Applied Mathematics Laboratory

Academic Structure

The Mathematics Department will offer the courses MATH 495 followed by MATH 496, Applied Mathematics Laboratory I and II whenever an appropriate Applied Mathematics Laboratory project has been secured. Each course will carry three (3) credit hours. Students must be recommended by the faculty for the course. Each student should have at least junior standing, nine hours of mathematics and/or computer science, and must secure the approval of the team director who is the course instructor. A student may enroll for one or two semesters, accumulating up to six credit hours. The course description states:

Investigation by a team of students under faculty direction of a problem of mathematical and/or computational nature, chosen from proposals submitted by clients in the university or in local industry. Team involvement may include literature searches, model definition, collection and analysis of data and model verification. Restricted to invited students.

Course Requirements

The team of students will be expected to meet in a regularly scheduled class period at least two hours a week. In addition, students will be required to meet regularly with the team director and small groups of other team members each week. Formal oral presentation and discussion of work in progress should take place at each class session. Each student will be scheduled to make presentations on a regular basis. Evaluations will be required from all team members and the faculty director(s), and sought from all invited guests and clients.

In addition to oral presentations, there are several written reports required from each team. The interim report is an account of the work of the team during the first half of any semester. It should be prepared by the students under the guidance of the faculty director(s) with copies submitted to the project sponsor and the chairperson of the Applied Mathematics Laboratory Committee within one week of the midsemester.

For projects lasting longer than one semester, the team prepares a first semester report. It must be a complete account of the work of the entire semester, including bibliography, supporting computer print-outs with complete documentation, as well as charts and tables. The report should be sufficient to acquaint new team members and the sponsor with the status of the investigation. An oral presentation by the student members of the team and copies of the report will be given to the director(s), the project sponsor, and members of the Applied Mathematics Laboratory Committee and invited guests under guidelines stipulated by the sponsor and the Applied Mathematics Laboratory.

At the end of the final semester of the project, the team will prepare a final report which presents the work in detail and gives an account of the results of the investigation. This is expected to be quite extensive and will constitute the fulfillment of the contract with the sponsor. The oral and written reports will be presented formally to the project team director(s), the project sponsor, and invited guests by the student team. As long as proprietary material can be protected, reports will be made available to the Applied Mathematics Laboratory Committee.

Evaluations will take place at every oral and written presentation by the team director(s) for the purpose of determining semester grades for the student team members. Student grades will be based on the following:

1. the ability of the team member to function within the group;
2. the quality of the contribution of the investigative work of the team;
3. the demonstrated ability of the team member to communicate information effectively both orally and in writing.

The Applied Mathematics Laboratory Committee may invite students majoring in fields other than mathematics to join teams when their sphere of expertise is necessary for, the investigation. They will be evaluated on the basis of the criteria above; although, of course, their contributions may vary in kind from the mathematics majors.