ACM11 Introduction to Matlab and Mathematica Fall 2008-2009

Announcements

11/28/2008 The Mathematica project instructions have been posted. They are due December 12.
11/15/2008 HW6 has been revised to clarify problem 2 part b: thetasamples should be 4000 evenly spaced points between 4000^{-1} and 2pi, not 4000 random points. Only noise is random.
11/15/2008 The original plan was to have at least 4 Mathematica problem sets, but that isn't feasible. Instead, we will drop the last homework-- there will be no homeworks for weeks 9 and 10-- and instead give you an extra week to work on your projects.
11/03/2008 HW5 and Lecture 6 have been posted, along with a template for the submission of the Mathematica problem sets. Note that ftp submission directory has been changed. Office hours have also been changed.
10/30/2008 The project due date has been extended to Mon, Nov. 10th, but the first Mathematica homework is still due Wed Nov 12th. Reminder: your code must be very well documented with appropriate comments. It is not in your best interest to anger the graders.
10/21/2008 HW3 can be turned in on Monday by noon; HW4 is still due next Wednesday by noon. Here are some supplemental Notes on the ODE solvers in MATLAB. Also, instructions for the project are posted; the project is due Wed, Nov 5 at noon. If you chose your own topic, the topic does not have to be difficult, but you must get it approved by a TA or the instructor.
10/20/2008 A few typos on HW3 are fixed; please re-download the HW. If you are not getting the class emails, please email Stephen. Lecture 4 will have a Q & A session, while Lecture 5 will cover more advanced topics. Stephen's office hours are permanently changed to noon on Tuesdays; Esther's office hours are permanently changed to 9-11 PM on Sundays. Alex will be out-of-town later this week, so his TA hours are cancelled; Stephen will hold an additional office hour next Tuesday at 4 PM. HW4 and the Matlab Final Projecte will be posted soon; HW4 will be due in one week, and the project in 2 weeks.
10/16/2008 Esther's Thursday evening office hours will be postponed to Sunday; her Sunday office hours are in the usual place, but will be an extra hour long (9 to 11 PM).
10/13/2008 Lecture 3 has been posted; Stephen will hold additional office hours from noon to 1 in his office on Tuesday, October 14.
10/8/2008 HW2 has been posted, as have the solutions to HW1 and the first two lecture notes.
10/6/2008 For students taking the course PASS/FAIL: the passing cutoff will be 70%. Grading will be done the same as for students taking the course for a letter grade.
10/3/2008 Basic instructions on the use of ftp have been made available in the Links section.
10/1/2008 Esther Wang will also be a TA for the course. Her office hours are Thursday and Sunday from 9 PM to 10 PM in the 2-2 study room on the second floor in the SFL library.
9/30/2008 Alex's TA hours will be Thursdays from noon to 1 in his office, Firestone 210, and Sundays from 11 to noon in the basement of SFL.
9/30/2008 (These instructions have also been added to the Problem Sets page) During the Matlab portion of the class, submit online assignments via anonymous ftp to ftp.its.caltech.edu/pub/gittens/incoming. If there are multiple files in your submission, zip them together and submit that single compressed file. Whatever file you submit, name it according to the template Firstname_Lastname_HW#.ext, where you replace HW# with the number of the assignment, and ext is the appropriate extension. If you need to resubmit an assignment before the due date, e.g. you found a bug, append a single letter indicating the revision to the filename: A to indicate the first revision after the initial submission, through Z to indicate the 26th. Examples: Peter_Petrelli_1.zip, Sarah_Connor_3_A.m, Dean_Winchester_5.c
9/29/2008 At the organizational meeting, it was decided that class will meet every Monday at noon in Firestone 306. Alex's TA hours will be Thursday from noon to 1, and Sunday from 11 to noon; the Sunday session will probably be held in SFL. Stephen's TA hour will be Friday from noon to 1. Hopefully we will also have an additional TA.
9/26/2008 An hour long organizational meeting will be held Monday September 29 in Firestone 306 from noon to determine when and where the course will be meeting. We will attempt to make a choice that works for the largest number of people, but the input of those in attendance will ultimately be the determining factor.

Handouts

During the Matlab section, we may refer to Clever Moler's freely available online textbook "Numerical Computing with MATLAB" (Moler is the creator of MATLAB and a Caltech alumn). Supplemental texts and readings will be listed here as they arise.

