This course will certainly not be a typical computer science course that emphasizes complicated data structures, efficient sorting algorithms, and the like. The main goal of this course is to bring students up to a level where they can write some simple programs, and, more importantly, gain the necessary confidence and vocabulary to continue to learn programming on their own as needed. Most scientific programmers, including myself, are mostly self-taught. Almost all of the programming know-how I've obtained has been by reading a how-to-program book, trying things out, asking questions, and then making a series of spectacular errors until finally the program works. So my main goal in this course is to teach students enough so they can continue to learn on their own, and that they know how to seek help (either via the Internet or in ``real life'') should they get stuck.
The language used will be C/C++. This is by far the language most commonly used for scientific programming. (Fortran still has its disciples, but they're starting to die off.) With my help, the students will work through a programming book---most likely we'll use Practical C++ Programming by Steve Oualline. Roughly the first half of the course will be spent learning programming basics: simple input and output, iterative loops, and arithmetical operations, etc.
During the second half of the course students will work on programming projects. The project could entail solving a system of differential equations of interest in ecology or physics, simulating a model of an economic market or a spatially-extended ecosystem, or exploring a chaotic dynamical system. (Ideally, students will enter the course with a programming project in mind.) I'll help students learn the numerical techniques needed for the problems at hand. There are existing, well-documented packages in C and C++ that can handle many tasks: linear algebra, complex numbers, differential equations, etc. Rather than reinventing the wheel, I'll help students figure out how to use the packages, and where to find them and how to download them from the Internet. Excellent packages for almost any need, as well as compilers and graphics utilities, are easily available and in the public domain.
An essential part of each programming project will be a discussion of techniques for telling if the program is working. We'll cover different ways to check programs to make sure they're producing sensible results. If the project involves approximation techniques, we'll discuss how to estimate the resulting error.
Prerequisites: A desire to learn programming and the willingness to work hard toward that goal. No programming experience is necessary. Evaluation will be based on class participation, several short assignments, and a final project of the student's choosing. Introductory. QR.
The current time is .
This document was last modified on
Page maintained by Dave Feldman, dave@hornacek.coa.edu