Instructor: Jack S. Hale ([email protected]).
Please see the ACME system.
Following the rules set out by the Vice Rectorate for Academic Affairs the course will be taught as a continuous block of 2 TUs of 45 minutes beginning at the scheduled start in the ACME system.
In this seminar series we will discover some classic papers that have had a huge impact on the field of Computational Sciences and Mathematical Modelling. As well as understanding the technical content of the papers, you will be encouraged to form a broader view of the history of the field, to understand the context of these important developments, and to see how those advances have influenced modern industrial practice. The course and its content will be student-led following the framework outlined below.
Each student will select a paper. They will be the project leader for their chosen paper. Every student is expected to contribute fully to delivering on the coursework for each paper, following the overall directions of the project leader.
My expectation is that all students will collaborate fully on the course and produce high quality work. If you are not meeting expectations, I will contact you via email during the course. If the issue does not improve, I will deduct marks on an individual basis.
Students will be jointly assessed on the following pieces of coursework. There is no examination.
The reports should consist of:
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A written report of approximately ten A4 pages that touches equally on the five roles detailed below. The report should be prepared using LaTeX.
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Supporting code examples should be uploaded to a GitHub repository and results placed directly in the report.
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Joint presentation of 25 minutes plus a question and answer session as shown in the schedule.
The reports should be submitted by the project lead as a PDF and, if applicable, a GitHub link via email by 1700 on the date shown in the schedule below. Please cc: the whole class.
This is a practical course and attendance is mandatory. A maximum of 2 TU can be missed across the semester. Further TUs missed will require a meeting with the instructor and study programme director.
There is no retake possible - register for the course again at the next available semester.
- 17/09: Introduction, practicalities, planning.
- 24/09: Group discussion.
- 1/10: Group discussion.
- 8/10: Group discussion.
- 15/10: Group discussion.
- 22/10: Report and presentation 1 due.
- 29/11: Group discussion.
- 5/11: Group discussion.
- 12/11: Group discussion.
- 19/11: Group discussion.
- 26/11: Report and presentation 2 due.
- 03/12: Group discussion.
- 10/12: Group discussion.
- 17/12: Presentation 3 due.
- 20/12: Report 3 due.
The following roles provide suggestions for the content and structure of the report and presentation:
- [The Historians]({{ site.baseurl }}{% link roles/historians.md %}). Understand the historical context of the paper; prior works, the authors biography, or the general technological/political/cultural context of the time.
- [The Technicians]({{ site.baseurl }}{% link roles/technicians.md %}). Will be responsible for reading the paper with care and producing a summary presentation and report of the main results.
- [The Experimentalists]({{ site.baseurl }}{% link roles/experimentalists.md %}). If appropriate, will re-produce some of the results from the paper in a simple dynamic programming language, e.g. Python or MATLAB.
- [The Futurists]({{ site.baseurl }}{% link roles/futurists.md %}). Understand the impact of the paper in future academic research and in an industrial context. Discover how the presentation of the key ideas of the paper has evolved in e.g. modern textbooks.
- [Critics]({{ site.baseurl }}{% link roles/critics.md %}). Will ‘critique’ the article in a constructive way, e.g. What was clear? What was not clear? Is the information laid out in a good order? Are there any omissions? Are the arguments strong? What could be improved?
Suggestions from the students are welcome!
{% include_relative papers.html %}
Ideas of Nick Trefethen on running an effective mathematics seminar series (https://web.stanford.edu/class/cme324/classics/). Contributions to the paper list made by Francesco Viti, Stéphane P. A. Bordas, Ivan Nourdin and Xavier Besseron.