CS 370
Introduction to Scientific Computing

Assignment Procedures

Sources of Information

  • Lectures - Class lectures are the primary source of material for the course. All students are expected to attend.
  • Course Notes - CS 370 Course Notes are available from Campus Copy in the Davis Centre (approx. $15).
  • Optional Text - Timothy Sauer, Numerical Analysis, Addison Wesley, 2006.
  • Optional Text - Cleve Moler, Numerical Computing with MATLAB, SIAM, 2004. (Also available online through The MathWorks at www.mathworks.com/moler/).
  • Other Texts
    • L.V. Fausett, Numerical Methods: Algorithms and Applications, Prentice-Hall, 2003. A previous course text.
    • C.F. Van Loan, Introduction to Scientific Computing, 2nd Edition, Prentice-Hall, 2000. Covers much of the mathematics and computational tools aspect of the course.
    • R.L. Burden and J.D. Faires, Numerical Analysis, Sixth Edition, Brooks/Cole, 1997. A previous course text, somewhat advanced.
    • D. Hanselman and B. Littlefield, Mastering Matlab 6, Prentice Hall, 2001. This is an in-depth treatment of Matlab and provides more mathematical background.
  • UW-ACE: Course information, including assignments and important announcements, will be posted on the UW-ACE web site for CS 370.
  • A chat group will be created for each assignment, as well as for exams and for general questions about the course.
  • Course e-mail is available through UW-ACE (click on the “In Touch” tab).

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Questions about the Current Assignment

For each assignment, there is a TA assigned to handle e-mail queries, and monitor the course newsgroup. E-mail queries sent to the course account (through UW-ACE) will usually be answered within 12 hours either by an e-mail reply or by a chat group posting, depending on the extent to which the answer is of general interest.

You are encouraged to use the chat group to discuss the assignments. There will be TA office hours for assignment questions before the assignment deadline. The date, time, and place of these office hours will be announced in the course web pages.

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The Ins and Outs of Assignments

Assignments will be posted on the course web page approximately two weeks before the due date.

All assignments are to be submitted via the assignment boxes, third floor MC building, by 5:00 pm on the due date. The boxes will be emptied at the due deadline and again 24 hours later. Late assignments submitted within 24 hours of the due deadline will be marked at half credit. You may NOT hand in part of your assignment on time and part late. Assignments submitted more than 24 hours late will not be marked.

We plan to return assignments in class within 10 days. Assignments which are not picked up at the class will be placed in the boxes outside the SciCom lab, DC 3594.

Organization of submissions

Here are some general policies about assignment submissions that describe the degree of organization expected. Up to 10% of the assignment grade may be deducted for not meeting these organizational standards.

Put your name and student number on the first page. Please make this information clear so we can credit and return your assignment.

All the material for an assignment task should be grouped together and the submission should present the tasks in order. I.e., all the material for task 1, followed by all the material for task 2, etc.

If the text for a task refers to a Matlab figure (e.g. a graph) for this task, then

  1. the figure should have a title that includes an identifier, e.g. "Task 2: Figure B ... ";
  2. the text should refer to the figure by this identifier.

 

If a Matlab figure shows axes, then the axes should have labels to identify the variable associated with each axis.

Much of the assignment work will consist of using Matlab to carry out computations associated with the course case studies. Much of the credit for these computations will be given for explaining what their importance is to the case study. These explanations take the form of combined text and graphs. Simply handing in the bare numerical output from the computations will get few marks.

Appeals

If you feel that your assignment has not been marked correctly, you should

  • write an explanation of what you would like reviewed
  • attach it to your (marked) submission
  • hand it to your prof at a lecture - who will pass it on to the appropriate TA.

 

Reviews of assignment marking must be submitted within two weeks of the time the assignments are returned in class.

 

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Assignment Grades

The assignments will contribute 28% to the course grade. Assignments 2, 3, 4 and 5 will contribute 6% each and Assignment 1 will contribute 4%.

 

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