CSCI 323 Modeling and
Simulation Syllabus
Fall 2008
Classroom location: Fitzelle 301
Class schedule: MWF
12:00-12:50PM
Instructor: Dr. Don Allison
Office location: Fitzelle 225
Phone: 436-3439
Email: allisodl@oneonta.edu
Office hours: T 12-3pm, W 3-4pm, F
9-10am, 3-4pm
Others
by appointment
Catalog description:
Deterministic and probabilisitic models of complex systems, discrete and
continuous, and simulation of the system by computer implementation of the
model.
Prerequisites: CSCI 116, MATH 276, and STAT 261 (LA)
Course goals/objectives:
At the end of this
course you should be able to look at a real-world system and abstract the
essential properties of it to form a mathematical model that simulates the
system’s behavior of interest. You
should be able write a computer program implementing that model and use that
program to provide predictions as to the behavior of the system.
Textbooks:
The required texts
for this course are:
Physics-Based Animation, by Erleben,
Sporring, Henriksen and Dohlmann, 1st edition, Charles River Media,
ISBN-10 1584503807, and Modeling and
Simulation in Medicine and the Life Sciences, byHoppensteadt
and Peskin, Springer-Verlag,
ISBN-10 0387950729, supplemented by the lectures and handouts in class. The first text will be used when we are
modeling physics-based systems such as jello or human
motion, while the second will be used when we are modeling systems in the human
body or population dynamics.
Reading list/Additional resources:
A First Course in Mathematical Modeling, by Giordano, Weir
and Fox, 3rd edition, Brooks Cole, ISBN 0534384285
Tentative schedule: (order of readings & other assignments, by due dates,
course activities, course content by expected order of coverage, test dates and
test coverage)
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Date |
Monday |
Tuesday |
Wednesday |
Thursday |
Friday |
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Aug 25-29 |
|
Last
day to register without $40 late fee |
Classes
begin Add/drop
begins |
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Sep 1-5 |
Labor
day: classes meet |
Add/drop
ends |
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Sep 8-12 |
Last
day to add a full semester course |
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Sep 15-19 |
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|
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Sep 22-26 |
Project #1
due |
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Sep 29-Oct 3 |
EXAM #1 |
|
TAP
certification begins |
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Oct 6-10 |
|
College
closes after last class |
|
Break |
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Oct 13-17 |
Classes
resume Columbus
day: classes held |
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Interim
progress reports due from faculty |
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Oct 20-24 |
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Oct 27-31 |
Last
day to drop with a W |
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Nov 3-7 |
Daylight saving time has ended!! Did you set your clock back? |
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Nov 10-14 |
Begin
Spring pre-enrollment Project #2
due |
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Nov 17-21 |
Project #3
due |
College
closes after last class Incomplete/pending
grade makeup deadline |
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|
Nov 24-28 |
Break |
Break |
Break |
Break |
Break |
|
Dec 1-5 |
Classes
resume Last
day to withdraw from college |
|
|
Last
day to turn in incomplete/pending grades |
|
|
Dec 8-12 |
Project #4
due |
|
|
|
|
|
Dec 15-19 |
Final
exams begin 8am:
MWF 10 11am:
MWF 2 2pm:
MWF 12 FINAL
EXAM, 2pm |
8am:
TR 10 11am:
TR 4 2pm:
TR 12 |
8am:
MWF 9 11am:
MWF 1 2pm:
MWF 11 |
8am:
TR 8 11am:
TR 2 |
Final
exams end 8am:
MWF 8 11am:
MWF 3 |
Course requirements:
Students are expected
to keep up with the assigned readings for class, in order to be able to
participate in class discussions. To
satisfactorily complete the course, students need to pass the tests and
complete the modeling projects.
Evaluation procedures:
A student’s grade for
this course will be based on a combination of exams, programming projects, and
homework/class participation. The
breakdown is as follows:
|
Exam #1 |
15% |
29 September 2008 |
|
Exam #2 |
15% |
3 November 2008 |
|
Final Exam |
20% |
15 December 2008, 2PM |
|
Projects |
40% |
--- |
|
Homework/class participation |
10% |
--- |
As you can see, there
will be two midterm exams and a final, contributing a total of 50% of your
grade. The next 40% will be earned by completing
several programming projects implementing simple modeling systems. The final 10% will be made up of various
homework assignments and class participation.
The weighted sum of each component will be computed and grades will be
assigned based on the total number of points earned using the standard
90-80-70-60 system.
Attendance policy:
While I do not
require class attendance, and would prefer that you sleep in the dorm instead
of in class, studies have shown that regular class attendance improves student
grades. In addition, I will be giving
sample code and pseudocode for the projects in class,
and will be discussing the course material (including the material covered by
the tests) in class. While attending
class, students will be expected to comport themselves professionally, and to
participate in class activities and discussions.
Academic dishonesty:
It is expected that
all work turned in by a student will be created by the student himself. Turning in someone else’s code, whether
obtained from a classmate or from the internet, without acknowledging the
authorship of the code, is plagiarism, and is a serious offense. As academics, we value ideas and to use
someone else’s thoughts without acknowledging them is stealing, and will be
dealt with appropriately.
That said, however,
it IS acceptable to discuss the
class content and assignments with your peers and even to collaborate together
under certain conditions. All code and
all answers to exams that you submit for grading should be your work alone, or
if provided in class, should contain an acknowledgement of its origin in the
header comments. It is, however,
acceptable to discuss the algorithms, code samples provided in class, or even
the assignments (at a conceptual level) among yourselves.
If you have any questions about what is
acceptable and what is not, ask! It is
better to ask and get the answer ahead of time rather than to find out after
the fact that what you did was unacceptable.
Coding style:
An important part of
any computer science class is the programming assignments. These not only reinforce and extend the
concepts covered in class, but also give the student an opportunity to hone his
programming skills. Therefore any
programs you turn in should follow good style guidelines and coding
standards. They should exhibit
consistent and logical indenting, block comments, function and file headers,
sensible variable names, etc. Every code
and header file should start with a block comment containing the class, the
assignment number, your name, the date due, and a brief summary of what is in
the file. For example:
/*************************************************************/
/*
*/
/* CSCI 323 Modeling &
Simulation */
/* Fall 2006 Program #1 */
/* Author: Don Allison */
/* Date Due: 20 September 2008 */
/* */
/* This file contains code to function
model the biological */
/* process of cell reproduction. */
/*
*/
/*************************************************************/
Late assignment & makeup policy:
Assignments are
expected to be turned in by midnight on the day they are due, and exams are to
be taken on the announced date.
Emergencies do arise, however, and sometimes this is not possible. If you find that you will have to miss an
exam or turn in an assignment late, please let me know as soon as possible
(preferably before the due date).
Allowances will be made for school approved excuses, such as illnesses,
family emergencies, official school trips, etc.
Otherwise, a late penalty will be assessed on assignments turned in
after the due date, and makeup exams will be at the discretion of the
instructor. The late penalty for
assignments will be 3n-1, where n is the number of days the assignment
is late (weekends count as a single day).
Any assignment turned in more than a week late will be recorded as a
zero grade.
Additional unique aspects of course:
In this course we
will build models of real world processes and explore their validity and
accuracy.