Physics 210: Introduction to Computational Physics (Fall 2012)

• LECTURES: TUESDAY & THURSDAY 12:30-13:30 -- HENNINGS 201
  
• LABS: 
• L1A: TUESDAY & THURSDAY 13:30-15:30 -- HENNINGS 205
• L1B: TUESDAY & THURSDAY 15:30-17:30 -- HENNINGS 205
  
  
• Course Announcements will be made through Connect/Blackboard
  

• COURSE NOTES
• SYLLABUS / SCHEDULE (Contains links to lab activities)
  
• HOMEWORK
  
  
• IMPORTANT!!  TERM PROJECT DEADLINE HAS BEEN EXTENDED TO WED DEC 5 11:59 PM
  
  
• IMPORTANT INFORMATION CONCERNING TERM PROJECTS (COMPLETION, SUBMISSION etc.)
  
  
• IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: TERM PROJECT PRESENTATIONS CANCELLED
• NEW DUE DATE FOR TERM PROJECT SUBMISSION IS MONDAY DECEMBER 3, 11:59 PM
  
• IMPORTANT NOTICE ABOUT USING ssh ON PERSONAL MACHINES FOR CLASSWORK
  
• Online Course Resources
• Course Software Availability for Personal Machines
  
• Learning Goals & Course Topics
• Suggested Hard Copy References
• Term Projects
  
• Student project proposals [L1A PDF | L1B PDF]
• General Information
  
• Term Project Ideas
• Sample term project proposal (instructor's, from 2009): [PDF 9 pages]
• Student project proposals from 2009 [Group 1 PDF | Group 2 PDF]
  
• Student Pages
  
• PHAS IT Catalogue

• MATLAB: An Introduction With Applications, 4th edition, Amos Gilat, John Wiley & Sons (2010)

You should also observe that there is a wealth of online material available about MATLAB (I've accumulated a few links to some key sites in the Online Course Resources page, including a link to a site that provides (for individual use only), a complete text by the author of the first version of MATLAB.

The Course Resources page also contains links to sites relevant to other topics that we will cover in the course. Some of these topics, such as Unix/Linux and basic MATLAB programming, will be directly discussed in lectures or covered in labs. Others, such as the use of a text editor of your choosing, will be self-study topics, since a key goal of this course is to enhance your ability to use help facilities, online resources and the like to master new algorithms and software applications.

Finally, at times I will distribute notes to the class (or at least make them available on-line via the Course Notes page).  However, at other times, I will lecture using the blackboard, and then you will be responsible for taking your own notes.

EXTREMELY IMPORTANT!!  Please refer to the Homework Page for the course policy on Homework / Term Projects and Academic Dishonesty

• Homework Assignments: 60%
• Term Projects (including writeup): 35% (due Dec. 4, 11:59 PM)
  
• Term Project Presentation: Cancelled, everyone receives 5%

Each homework will contribute equal weight to your final mark, but again; the homework component of your mark may be subject to adjustments based on overall class performance. Assignments will tend to become more challenging as the course progresses, but I view this as a feature that favours you.

You are strongly urged to submit your homework by the due date. However, from time to time, and provided that the circumstances are sufficiently extenuating, work may be submitted late, subject to the following conditions:

1. If an extension is required, the extendee must submit a request for an extension, via e-mail, to the instructor, before the assignment is due.
2. Submitted homework, which absolutely must be submitted before the homework key is distributed, must similarly be accompanied by an e-mail indicating completion of the work.

Note that all messages are to be sent to the instructor, not the TA, and that if you finish the homework on time, no additional action on your part is required.

Finally note that if you are unable to complete an assignment or term project on time due to illness or an equivalent circumstance (e.g. severe illness and/or death of a family member), please inform me as soon as possible and I will ensure that you are given sufficient time to complete your work once your situation has been resolved.

You are encouraged to develop your own project ideas, but all project topics must be approved by the instructor. Some possibilities for term projects are posted on the Term Project Ideas page which may be updated as the course progresses. I expect that many of you will complete a project from one of the suggestions, and there will not restrictions on the number of students tackling any given subject.

Topics for term projects must be chosen no later than October 18.  During the classes and lab periods on October 23 and 25, each student will give a brief presentation on their proposed project; speaking order will be alphabetical by last name. The amount of time available for each presentation will be approximately 8 minutes, so talks will need to be carefully prepared and efficiently executed. Some form of presentation software, including Powerpoint, must be used to prepare your talk and you must generate a PDF version that you will need to e-mail to one of the TAs in a timely manner so that all of the talks can be assembled into a single set of slides. Details concerning this will be provided later.