Week 1: MATLAB Mon Sept. 29 to Sun Oct. 5	Lecture 1: the m file and a nicer html version (optional) Chapter 1 (Introduction) from Moler's online book If you need help "getting started", try sections 1 and 2 from the MATLAB Getting Started guide See also the Mathwork's Tutorial site which lists several tutorials.
Week 2: MATLAB Mon Oct. 6 to Sun Oct. 12	Lecture 2: the m file and a nicer html version (optional) Moler and Van Loan's 19 Dubious Ways to Compute the Exponential of a Matrix, sections 1, 3, 8 and 9
Week 3: MATLAB Mon Oct. 13 to Sun Oct. 19	Lecture 3: the m file and a nicer html version
Week 4: MATLAB Mon Oct. 20 to Sun Oct. 26	Lecture 4: the m file and a nicer html version Supplemental Notes on the ODE solvers in MATLAB
Week 5: MATLAB Mon Oct. 27 to Sun Nov. 2	Lecture 5 (advanced topics): the m file and a nicer html version
Week 6: Mathematica Mon Nov. 3 to Sun Nov. 9	Lecture 6 (introduction to Mathematica): the notebook file and problem set template (these are viewable only in Mathematica 6, and you may have to right-click in your browser and use "Save As" to download them). You can also look at the template as a pdf.
Week 7: Mathematica Mon Nov. 10 to Sun Nov. 16	Lecture 7 (Lists, functions, rules, and patterns in Mathematica): the notebook file for the lecture is available. If you would like to view the notebook file on a computer that does not have Mathematica installed, you can download the free Mathematica Player (formerly known as the Mathematica Reader).
Week 8: Mathematica Mon Nov. 17 to Sun Nov. 23	Lecture 8 (Functions and loops in Mathematica): the notebook file for the lecture is available.
Week 9: Mathematica Mon Nov. 24 to Sun Nov. 30	Lecture 9 (Anonymous functions, loops, and graphics in Mathematica): the notebook file for the lecture is available.
Week 10: Mathematica Mon Dec. 1 to Sun Dec. 7	Lecture 10 (Exact vs. Inexact Arithmetic, Packages and Namespaces)" the notebook file for the final lecture is available.
Week 11: Study Period/Finals Week Mon Dec. 8 to Sun Dec. 14

Problem Sets

Directions for online submission During the Matlab portion of the class, submit online assignments via anonymous ftp to ftp.its.caltech.edu/pub/gittens/incoming. If there are multiple files in your submission, zip them together and submit that single compressed file. Whatever file you submit, name it according to the template Firstname_Lastname_HW#.ext, where you replace HW# with the number of the assignment, and ext is the appropriate extension. If you need to resubmit an assignment before the due date, e.g. you found a bug, append a single letter indicating the revision to the filename: A to indicate the first revision after the initial submission, through Z to indicate the 26th. Examples: Peter_Petrelli_1.zip, Sarah_Connor_3_A.m, Dean_Winchester_5.c

Here are ftp instructions if you are not familiar with uploading files via ftp. The instructions also tell you how to check if your upload worked; do not email us and ask!

Week 1: MATLAB Mon Sept. 29 to Sun Oct. 5	HW1 (PDF) and the data for problem 1 HW1 is due in class at noon, Mon Oct 6 Problem two has been improved; see HW1 version 2. You may turn in either the original or version 2. The HW1 solutions are now posted.
Week 2: MATLAB Mon Oct. 6 to Sun Oct. 12	HW2 (PDF), the file diceData.mat for problem 2, and the file randomNumbers.mat for problem 3. Please note the special instructions for the format of your homework; we will run the code, not look at it! This homework must be submitted electronically. HW2 is due by noon on Wednesday, October 15. HW2 Solutions are now posted.
Week 3: MATLAB Mon Oct. 13 to Sun Oct. 19	HW3 (PDF), due by noon on Wednesday, October 22. This must also be submitted electronically. Deadline extended to Monday, October 27 HW3 Solutions are now posted.
Week 4: MATLAB Mon Oct. 20 to Sun Oct. 26	HW4 (PDF), due by noon on Wednesday, October 29. This must also be submitted electronically. HW4 Solutions are now posted. Instructions for the project are posted.
Week 5: MATLAB Mon Oct. 27 to Sun Nov. 2	Instructions for the project are posted. ~~The project is due Wed, Nov 5 at noon.~~ Deadline extended to Monday, November 10 at noon.
Week 6: Mathematica Mon Nov. 3 to Sun Nov. 9	HW5.pdf, due by noon on Wednesday, November 12. Please note the instructions for submission, both in the assignment and the problem set template. In particular, the ftp directory you submit homeworks to has been changed.
Week 7: Mathematica Mon Nov. 10 to Sun Nov. 16	HW6.pdf (has been revised to clarify part b of problem 2), due by noon on Wednesday, November 19. The HW5 solution is now available.
Week 8: Mathematica Mon Nov. 17 to Sun Nov. 23	HW7.pdf has been posted, and is due by noon on Wednesday, November 26. The HW6 solution is now available.
Week 9: Mathematica Mon Nov. 24 to Sun Nov. 30	HW8.pdf has been posted, and is due by noon on Wednesday, December 3. The HW7 solution is now available. The Mathematica project instructions have been posted.The projects are due December 12.
Week 10: Mathematica Mon Dec. 1 to Sun Dec. 7	HW8 solution is now available. (Recall HW8 was the final homework).
Week 11: Study Period/Finals Week Mon Dec. 8 to Sun Dec. 14

