Department of Statistics

Current Sections 001 - Tran	BMA 574	Mathematical & Experimental Modeling of Physical Processes II
	Course Description This course seeks to provide students with a fundamental understanding of how mathematics is applied to problems in science and engineering. The emphasis will be on how applied mathematicians and scientists go from a verbal, non-quantitative description to a precise mathematical description of a phenomenon or empirical observation. Our approach will be through severl "case studies" of research problems which arise in industrial and scientific research lab applications. For each case study we willdiscuss why a model is needed and what goals are sought. The modeling process begins with the examination of assumptions and their translation into mathematical models. We will examine the models both analytically (in as much as possibl!) and computationally in order to compare their behavior with that exhibited by the modeled phenomena. Such a comparison can be achieved quantitatively through least squares methods, which we will examine from a computational point of view. The emphasis of course will be on the application and what mathematics can tell us about tit. The course should serve both to give the student an appreciation of the use of mathematics and also to spark the students interest for deeper study of some of the mathematical topics involved. Course Syllabus Motivating Examples Modeling Philosophy Fluids Modeling Electromagnetic Theory and Optics Electromagnetic Dispersion in a medium Course Prerequisites MA 341 or equivalent Course Corequisites None Recent Textbooks Lecture Notes and refernce materials