MCS 507: Mathematical, Statistical and Scientific Software

33634 10:00-10:50 AM MWF 216 Taft Hall

Catalog description: The design, analysis, and use of mathematical, statistical, and scientific software.

The recommended (not required textbook) for the course is by Hans Petter Langtangen: A Primer on Scientific Programming with Python. Second Edition, Springer-Verlag 2011. Click on the link for resources.

In addition to Python scripting for computational science, we will cover the open source mathematical software system Sage (available in the cloud) and touch on selected software packages as needed for MCS 572 (introduction to supercomputing, offered in Spring 2012).

Prerequisites: although some prior programming experience will certainly help, as a scripting language one quickly gets to interesting computations with Python and the textbook gives a very gentle and comprehensive introduction to programming.

Having access to a computer where one can install optional and specialized software packages is not strictly necessary but will be an advantage in the course.

In addition to homework (small computational assignments), three computer projects will be assigned during the semester. Instead of a review week and a classical final exam, the last week of classes may be devoted to project presentations.

To save space, slides for the lectures have been removed.