# 2014F001

This is Sheng's CDS 130 course page. All of the information that you will ever need for this course can be found here or on a page linked to from this page.

Announcements:

Final exam: December 11th (Thursday), 1:30 pm - 4:15 pm, Innovation Hall, room 223

# 1. Thursday, Dec. 4th

Covered by Dr. Weigel

# 2. Tuesday, Dec. 2nd

Covered by Dr. Zhang


Relational operators:  >, <, >=, <=, ==, ~=
Logical operators: ~, | , &

precedence of the operators:

1. parenthesis ()
2. ~
3. math operators: ^, *, /, +, -
4. relational operators: > <, >=, <=, ==, ~=
5. and operator: &
6. or operator: |

For example: a|b&c is evaluated as a|(b&c); a > b + c & d  is evaluated as (a > (b + c) ) & d



• powerpoint slides on if statements are uploaded to Blackboard

# 3. Thursday, Nov. 25th

• Code to draw circles
clear all; clc;
theta = linspace(0, 2*pi, 1000);
r = 1.0;
x = r* cos(theta);
y = r* sin(theta);
plot (x,y, '--b', 'MarkerSize', 16);
axis off
axis square
print -dpng 'circle.png'


Draw a circle in animaiton

theta = 0:2*pi/60:2*pi;
r = 1.0;
x = r* cos(theta);
y = r* sin(theta);
for i = 1:60
plot (x(i), y(i), '-or', 'MarkerSize',20)
plot (0.8*x(i), 0.8*y(i), '*g')
hold on
axis square
axis off
axis ([-1 1 -1 1])
drawnow
pause(1)
end


# 7. Thursday, Nov. 6th

Continue to cover

# 8. Tuesday, Nov. 4th

Continue to cover

# 9. Thursday, Oct. 30 th

• Announcement: The makeup exam will be given in Room 249, Research I Hall, 4:10 - 5:25 PM

# 10. Tuesday, Oct. 28th

Continue to cover

# 12. Tuesday, Oct. 21st


Average 80.23
Greater than 100:  5
90 - 100:  14
80 - 89: 9
70 - 79: 11
60 - 69: 6
50 - 59: 5


# 14. Thursday, Oct. 9th

[[

media:matlab_vector.doc | exercise]]

# 19. Tuesday, September 23rd

Continue to cover

• Binary representation of negative numbers
• How to build user-defined Matlab functions ( powerpoint slides )
• Announcement: An in-class quiz will be given this Thursday to cover Binary arithmetic and Matlab functions.
• Homework 4 is now extended to next Thursday.

# 20. Thursday, September 18th

Continue to cover

• Binary representation of negative numbers
• How to build user-defined Matlab functions ( powerpoint slides )
• Assign Homework#4 Due on September 25th before class
• Announcement: An in-class quiz will be given on next Thursday (9/25).

# 24. Thursday, September 4th

Continue to cover

# 25. Tuesday, September 2nd

 Christopher Tan, ctan5@masonlive.gmu.edu  Exploratory Hall 4102, Fridays 10 AM - 2 PM
Brandon Laufer,  blaufer@gmu.edu Exploratory Hall 4104  Wednesdays from noon to 2 pm


# 28. Syllabus

My syllabus is everything stated at Syllabus along with the following additions and notes.

## 28.1. Format

This is a three-credit course. Active learning techniques will be used during my lectures. After presenting a major concept I will pose a question which you will think about, discuss with your neighbor, and then possibly present your answers.

## 28.2. Evaluation

Each student will be responsible to cover the material taught in class, do the assigned homework exercises. There will be mid-term and final exams. Class attendance will also be counted into their final grades (see below).

### 28.2.1. Composition of Final Grades

10% attendance and in-class quizzes

35% homeworks

25% mid-term exam

30% final exam

Two of the exams are 2 ~ 2.5 hour quizzes given during lecture sessions, the last exam will fall during finals' week.

Final letter grades will be determined by total weighted scores from the composition o the final grades. The approximate score breakdown will be:

 90 and above A 80-89.999 B 70-79.999 C 55-69.999 D Less than 55 Failing

Note that these are the approximate score assignments: if your score falls at the border (e.g., between an A and B), your effort will decide the final grade: improvement over the course of the term; attitude in doing the problem sets; interactions with the lecturer during class etc.

## 28.3. Homeworks

• Weekly Homeworks. Assigned on Thursday due on next Thursday before class
• Will partially work many difficult problems in class
• Most homeworks will be turned in electronically
• Late penalty = 20% if late by less than 7 days; 40% if more than 7 days late

# 30. FAQ

## 30.1. Exactly what kind of problems will I be able to solve?

To get a taste of it, here are two examples students worked on later in the last semester Tumor | Antialias.

## 30.2. Am I qualified for this course?

If you are concerned with math, most likely you are qualified for this course, provided that you understand

• Trigonometry and Transcendental Functions
• Some mathematical concepts to simplify science problems

## 30.3. How much programming is needed?

There is no requirement on programming languages.

In this course, a high-level computing language Matlab will be taught. Matlab is a powerful mathematical tool that offers a computing environment for numerical computation, graphics and visualization.

Students may access and use MATLAB without charge either on campus or from any computer with an internet connection. There are three ways to use Matlab at Mason:

2. Matlab is installed on all computers in various computer labs on campus. Simply log on, and there is Matlab.
3. Install Matlab on your personal computer. A \$109-dollar student version of MATLAB may be purchased at Patriot Computers.

Tutorials on accessing and using Matlab will be given to students as class progresses.

## 30.4. What if I have a question about homeworks and am having difficulty understanding the course content?

• My office hours will be held following each class or by appointment (hsheng@gmu.edu). My office is located in Research I, Room 225. Usually I will be available after class and would like to interact with students. There are two learning assistants for this course. Both the learning assistants and I will grade your homeworks, exams, and quizzes. We are able to answer your questions by email or text. Over the semester, several tutoring sections will be held to work on difficult problems.
• Contact info of the learning assistants:
 Christopher Tan,  ctan5@masonlive.gmu.edu (703-314-6406)
Brandon Laufer, blaufer@gmu.edu (352-328-9731)

• Special announcements will be made through Blackboard, such as assignments, due dates, upcoming exams, tutorials, etc.

## 30.5. Do we have a textbook for this course?

None. The course "Computing for Scientists" was newly approved as a general education course at GMU. It has been co-developed by several faculty members at the CDS department. A wiki page ([1]) was created. All course materials covered in the current section can be obtained from http://cds130.org/2014F001.

The wiki page was designed to facilitate student interaction and to fulfill the IT requirements.

IMPORTANT: Additional course materials (lecture notes and problem sets) will be posted on Blackboard.

## 30.6. Draft Schedule

(Red links are for pages that are not complete)