Professor Scott Stevens is offering a new math course next semester that will be a great elective for all computer programming majors, but especially relevant to game majors. The course can also count toward the new Math Minor.
MTH 350: Numerical Methods
Solving Math Problems with a Computer
Offered Fall 2012
You may be under the impression that most math problems can be solved using a pencil and paper. This is far from the truth. For example, the equationsin(x) = x
has no analytic solution. This means you can’t solve it by hand. However, an approximate solution is easily obtained using a numerical method. A numerical method is one that generally requires a computer. In this course we will use and write computer programs to solve all sorts of mathematical problems. These range from solving equations like the one above to nding a curve that best ts a set of data points as depicted below.Applications of numerical methods are found throughout the sciences, business, and technology including Graphics, Game Programming, Game Design, Information Security, and Software engineering. The course will be motivated by real-world applications within these fields.
This is a three credit course and is well suited for anyone who has successfully completed Calculus I and has some experience in computer programming. Class will be conducted in a computer lab where we will be programming in MATLABR. For those with little experience in programming, you should find MATLABR to be incredibly user friendly and the first few classes will be geared towards learning the basics involved in writing a MATLABR program.
For more information, contact Professor Stevens.
