Description

The availability of cheap computation has created a new way of understanding the world. Along with experiment and theory, computational modeling provides new tools for analysis, explanation and prediction. This class looks at the history of this revolution and the technology that underlies it.

We will survey a range of literature, from the skeptical to the exuberant, and make a critical evaluation of this putative paradigm shift. We will read some works of popular non-fiction, like Wolfram's "A New Kind of Science" and Strogatz's "Sync", and use them as a starting place to delve deeper.

Topics may include finite automata, pseudo-random numbers, stochastic modeling, probability, Bayesian statistics, discrete-event simulation, self-organization, criticality, emergence, scale-free networks, self-similarity, fuzzy logic, and complexity theory.

Students will learn the skills of computational modeling, with an emphasis on discrete and stochastic models, and apply them to problems in a range of fields including engineering and the natural and social sciences. We will try to answer the question, "If this is a new kind of science, where is the new kind of engineering?"

Computational Modeling is an intermediate-level class; basic programming ability, in any language, is a prerequisite.

Coursework

Work in this class will include readings from a variety of sources, homeworks (some of which will involve programming), contributions to the class wiki and other writing assignments, a final project, two midterm exams, and (possibly) written quizzes.

The total course load is intended to be 12 hours per week (including class time); the load should be spread evenly across the semester.

Final grades are determined by a weighted average of exam scores, quizzes, homeworks, the project, and an additional factor that reflects my subjective impression of the quality of your work, your progress and effort, and your contribution to the educational goals of the class.

reason, your final grade will be based on the other exams. If you miss one without a legitimate reason, you will receive a zero. If you miss both in-class exams or the final for any reason, you cannot pass the class. In that case it may be possible to take an Incomplete, at the discretion of the Office of Student Life.

semester you will be asked to read articles and chapters from books, and two write summaries and commentaries on the reading.

During the second phase of the class, we will work on a series of homeworks in which you will replicate some of the major findings in the reading and develop skills in simulation and modeling.

Homeworks are graded on a coarse scale: check-plus has the numerical value 10/10; check has the value 8/10; check-minus has the value 6/10.

Homework that is up to one day late can get a check or lower; homework that is more than one day late can get a check-minus or lower. But late is still much better than never!

working on a project. The final report for the project is due on the last day of instruction. I will provide more information about the projects later.

competency in Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis, Communication, and Teamwork. Of those, I will be evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis.

Communication

The easiest way to reach me is by email; I read my mail fairly often, even in the evening and on weekends. Unfortunately, my email accounts are constantly hammered by an astounding amount of spam, which means that I sometimes lose email, either because it gets caught in a spam filter or because I delete it without recognizing it as legitimate. If your email goes unanswered, please give me another chance. You are also welcome to call me at x2558 any time, or at home during normal waking hours.

If I am in my office and my door is open, you are welcome to come in and talk to me. If I can't meet with you, I will let you know, and schedule a meeting for later. When I know my schedule for the semester, I will make it available.

You are encouraged to communicate with the other members of the class using whatever means you choose, including the class mailing list. You can join the mailing list (and change your membership configuration) at http://lists.olin.edu/mailman/listinfo/compmod . It is appropriate to use this mailing list to discuss anything pertaining to the class, or to the topic of the class, broadly defined. For example, I will probably post messages about news items that pertain to computer science or technology and society.

Collaboration

As always, your actions in this class are bound by the Honor Code; in particular, the principle of integrity states, Each member of the college community will accept responsibility for and represent accurately and completely oneself, one's work, and one's actions. When you submit course work for evaluation, you are representing that the work is entirely yours, unless you state otherwise. Representing someone else's work as your own is a serious violation of the Honor Code.

For most of the work in this course, I think it will be clear which kinds of collaboration are acceptable, but one of our tasks will be the collaborative development of the wiki. You will be asked to contribute material to the wiki, and also to evaluate and edit the contributions of other students. We will have a discussion about how to manage this kind of work in accordance with the Honor Code.

Topics

We will develop the list of topics as we get into the reading, but some of the topics I expect us to cover are:

TheSyllabus (last edited 2007-05-09 19:48:45 by AllenDowney)