AMATH 383
MWF 10:30-11:20, EE 003
(Prerequisites: AMATH 351 or MATH 307)

Introduction to Continuous Mathematical Modeling

Instructor:
Katie Oliveras
Guggenheim 407
oliveras AT amath.washington.edu
Office Hours: Monday 3-4pm Tuesday 8:30-9:30am (GUG 415 Conference Room)

Message Board : Syllabus / Lectures : Grading : Homework : Term Paper : Computer Usage : Online Grades

Course Description

This course is an introductory survey of applied mathematics with emphasis on modeling of physical and biological problems in terms of differential equations. We will discuss formulation of the problem, derivation of the solution, and interpretation of the results.

Prerequisites: AMATH 351, MATH 307, or a course in ordinary differntial equations.

Textbook

We will be using Topics in Mathematical Modeling by K.K. Tung (List Price $45.00), but it's not required. You can find it at the University Bookstore or at various online dealers.

Syllabus and Lecture Notes

The syllabus for the course can be found here, though much all of the information in the syllabus can be found on this webpage. Lecture notes will be posted here as they are made available. There will be an announcement on the message board when notes are updated.

Review of Differential Equations Sept 24, 26, and 29	Lecture Notes All .m Files (zip) lectureExample1.m odeFun.m lectureExample2.m odeFun2.m
Exponential Decay Models Oct 1, Oct 3	Lecture Notes
HIV Models Oct 3, Oct 6	Lecture Notes Perelson, Nelson Article
1-D Population Models Oct 6, Oct 8, Oct 10	Lecture Notes
AIDS Data Fit to Logistic Model Oct 13, Oct 15	Lecture Notes Excel File Maple Worksheet AIDSLogistic.m odeFun.m
Analysis of Nonlinear 2D Autonomous Systems Oct 17, Oct 20, Oct 22	Lecture Notes
Predator Prey Model Oct 24, 27, 29	Lecture Notes
Competition Models Oct 31, Nov 3, 5	Lecture Notes
Conflict Models Nov 7, 10, 12, 14	Lecture Notes Iwo Jima Lecture Notes
Marriage and Divorce Model Nov 17, 19, 21	Lecture Notes

Grading

There will be no exams (for better or worse, but mostly for better). You grade will be composed of 5 homework assignments (counting for 70% of you final ), and a final term paper (counting for the remaining 30%). Typically, I assign a 2.7 to the class average.

Homework assignments are due at the beginning of class on the due date, and will generally be returned in class one week later. There are no exceptions for late homework. Your lowest homework score will be dropped.

Every assignment that you turn in should include a header with your name, student number, due date, course, and the homework number as a title. The grader is instructed to deduct points for messiness. If you are concerned about the neatness of your homework, you may use any typesetting program that you like. There are several options mentioned in computer usage.

Homework

Below is a tentative list of assignments and due dates. This list is subject to change. Any changes will be announced in class and will be posted to the message board.

Assignment	Date Due	Homework Assignments	Homework Solutions
Homework #1	October 6	HW1.pdf	HW1Sol.pdf
Final Project Proposals	October 10
Homework #2	October 15	HW2.pdf Submit your homework online (not required)	HW2Sol.pdf
Homework #3	October 29	HW3.pdf (Latex File) Submit your homework online (not required)	Fireflies Syncing HW3Sol.pdf
Final Project Outline	November 17	Submit your outline online
Homework #4	November 19	HW4.pdf (Latex File) Submit your homework online (not required)	HW4Sol.pdf
Homework #5	November 5	HW5.pdf
Final Project rough draft		Submit online
FINAL PROJECT	December 5	Due in class!

Term Paper

A major feature of this introductory mathematical modeling course is that students develop course projects and write term papers on those projects. These term papers are to be turned in during the final examination week.

This course is listed as an optional W (writing) credit class. If you would like to receive a W credit, please indicate so on all of your assignments relating to your term paper. It will be read, and returned to you for corrections. University regulations requires the W credit paper 10-15 pages long (not including figures or biblography). More information about the University's writing credit can be found at

http://www.washington.edu/students/ugrad/advising/aif/wcourse.html#criteria

Guidelines for the final paper can be found here (guidelines.pdf). Below is a list of final project related assigments and their due date. This list is subject to change. Any changes will be announced in class and will be posted to the message board.

Date	Assignment Due
October 10, 2008	Project Proposals - Just a list of 2-3 ideas that you would like to explore. Include a 1-2 sentence description of each one. If you are having problems thinking of a topic, write a paragraph of your interests, and perhaps I could lead you towards a topic (2.5% of your final project grade)
October 24, 2008	Project Proposal - Finalize your topic choice, and write a rough outline of what you plan to discuss. Include at least two references (outside of the course textbook), and an informal half page about your ideas. (2.5% of your final project grade)
November 17, 2008	Finalize your outline for your paper. Include a 1-2 page description of your mathematical model. This doesn't have to be the final version of your model. If you are having problems with the modeling, please make an appointment with me a week before this is due. (5% of your final project grade)
December 1, 2008 (5pm via email)	Rough Draft Due (for writing credit only). This should be a close version of your final paper. I will read your paper and give you feed back on both the content of the paper, as well as the formatting and writing style.
December 5, 2008	Final Paper due in class!

Computer Usage

The use of computer software such as Matlab, Maple, Mathematica, etc. might be useful in gaining intuition into systems that we will be examining.

Additionally, when you type up your final report, you will need some special tools for entering in your equations, and formulas. Below are some options (this list is by no means exhaustive)

MathType - Available for both the PC and Mac for free to students. This product intregrates with Microsoft Word, and can save your equations as images to be imported into other document types. You can download it at www.washington.edu/uware. Valid UWNetID required.
LaTeX - This is a mark-up language similar to html. This is what I use to write up the class notes. You can find information about using LaTeX on the message board. If you're interested in trying this out for yourself, I've have a sample file that you can take a look at here

All of these programs are available in the Math Sciences Computing Center located in the basement of the Communications Building in Room B-022. MathType is integrated directly with Word, and PCTeX is installed and ready to go (try the test file if you like).