Mathematica (Mon Nov. 3 to Fri Dec. 5)
Instructor	Alex Gittens email: `gittens at acm.caltech.edu` office: 210 Firestone office hours: noon to 1pm on Tuesdays, in office
Teaching Assistants	Stephen Becker email: `srbecker at acm.caltech.edu` office: 214 Firestone office hours: Tuesdays 4pm-5pm and Mondays 3pm-4pm, in office
Esther Wang email: `estherwang at gmail.com` office: (office hours in study room 2-2 in SFL library) office hours: Sundays 9pm-11pm

Course Policies

Download the course syllabus (PDF)

Grading Both the Matlab and Mathematica sections will each have 4 to 5 homeworks and one project. The two sections will have equal weight. The homeworks will be weighted equally, and each project will carry the weight of two homeworks. Students will be allowed to drop one homework for the entire class (not per section); the projects are not eligible to be dropped. Electing to drop a homework will prevent the student from receiving an "A+" letter grade. Letter grades may be based on a curve.

For students taking the course PASS/FAIL: the passing cutoff will be 70%. Grading will be done the same as for students taking the course for a letter grade.

Collaboration Students are allowed to discuss problems; however, particular homework problems should be discussed away from the computer. It is not acceptable for students to "split" a homework or homework problem. Copying of code is completely unacceptable.

Extensions In order to be fair to all students, there is a no-extension policy. However, as mentioned above, students are allowed to drop one homework per term (we will do this automatically).

Email policy The instructor and TA are happy to answer students' questions; this is why we hold office hours. However, we strongly discourage questions via email. Email responses take much longer and are less effective than personal interaction -- it is also harder to give the appropriate amount of assistance without revealing the solution. We will answer such emails at our discretion.

ACM11 Introduction to Matlab and Mathematica Fall 2008-09

Announcements

Handouts

Problem Sets

Contact

Course Policies

Important Dates

Links

Week 1: MATLAB Mon Sept. 29 to Sun Oct. 5	Monday Sept 29, 12:00 PM Firestone 306, mandatory organizational meeting
Week 2: MATLAB Mon Oct. 6 to Sun Oct. 12
Week 3: MATLAB Mon Oct. 13 to Sun Oct. 19	Fri Oct. 17: Last day for adding courses
Week 4: MATLAB Mon Oct. 20 to Sun Oct. 26
Week 5: MATLAB Mon Oct. 27 to Sun Nov. 2
Week 6: Mathematica Mon Nov. 3 to Sun Nov. 9	The MATLAB projects are due on Wednesday at noon this week
Week 7: Mathematica Mon Nov. 10 to Sun Nov. 16
Week 8: Mathematica Mon Nov. 17 to Sun Nov. 23	Wed Nov. 19: Last day for dropping courses
Week 9: Mathematica Mon Nov. 24 to Sun Nov. 30	No class Thur or Fri (Thanksgiving)
Week 10: Mathematica Mon Dec. 1 to Sun Dec. 7	Fri Dec. 5 is last day of classes
Week 11: Study Period/Finals Week Mon Dec. 8 to Sun Dec. 14	No class; final Mathematica projects due