Topics in Mathematical Modeling

There is no required textbook for this course. Class notes will be provided.

Syllabus for the course

Class Notes

Week 1

  1. Tuesday, Jan 18
  2. Thursday, Jan 20: Meet in the Mathematics Computer Lab
  3. Friday, Jan 21: Homework 1 was changed to: p. 15-16, 3(a), 4(a), 6, 7. DUE: Tuesday
    Today, we will finish talking about floating point numbers, and then on Tuesday we'll pick up with some Matlab.
    Use these instructions to move the window options (maximize, minimize, close) back over to the right side of the window.

Week 2

  1. Tuesday, Jan 25: More discussion on Matlab, and the Case Study on Learning. The Matlab code is banditE.m and the script file is banditScript.m. Be sure to right-click the mouse and choose "Save Link As..." to download the Matlab code. Homework 2: Exercises 1-5, pg 2 of the Case Study Handout.
  2. Thursday, Jan 27: Worked through the epsilon-greedy algorithm, worked in the computer lab a bit. Homework 3 is here.
  3. Friday, Jan 28: Finish the Case Study. Homework 4: is here. Here is the Matlab code discussed:

Week 3

  1. Tuesday, Feb 1: Finished the n-armed bandit model, and began the linear algebra review- The four subspaces. No homework assigned.
  2. Thursday, Feb 3: Introduction to linear models, and linear neural nets. Handout is here.
  3. Friday, Feb 4: Continuing with linear models. Homework 5 Handout is here.
    Matlab stuff:

Week 4

  1. Tuesday, Feb 8. Today we started linear neural networks, and discussed unsupervised learning. Here is a copy of the updated notes that were passed out in class. Other links:
  2. Thursday, Feb 10. Our focus is on training the linear network. Here are the Matlab files:
  3. Friday, Feb 11: We will meet in the computer lab and try to get further on understanding the Matlab code. Homework 6 will not be due until Tuesday, Feb 15. Summary page with some homework notes.

Week 5

Week 6

Week 7

Week 8

Week 9

Week 10

Week 11

Week 12

Week 13

Week 14

Week 15


Exam 1 Links


Exam 2 Links


Final Exam Links