Physics 210: Introduction to Computational Physics (Fall 2009)

• LECTURES: TUESDAY & THURSDAY 14:00-15:30 -- BUCHANAN B303
  
• LABS: TUESDAY & THURSDAY 15:30-17:00 -- HENNINGS 205
  

• COURSE NOTES
• ONLINE COURSE RESOURCES
• HOMEWORK
  
• NEWS (last update FRIDAY, DEC 4, 10:00 AM)
• SYLLABUS / SCHEDULE (Contains links to Lab activities)
• FINAL PRESENTATIONS: SPEAKING ORDER & INSTRUCTIONS
  
• Learning Goals & Course Topics
• Suggested Hard Copy References
• TERM PROJECT IDEAS and PROPOSAL PRESENTATIONS: SPEAKING ORDER & INSTRUCTIONS
• Proposal Presentations: Oct 20 [PDF] Oct 22 [PDF]
  
• COURSE SOFTWARE AVAILABILITY FOR PERSONAL MACHINES
  
• STUDENT PAGES
• Computer Access Info: [P & A Computer Labs -- Schedule]

• MATLAB: An Introduction With Applications, Amos Gilat, John Wiley & Sons (2008)

You should also observe that there is a wealth of online material available about MATLAB (as well as its open-source "clones", such as octave and scilab, which we will encounter during the course).  I've accumulated a few links to some key sites in the Online Course Resources page, including a link to a site that provides (for individual use only), a complete text by the author of the first version of MATLAB.

The Course Resources page also contains links to sites relevant to other topics that we will cover in the course. Some of these topics, such as Unix/Linux and basic MATLAB programming, will be directly discussed in lectures or covered in labs. Others, such as the use of a text editor of your choosing, will be self-study topics, since a key goal of this course is to enhance your ability to use help facilities, online resources and the like to master new algorithms and software applications.

Finally, at times I will distribute notes to the class (or at least make them available on-line via the Course Notes page).  However, at other times, I will lecture using the whiteboard, and then you will be responsible for taking your own notes.

EXTREMELY IMPORTANT!!  Please refer to the Homework Page for the course policy on Homework / Term Projects and Academic Dishonesty

• Homework Assignments: 60%
• Term Projects (including writeup): 35% (due Dec. 4, 11:59 PM)
  
• Term Project Presentation: 5%

Each homework will contribute equal weight to your final mark, but again; the homework component of your mark may be subject to adjustments based on overall class performance.

You are encouraged to develop your own project ideas, but all project topics must be approved by the instructor. During the first few couple of weeks or so, as I get to know the class, I will post some possibilities for term projects on the Term Project Ideas page.

Topics for term projects should be chosen no later than October 15.  During the classes and lab periods on October 20 and 22, each student will give a brief presentation on their proposed project (a random speaking order will be chosen). The amount of time available for each presentation will depend on the number of students who are registered in the course at that time, but is likely to be of the order of 5 minutes, followed by about another 5 minutes of questions, comments and discussion.  Contrary to what this section originally stated, these proposals will have to be prepared and delivered in electronic form.  There will be no grading of this aspect of your term projects: the purpose of this exercise is to ensure that you have chosen an appropriate topic, and that you have a good (though perhaps not complete) understanding of what will be required to complete it.

In keeping with the spirit of the course, all term projects should involve programming to a significant extent, and students are encouraged to use MATLAB, or possibly Maple, to implement their projects: assuming that you do so, you are expected to do more than use some built in MATLAB/Maple facility to perform the bulk of your computations.

You are also free to use other programming languages of your own choice: if you wish to do so, I only ask that you check with me before you start work on your proposal so that I can ensure that the overall project appears appropriate.

All term projects must be written up in the style of a scientific/technical paper; a typical structure will be

• Title and Abstract
• Introduction, including basic description of problem to be solved, simulated, analyzed etc.
• Mathematical formulation of the problem as relevant
  
• Description of techniques, algorithms, analysis tools etc. used to solve the problem, including discussion of overall flow of the program
• Discussion of computations (numerical experiments) that were performed
• Analysis of results
• Conclusions (may include suggestions for future work)
• References / Bibliography
• Appendix including program listing, if desired
  

Note that for some projects, not all of the above sections will be relevant: but as always, feel free to check with me should you have any questions about your writeup.  I will also ask you to make any programs that you write for your term project available to me through your homework directories on hyper, and, except in special cases (which need to be cleared by me), I should be able to run your programs on hyper using the appropriate software environment (MAPLE, MATLAB, Java etc.).  In particular, your term project code cannot be MS-Windows specific!

