascher@cs.ubc.ca
Lectures time and place: MWF 11:00-11:50, DMP 101
Office hour: TBA, ICICS/CS 223, or e-mail me
Course Description
Consulting
Grading
Resources
Course notes
Assignments
Plagiarism rules
Course Description
The course provides an introduction to numerical computation. Very frequently,
mathematical problems cannot be solved precisely, and an approximate solution,
obtained by a series of calculations on a computer, is the best one can
hope to find. In the course we will look at a variety of mathematical problems
and learn how to choose good numerical methods for solving them, and how
to analyze the error. The main focus will be on approximating continuous processes
such as interpolation, function approximation, differentiation, integration and
solving differential equations.
Detailed Tentative Outline
We will closely follow the
lecture notes
by Uri Ascher and Chen Greif
which are becoming available
online as we progress. These notes
are close to complete, and your feedback on them will be highly appreciated.
I recommend bringing your copy (or laptop) to class.
Recommended (but not mandatory)
text : Michael T. Heath, ``Scientific Computing,
an Introductory Survey'', published by McGraw Hill,
Second Edition (2002).
Consulting
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The TA for this course is Rob Hocking
Email: rob.l.hocking@gmail.com
TA's office hours: W 12-1pm, in ICICS/CS 246
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A Matlab introductory tutorial session will be given on Wed. 15 Sept. 4pm to 5pm ICICS/CS 202.
More info (eg: talk slides) can be found at
Matlab resources
Grading
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Grading Scheme
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Assignments - 30%
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Midterm exam - 20%
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Final exam - 50%
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The grading scheme is tentative, and
your instructor reserves the right to modify it at any time.
To pass the course you must
do the assigned coursework, write
the midterm and final exams, pass the final exam, and obtain
an overall pass average according to the grading scheme.
Failure to have a reasonable standing in
the assignments or to show up to a reasonable number of
classes throughout the semester may result in a grade lower than the one
computed by the grading scheme.
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The date and time of the midterm exam is Monday, October 25 .
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midterm 10 solution
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Old exams:
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The date and time of the final exam is Tuesday, December 7, 8:30am .
Course notes
Assignments
There will be five
assignments involving both written and programming problems.
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Please show all your work.
e-mail your Matlab programs to cs303@ugrad.cs.ubc.ca ,
but provide a hardcopy of the rest of the assignment.
When e-mailing your programs, include your name and student ID in the message's
title.
Do not e-mail a complete assignment
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Old uncollected assignments and midterm exams are in a box outside my office rm 223
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Hand in your assignment into Box 13 in the ICICS/CS basement by midnight of the date specified.
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Late assignments will be penalized 10% for each day of lateness, and are
not accepted 4 days after the deadline.
Plagiarism rules
No, I don't mean that it rules. I mean these are the rules! :-)
Submitting the work of another person as your own (i.e., plagiarism)
constitutes academic misconduct, as does communication with others (either
as donor or recipient) in ways other than those permitted for labs and
exams. Such actions will not be tolerated. Specifically, for this course,
the rules are as follows:
You may not, under any
circumstances, submit any solution not written by yourself without
proper attribution, and you may not share your own work with others.
There is one exception: you may build your solutions on example
solutions made available by the instructor.
You may, however, be allowed to discuss assignment solutions and
design decisions with your fellow students. In other
words, you can talk about the assignments as much as you like, but you
cannot look at or copy other people's solution. Whenever you are in
doubt whether plagiarism is committed, consult your instructor.
Violations of these rules constitute very serious academic misconduct, and
they are subject to penalties ranging from a grade of zero on a particular
assignment to indefinite suspension from the University.
As a student at UBC you should be familiar with the "Student Discipline"
policies outlined in the "Academic Regulations" section of the UBC
Calendar. As a Computer Science student, you are also expected to be
familiar with the Computer Science Department Lab policies and
responsibilities found at:
http://www.cs.ubc.ca/about/policies/collaboration.shtml
http://www.cs.ubc.ca/about/policies/conduct.shtml
The standard UBC regulations regarding misconduct will apply to all
individual work submitted for grading in this course. It is sincerely hoped
that there will be no need to invoke this policy.
CPSC 303 course material