AMSC/Math 420 Description and Prerequisites
Math 420, Mathematical Modeling (3 credits)
The course will develop skills in mathematical modeling through
practical experience. Students will work in groups on specific
projects involving real-life problems that are accessible to
their existing mathematical backgrounds. In addition to the
development of mathematical models, effective oral and written
presentation of the results will be emphasized.
Course Prerequisites
- Either
- Math 240 or Math 461 (Linear Algebra),
- Math 241 (Calculus III), and
- Math 246 (Introduction to Ordinary Differential Equations),
or Math 340 and 341 (Multivariable Calculus, Linear Algebra,
and Ordinary Differential Equations) (Honors);
- Stat 400 (Applied Probability and Statistics I)
or Stat 410 (Introduction to Probability Theory);
- permission of the Mathematics Department.
Students will be expected to work with Matlab, Mathematica, Maple,
SAS, R, or some other high-level computer language. It is helpful
to have taken either AMSC 460 (Scientific Computing) or AMSC 466
(Numerical Analysis).
Our More Detailed Description
This is a course on data-driven mathematical modeling as a process,
not as a collection of techniques. Students will work in teams on
projects motivated by real-life problems, and will, with the aid of
the instructor, complete the entire process from analyzing data to
formulating mathematical models calabrated from that data to
mathematical, statistial, and computational analysis of these models
to oral and written presentation of the results. Some background in
linear algebra, ordinary differential equations, basic probability
and statistics, and computational methods is expected. Additional
mathematics will be introduced as dictated by the projects.