The suggested paper length is about 10-20 pages, double spaced (please!), including title page, figures and graphs and references.  If you include program listings, they should be listed single spaced. You are encouraged to use the LaTeX typesetting system to write your paper, but this is not mandatory. 
 
NEW & IMPORTANT: You must e-mail me an electronic version of your writeup when you have completed it (PDF preferred, but .doc or one of the OpenOffice formats will also be acceptable).

As noted above, the term project is worth 35% of your grade. Factors that will be taken into account in my grading of your projects will include (but are not necessarily limited to): scope and difficulty of the problem, degree to which project was completed successfully, effort devoted to the project, originality, and completeness and quality of the written report. Your written report and the source code for your project are due by December 4, 11:59 PM.

Please refer to the News item HERE for additional details concerning what you must supply in terms of your project source code and documentation.

In addition, during the classes and lab periods on December 1 and 3, each student will again give a brief presentation, this time on their completed project (and in the reverse order to that used for the proposal talks).  Agina, these talks must be prepared using presentation software and will have to be e-mailed to me no later than 9:00 AM on the morning you are scheduled to speak.  Again, depending on the number of students, these talks will likely be about 10 minutes, including questions, and dealing with the challenges one faces in giving such a short presentation will also be discussed in the labs. The final presentation is work 5% of your final grade,

IMPORTANT!! You should note that completing a good term project is much different than finishing a homework, or even a few homeworks: in particular, it is virtually impossible to do a decent job on a term project in the space of a few days.  It is the nature of computational physics (as in experimental physics and in many other pursuits) that things will go wrong unexpectedly, and it can often take much more time than anticipated to get programs to work.  Moreover, coding a functional program is typically just the first stage in completion of the project; you also will need time to generate and analyze results, as well as to write things up.  In addition, you can expect that the projects will be graded reasonably rigorously, and that doing well in the homeworks will not automatically guarantee that you do similarly well with your project.  Nonetheless, I expect that provided you have choose a good topic (for you!), and allocate a reasonable amount of time for your work, you will all be able to do well with this part of the course.

In summary then, please take your term projects very seriously, and do your best to begin work on them as soon as is feasible. 

Finally, be sure that you understand and abide by the University and course policies concerning Academic Honesty as they pertain to your term projects, and as are laid out in the Homework page.

From time to time, and provided that the circumstances are sufficiently extenuating, work may be submitted late, subject to the following conditions:

1. If an extension is required, the extendee must submit a request for an extension, via e-mail, to the instructor, before the assignment is due.
2. Submitted homework which absolutely must be submitted before the homework key is distributed, must similarly be accompanied by an e-mail indicating completion of the work.

Note that all messages are to be sent to the instructor, not the TA, and that if you finish the homework on time, no additional action on your part is required.

Finally note that if you are unable to complete an assignment or term project on time due to illness or an equivalent circumstance (e.g. severe illness and/or death of a family member), please inform me as soon as possible and I will ensure that you are given sufficient time to complete your work once your situation has been resolved.

• Lecture topics are listed in regular font; Special lab activities, other than working on the current homework and/or term projects, and which will be updated throughout the course, are listed in italics. [SOTD] entries are links to web sites associated with "Simulation of the day" animations shown in class.
  
• Homework assignments are denoted H1 through H4 and have due dates as indicated above.
• See Learning Goals & Course Topics page for a more detailed outline of course material.
• Term projects are due DECEMBER 4 (last day of classes, not last class day!))

• Tuesday, September 20: Last day for withdrawal from this course without withdrawal standing of "W" recorded on a student's academic record.
• Monday, October 12: Thanksgiving Day, University closed.
• Friday, October 16: Last date for withdrawal from most this course with withdrawal standing of "W" recorded on a student's academic record.
• Wednesday, November 11: Remembrance Day. University closed. NO CLASS.
• Friday, December 4: Last day of classes.
• Tuesday, December 8: Examinations begin.
• Tuesday, December 22: Examinations end.