CMSC 389W / MATH 299M - Visualization Through Mathematica



Section 0101:

This course is designed to teach how to use the most common and useful features of Wolfram Mathematica; an extremely powerful technical computing system that can be used to model a wide range of problems. Students will also learn important techniques and styles that will equip them with a profound mastery of Mathematica. Plotting functions in several ways, making models that can be manipulated in real time by the user, and efficiently computing solutions to complicated equations are among the things we will cover. We will use these skills to model various structures in math, computer science and physics, and for the final project every student will pick something relative to their designated major (or interest otherwise) to model, whether that be in physics, math, engineering, economics, or anything else mathematical in nature. Over the course of learning these tools students will encounter mind-blowing examples of what Mathematica can do, seeing first-hand that creating models that can be manipulated in real time helps greatly in understanding the underlying symmetries and properties of a problem.

Course Information

Mathematica Lesson Notes
  • All Mathematica lessons/sample models for this class will be posted on the ELMS page.
Wolfram Language and System Documentation Center

Schedule

Project Due Dates:



Lectures


For topic information, please see ELMS for the Lesson and sample model
Week of Topic Useful References
Week 1: 1/28 Introduction and Basics: Variables, Lists, Functions, Manipulate Variables and Functions
Lists
Manipulate
Week 2: 2/4 Basics II
Model C2 - Converting Between Rectangular and Polar Coordinates 		Map
Table
Fold
Week 3: 2/11 Plotting I Plotting
Week 4: 2/18 Computation Solve
Limit
Derivative
Integrate
Simplify
Expand Numeric
Week 5: 2/25 CS-Style Scripting If, Which, Switch
Loops
Blocks and Modules
Week 6: 3/4 Graphics Graphics
Graphics 3D
Graphics Grid
Show
Week 7: 3/11 Plotting II Region Plot
Contour Plot
Density Plot
Week 8: 3/18 Plotting III Polar Plot
Parametric Plot
Week 9: 3/25 Plotting IV Plot3D
ContourPlot3D
ParametricPlot3D
Week 10: 4/1 Manipulate II: Locators, LocatorAutoCreate, Introduction to Dynamic Locators
LocatorAutoCreate
Dynamic
Week 11: 4/8 Development Initialization Cells
LocatorAutoCreate
Export
.mx Files
Import
Syntax
Operators
Packages
Week 12: 4/15 Parallelization Kernels
Timing
AbsoluteTiming
Memory
ParallelTable
ParallelMap
Week 13: 4/22 Advanced Dynamic Control Objects
Control Options
Dynamic Interactivity Language
Formatting Constructs
EventHandler
Week 14: 4/29 Precomputation InputForm

Staff

Instructor: Ajeet Gary (agary@terpmail.umd.edu)

Office: Experimental Geometry Lab - MTH3115
Office Hours: MWF 2:00 - 3:00 PM

Class Supervisor: Dr. William Goldman (wmg@math.umd.edu)


Teaching Assistants


Administrator: Ajeet Gary (agary@terpmail.umd.edu)


Name Email Office Hours
Vlad Dobrin vlad.a.dobrin@gmail.com Monday, 10am-11am in AVW 1416
Devan Tamot tamotd@cs.umd.edu Friday, 3pm-4pm in EGR 1104


Class Resources

Online Course Tools