There will be no grading of this aspect of your term projects: the purpose of this exercise is to ensure that you have chosen an appropriate topic, and that you have a good (though perhaps not complete) understanding of what will be required to complete it.

In keeping with the spirit of the course, all term projects should involve programming to a significant extent, and students are encouraged to use MATLAB (octave), or possibly Maple, to implement their projects: assuming that you do so, you are expected to do more than use some built in MATLAB/Maple facility to perform the bulk of your computations.

You are also free to use other programming languages of your own choice: if you wish to do so, I only ask that you check with me before you start work on your proposal so that I can ensure that the overall project appears appropriate.

All term projects must be written up in the style of a scientific/technical paper; a typical structure will be

• Title and Abstract
• Introduction, including basic description of problem to be solved, simulated, analyzed etc.
• Mathematical formulation of the problem as relevant
  
• Description of techniques, algorithms, analysis tools etc. used to solve the problem, including discussion of overall flow of the program
• Discussion of computations (numerical experiments) that were performed
• Analysis of results
• Conclusions (may include suggestions for future work)
• References / Bibliography
• Appendix including program listing, if desired
  

Note that for some projects, not all of the above sections will be relevant: but as always, feel free to check with me should you have any questions about your writeup.  I will also ask you to make any programs that you write for your term project available to me through your homework directories on  your PHAS accounts, and, except in special cases (which need to be cleared by me), I (and the TAs) should be able to run your programs on my own PHAS account the appropriate software environment (Maple, MATLAB, Java etc.).  In particular, your term project code cannot be MS-Windows specific!

The suggested paper length is about 10-20 pages, double spaced (please!), including title page, figures and graphs and references.  If you include program listings, they should be listed single spaced. You are encouraged to use the LaTeX typesetting system to write your paper, but this is not mandatory. 

As noted above, the term project is worth 35% of your grade. Factors that will be taken into account in my grading of your projects will include (but are not necessarily limited to): scope and difficulty of the problem, degree to which project was completed successfully, effort devoted to the project, originality, and completeness and quality of the written report. Your written report and the source code for your project are due by Monday December 3, 11:59 PM, except under very extenuating circumstances.

IMPORTANT!! You should note that completing a good term project is much different than finishing a homework, or even a few homeworks: in particular, it is virtually impossible to do a decent job on a term project in the space of a few days.  It is the nature of computational physics (as in experimental physics and in many other pursuits) that things will go wrong unexpectedly, and it can often take much more time than anticipated to get programs to work.  Moreover, coding a functional program is typically just the first stage in completion of the project; you also will need time to generate and analyze results, as well as to write things up.  In addition, you can expect that the projects will be graded reasonably rigorously, and that doing well in the homeworks will not automatically guarantee that you do similarly well with your project.  Nonetheless, I expect that provided you have choose a good topic (for you!), and allocate a reasonable amount of time for your work, you will all be able to do well with this part of the course.

In summary then, please take your term projects very seriously, and do your best to begin work on them as soon as is feasible. 

Finally, be sure that you understand and abide by the University and course policies concerning Academic Honesty as they pertain to your term projects, and as are laid out in the Homework page.

• Lecture topics are listed in regular font; Lab activities, other than working on the current homework and/or term projects, and which will be updated throughout the course, are listed in italics, and will link to a description of the lab activity when appropriate. [SOTD] entries are links associated with "Simulation of the day" animations shown in class.
  
• Homework assignments are denoted H1 through H4 and have due dates as indicated above.
• See Learning Goals & Course Topics page for a more detailed outline of course material.
• Term projects are due MONDAY DECEMBER 3 (last day of classes, not last class day!))

• Tuesday, September 18: Last day for withdrawal from this course without withdrawal standing of "W" recorded on your academic record.
• Monday, October 8: Thanksgiving Day, University closed.
• Friday, October 12: Last date for withdrawal from this course with withdrawal standing of "W" recorded on your academic record.
• Monday, November 12: Holiday in lieu of Remembrance Day. University closed. 
• Friday, November 30: Last day of classes.
• Wednesday, December 5: Examinations begin.
• Wednesday, December 19: Examinations end.