128C Numerical Solution of Differential Equations

Class Time/Place: 11:00 AM - 11:50 AM MWF Chemistry 166

Instructor: Jesus A. De Loera
TA: (Jessie) Xiaotie Chen

Course Description: This course is an introduction to the numerical solution of differential equations. The focus is more on applied and computational aspects of many of the subjects you saw in 22B. Differential equations are important as they appear everywhere in engineering and science, but we rarely can solve them analytically. This course deals with the more realistic way to study equations, through computation and approximation. We will spend most of the time in ODEs (ordinary differential equations), but discuss the basics of PDEs (partial differential equations).

Textbook: Numerical Analysis (10th Edition) by Burden, Faires and Burden. Published by Brooks Cole (Cengage Learning).

Note that this textbook has many editions, preferably buy 10th edtion, but it is possible to read earlier editions and understand the theory.

Another useful references to support programming skills is C. Moler: Numerical Computing with MATLAB by Cleve Moler, SIAM 2004 (available freely online)

Here are the key topics:


Prerequisite and Expectations
Grading:
The grades will be calculated using the average and standard deviation of the class. 100 points are possible which will be divided as follows: Some important rules will be followed:

SOFTWARE and other RESOURCES: For those who have never used MATLAB before or need to brush up their MATLAB knowledge, please take a look at the following highly useful MATLAB primers and tutorials.



HOMEWORKS & HANDOUTS

Guidelines for ALL projects

    Homework 1, due April 18th:

    Homework 2, due May 4th:

    Homework 3, due May 23th:

    Homework 4, due June 6st:

    Final exam project, due June 8st: