Objectives

• To become familiar with two major approaches to computational science
  • system dynamics models
  • cellular automaton simulations
• To gain experience with the modeling process :
  • how to create a model
  • how to experiment with the model
  • how to visualize and analyze the output from the model
• To gain an appreciation of the errors which can be introduced into the modeling process
• To gain experience with a variety of tools
  • Vensim for systems dynamics models
  • python for elementary programming and the cellular automatons
  • Maple for data driven models and curve fitting
• To implement models from a variety of disciplines

Professor

Office hours: I am generally on campus every day between 7:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. and often later than that.. If I am not in class, I am usually in my office or one of the computer labs. I will try to observe the following office hours and will notify you if I won't be available. 

Daily

8:00 - 8:50 a.m. 3:00 - 4:00 p.m.

Please feel free to come by at other times and you are always welcome to make an appointment. 

Textbooks and Software

Shiflet, Angela B. and George W. Shiflet. Introduction to Computational Science. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2006.

Website for downloads of textbook files:
http://wofford-ecs.org/IntroComputationalScience/filesToDownload.htm

Both vensim and python can be downloaded without charge to your computer. Maple is available on all lab machines. Here are the websites that you will need to visit:

Python downloads:

http://www.python.org/download/

Get the Python 2.5.1 Windows installer if you have a Windows machine. You can also use this site for documentation

Here is the main site for Python: http://www.python.org/ If you follow the ABOUT link and then Getting Started you can find lots of helpful information.

If you want to get your own copy of the graphics package, it is available from the web site of John Zelle, who is its author. http://mcsp.wartburg.edu/zelle/python/ Download graphics.py and put it in the same directory as the python programs that you will be using. Also get a copy of the Graphics Reference that is available at the same site.

Vensim downloads:

http://www.vensim.com/software.html Get the Vensim PLE which is the Personal Learning Edition which is free for educational use.

Attendance 

I expect students to be present for all classes. Please let me know in advance if you must be absent for a scheduled college activity. Illness might prevent you from being present for a couple of classes during the term but anything beyond that will probably have a detrimental effect on your grade. Those of you who must be absent for college sponsored activities should be particularly careful not to miss any other classes. If you have a good reason to be absent from class, you are still responsible for the homework assignments. Except in the case of serious illness, all assignments are to be turned in on time.

Field Trip: This course includes a short field trip to Oak Ridge National Labs in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. All students are expected to attend. We will leave on Wednesday, January 14 in the mid afternoon, spend the next morning at the lab, and return by late afternoon on Thursday, January 15. This is an extremely interesting place but it is a high security area. You will have to be very cautious about observing all the rules and regulations. I know I can trust you to represent Centre well -- especially since this could be a source of very high quality internships. But if you need any more motivation, let me just say that any questionable behaviour on this trip will result in at least a full letter decrease in your grade.

Grades

Your final grade will generally be determined by the total number of points you accumulate out of the 450 possible points. The exception would be adjustments related to the field trip. Students who are ill-prepared, miss class, or otherwise fail to live as responsible citizens will not get the benefit of any doubt. I will use a 15 point grading scale so that you are guaranteed an A or A- if you score 85 or above, a B-, B or B+ for 70-84, C-,C or C+ for 55-69 a D for 45-54 and anything lower is failing.

Exams

There will be two exams on Friday, January 9, and Tuesday , January 20. The final is Monday, January 26.

Written Assignments 

There will be reading assignments and/or exercises assigned each class meeting. Some will be graded carefully. In other cases you will get points for completing the work. Most class work will be done with a partner and there will be some projects that are done in pairs. You will be presenting your models to the class so you will have the opportunity to present the problem and your solution to the others. I will usually ask you to provide a list of questions that your classmates should be prepared to answer after hearing your presentation.

All work must be submitted on time. Late projects will be penalized 10% per day.   Unless the project is specifically designated as a team project you are to work independently. You are responsible for safeguarding the security of your accounts. You should NEVER give your password to another person or permit someone to read your code (unless another member of YOUR team is checking your work.) You must give credit BY NAME to any person who assists you in completing an assignment. Failure to acknowledge such help is PLAGIARISM and will be dealt with accordingly. 

General Rules for Giving/Getting Help

If you are giving help: you may read another person's code if you are looking for an error. It is their responsibility to list you as a resource. You may not allow another student to read your code "to get the idea". It is permissible to talk about your solution but be judicious about the hints you give. Again, the other student is responsible for listing your help in the documentation