In this and other of my course web sites I
will be entering material in .PDF format, since this permits me to enter
technical
material in a format that can be read and printed without the use of the
technical programs that have created the files. A .PDF file can be viewed
using Adobe
Acrobat Reader, which is downloadable form Adobe.
I will use your university assigned e-mail address to contact you, and I would like you to check for e-mail on a regular basis. If you do not want to use the university account for you e-mail, you will need to forward the mail that comes to you at the university address to the e-mail address that you commonly use. Instructions for doing this are available from the Help Desk. Please take care of this before the second class period.
This class is designed to give instruction in three interconnected areas that are particularly important for students in the sciences and engineering. The first subject we will consider is the Computer Algebra System Maple. This system will algebraically solve any mathematical problem that you are likely to encounter during you undergraduate training, and will form a basis for computer implementation in a number of mathematics course that you will likely encounter. Then we will see how to prepare technically precise scientific documents using the LaTeX system. Finally, we will combine these systems to prepare technically written documents that are at a professional level.
Weekly assignments will be given based on the material covered in the lecture. These will be graded and returned. There will be an examination on Maple and one on LaTeX, and there will be team projects that involve projects combining these two subjects near the end of the course.
There is no textbook for this course. All instructional material will be provided in PDF format.
Tentative Topic Schedule
It is somewhat unusual to have a tentative schedule for a class rather than a firm one, but I am attempting to be honest here. The objectives of the course are firm, but precisely how long we will need to spend on each of the individual items depends in how much we want to cover, as well as on the interest of the students who are in the class.
We will begin considering the basics on Maple, which I have scheduled for 4 sessions. The first 2 sessions will describe the basic philosophy of Computer Algebra Systems (CAS), of which Maple is my particular favorite. We will then look at some programming that can be done in Maple; enough that might be sufficient for your purposes unless you are doing higher-level computer science applications (and perhaps even then). I have the programming aspect scheduled for 1 sesson and applications for a second. The idea is not to make you an expert in Maple, but to appreciate what can be done with the system and to show you how you can find out how to do what you want to do when you want to do it. So, by the first of October, if you do what you should, you will be able to use Maple to solve any of the computational, and many of the theoretical, problems that you are likely to encounter as an undergraduate. (Unless your problems are psychological, in which case all bets are off!)
Next we will look at the technical document system LaTeX, the greatest advance for the printed word, and mathematics, since Gutenberg developed moveable type in about 1440. The first session on LaTeX will tell you why this system is superior to commercial products, particularly for those who might need to set mathematical material easily and correctly. It will also give you a way to obtain the entire system for no cost (and legally!). After this first session you will be sufficiently proficient so that you can use the system to prepare your first English assignment, and it will look better than if it was prepared by your English instructor (unless your instructor knows LaTeX, which some do). The second session will add some sophistication, and the third will add more. In the third session we will see how easy it is to set mathematical expressions, which are difficult, at best, to set in any other system. During the fourth and fifth sessions I will show how to create high quality slides, create professional quality art, and tie all this together with output from Maple.
After learning what we need about Maple and LaTeX, we will consider some basic aspects of good technical writing, and write a couple of short reports to demonstrate what we mean. This will not be a substitute for the excellent technical writing course taught in the English department (ENGL 3743), but it will provide some of the basic concepts. Then we will look at some projects and proposals that involve all aspects of the course. I will give a problem to research and you (or a group of you) will write a short paper in LaTeX, and likely requiring Maple, that gives a solution or proposes a solution to the problem. We will do one each week until the end of the term.
Here is the course schedule:
|
Session 1
|
August 29 | Basic Maple Instruction. |
| Session 2 | September 5 | Basic Maple Instruction, continued. |
| Session 3 | September 12 | Procedures in Maple. |
| Session 4 | September 19 | Appreciation of Procedures in Maple. |
| Session 5 | September 26 | Finding if the past 4 sessions taught anything. |
| Session 6 | October 3 | Basic LaTeX. |
| Session 7 | October 10 | More than Basic LaTeX. |
| Session 8 | October 17 | Mathematics in LaTeX. |
| Session 9 | October 24 | Page layout in LaTeX. |
| Session 10 | October 31 | Other fancy tricks with LaTeX. |
| Session 11 | November 7 | Finding if the past 5 sessions taught anything. |
| Session 12 | November 14 | Basics of Technical Communication. |
| Session 13 | November 21 | Samples of Technical Communication. |
| Session 14 | December 5 | Project writing. |
A student obtaining a score of 90% or more on all required material will be guaranteed the grade of A.
A student obtaining a score of 80% or more on all required material, but less than 90%, will be guaranteed the grade of B.
A student obtaining a score of 70% or more on all required material, but less than 80%, will be guaranteed the grade of C.
A student obtaining a score of 60% or more on all required material, but less than 70% will be guaranteed the grade of D.
Grades may be adjusted upward on an individual basis. Factors which will be taken into account on this adjustment include, but are not necessarily solely limited to, class participation, homework performance, and wide differentiation of scores on individual parts of the required material.
Attendance or the lack thereof will not directly influence your grade in this course. But missing class is not an acceptable excuse for failure to complete required material.
Makeup examinations will not be given during the quarter. If additional testing is needed to determine a student's grade it will be scheduled during final examination week.
Honesty Policy: Absolute honesty is required for this course.
Any deviation from acceptable behavior will result in failure in the course
and recommendation by the instructor that the student be dismissed from the
university.
The following are rules that must be adhered to regarding the lab. You should assume that a violation of any of these rules is equivalent to a violation of the Honesty Policy.