- Student Records
Programme & Unit Catalogues


MA40177: Scientific computing

Follow this link for further information on academic years Academic Year: 2012/3
Follow this link for further information on owning departmentsOwning Department/School: Department of Mathematical Sciences
Follow this link for further information on credits Credits: 6
Follow this link for further information on unit levels Level: Masters UG & PG (FHEQ level 7)
Follow this link for further information on period slots Period: Semester 2
Follow this link for further information on unit assessment Assessment: CW 100%
Follow this link for further information on supplementary assessment Supplementary Assessment: Like-for-like reassessment (where allowed by programme regulations)
Follow this link for further information on unit rules Requisites: Before taking this unit you must take MA30051 (or take MA20222 and have equivalent experience subject to the approval of the unit convenor).
Follow this link for further information on unit content Description: Aims:
To teach an understanding and appreciation of issues arising in the computational solution of challenging scientific and engineering problems.

Learning Outcomes:
Students should be able to write code to solve efficiently a range of scientific problems. They should be able to analyse algorithm complexity and efficiency. They should be familiar with scientific libraries and parallel programming. They will be expected to have deep knowledge of at least one challenging application.

Skills:
Efficient solution of real-world problems using scientific computing (T, A); parallel programming (T, A).

Content:
Units, complexity, analysis of algorithms, benchmarks. Floating point arithmetic. Programming in Fortran90. Makefiles. Data structures, full and sparse matrices. BLAS and LAPACK libraries. Visualisation. Parallel Computation: principles, message passing model, MPI, parallel data structures, scheduling on clusters, performance indicators.
Other libraries/software on the web: NAG Library, Netlib, GAMS, ScaLAPACK, ARPACK, PETSc, hypre. Linking with other languages such as C, C++. Case studies illustrating the lectures will be chosen from the topics: numerical PDEs (iterative methods, multigrid, preconditioning), adaptive refinement, quadrature, eigenvalue problems (nuclear reactor criticality computations, power method, subspace iteration, AUTO), nonlinear equations and bifurcation (nonlinear thermal conduction, Newton-type methods), optimisation, networks and graphs (graph drawing, clustering, Google's pagerank algorithm).
Follow this link for further information on programme availabilityProgramme availability:

MA40177 is Optional on the following programmes:

Department of Mathematical Sciences
  • USMA-AFB15 : BSc (hons) Mathematical Sciences (Full-time) - Year 3
  • USMA-AKB16 : BSc (hons) Mathematical Sciences (Full-time with Thick Sandwich Placement) - Year 4
  • USMA-AAB16 : BSc (hons) Mathematical Sciences with Study Year Abroad (Full-time with Study Year Abroad) - Year 4
  • USMA-AFB13 : BSc (hons) Mathematics (Full-time) - Year 3
  • USMA-AKB14 : BSc (hons) Mathematics (Full-time with Thick Sandwich Placement) - Year 4
  • USMA-AFB01 : BSc (hons) Mathematics and Statistics (Full-time) - Year 3
  • USMA-AKB02 : BSc (hons) Mathematics and Statistics (Full-time with Thick Sandwich Placement) - Year 4
  • USMA-AAB02 : BSc (hons) Mathematics and Statistics with Study Year Abroad (Full-time with Study Year Abroad) - Year 4
  • USMA-AAB14 : BSc (hons) Mathematics with Study Year Abroad (Full-time with Study Year Abroad) - Year 4
  • USMA-AFB05 : BSc (hons) Statistics (Full-time) - Year 3
  • USMA-AKB06 : BSc (hons) Statistics (Full-time with Thick Sandwich Placement) - Year 4
  • USMA-AAB06 : BSc (hons) Statistics with Study Year Abroad (Full-time with Study Year Abroad) - Year 4
  • USMA-AFM14 : MMath Mathematics (Full-time) - Year 3
  • USMA-AFM14 : MMath Mathematics (Full-time) - Year 4
  • USMA-AAM15 : MMath Mathematics with Study Year Abroad (Full-time with Study Year Abroad) - Year 4

Notes:
* This unit catalogue is applicable for the 2012/13 academic year only. Students continuing their studies into 2013/14 and beyond should not assume that this unit will be available in future years in the format displayed here for 2012/13.
* Programmes and units are subject to change at any time, in accordance with normal University procedures.
* Availability of units will be subject to constraints such as staff availability, minimum and maximum group sizes, and timetabling factors as well as a student's ability to meet any pre-requisite rules.