Math 240 MATLAB

MATLAB Projects. There will be four MATLAB projects worth 25 points each. These will be posted here as they become available. The due dates are on the course schedule of work. Projects also include some instructional introductions. Groups. You are encouraged to work in groups of two or three. On the project you hand in, at the beginning you must indicate who was in your group. You must hand in a paper version to your TA. With the idea that you only learn by doing, everyone in the group must still hand in a MATLAB project. These are not to be copied files -- everyone should do the keyboard work, which is a big part of getting comfortable with using MATLAB. You might work together with your laptops or in a lab.

One approach is to work out your assignments side by side on different computers, discussing the commands needed. If you copy from the result of a joint effort, make some changes in wording and so on. If you copy without working on the project, then you are cheating. For a given group, your TA will choose one group member's project, grade it, and give everyone in the group that grade.

Learning MATLAB. If you are not very familiar with MATLAB, I encourage you to sign up for MATH 206, which is a 1-credit introduction organized by Justin Wyss Gallifent. It is web-based and only one credit, so it fits any schedule. See http://www2.math.umd.edu/~immortal for details. It is aimed at students in MATH 240/241/246.

You will be able to get through the MATH 240 MATLAB without MATH 206. However, with MATH 206, you should have a better base knowledge into which you can integrate what you will learn with MATLAB in this course and others. We rarely find time to teach MATLAB itself in MATH 240 (or 241, or 246, or ...).

There is a MATH 206 online tutorial http://www2.math.umd.edu/~immortal/206/tutorial/index.shtml which you can use even if you don't sign up for the course. Another introduction, by Professor Emeritus Jeff Cooper, is at http://www.math.umd.edu/undergraduate/courses/dcp/461/coopermatlab.pdf .

Getting and Running MATLAB. See ``Getting and Runnning MATLAB'' in the MATH 206 syllabus . You can get a student version on your computer for about $100 or do your work in the campus labs. A big plus to getting your own copy is that you can use it beyond this class and better make it a natural part of your capabilities.

MATLAB tutor. The Math department generally makes available a MATLAB tutor to provide MATLAB help for students in MATH 240, 241, 246 and 461. When the tutor's hours are set, hours will be posted at http://www-math.umd.edu/undergraduate/resources/ .