Introduction to Differential Equations

Course Information and Policies

Lecture time/place: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 11:00am-12:20pm, NSC 210

Recitation times/places:

Instructor: John Ringland. Email: ringland at buffalo.edu

Teaching assistant (TA): Jonathan Lottes. Email: jllottes at buffalo.edu

Office hours for instructor and TA:

Prerequisites: MTH 142

Course website: http://blue.math.buffalo.edu/306. This website provides much of the information you need for the class, including links to all lecture material and to homework assignments. You are expected to bookmark this page and check it at least once a day. This is an open unrestricted website, so a few addresses we don't want to make public will not be posted there and will instead be emailed to you.

Email: Class announcements and some other important information and instructions will be sent to you via email. You are expected to check your UB email at least daily for the duration of the course.

Textbook: The required textbook for the course is C. Edwards, D. Penney, D. Calvis, Differential Equations, Computing and Modeling, 3rd custom UB edition. The 3rd custom edition consists of chapters 1-8 of the 5th standard edition of the book Differential Equations and Boundary Value Problems, Computing and Modeling, by the same authors. If money is tight, older editions should also be ok, since our homework assignments are online and not keyed to the textbook.

Content: Here is a detailed syllabus.

Relevant Dates

Grade: Your grade in the course will be determined as follows:

Class participation: This portion of the grade will be based on several aspects of class participation, including attending class and recitation, pop quizzes, and responding promptly to questions and requests.

Homework: Most homework will be done through the online system called Webwork. Your username is your UBIT username, and your initial password is your 8-digit UB person number. The first set, "Orientation", is already available and is due on Thursday, Sep 1 at 10:00am. All deadlines are precise to the minute, and absolute: the system will not let you submit an answer after the deadline has passed. In addition to the assignments completed on Webwork, some others will require you to upload a file or files to UBlearns. As with Webwork, absolutely no late homework will be accepted.

Midterm Exams: These exams are not cumulative, in the sense that they focus on material that was not on previous exams. However, ideas accumulate, so you can't just forget the older material. You will be allowed to bring a single page of notes to each exam, handwritten on an individualized sheet that will look like this but with your own name on it. (I will email your pdf to you soon after the last add/drop date.)

There is no Final Exam during Finals Week.

Projects: You will conduct each of the projects in teams of 4 students that I will assign. The teams will be carefully selected so that all teams have the same average class rank at the time of team-selection. Each team will turn in a single report, but there will be other individual requirements to measure how fully each team member participates.

The first project is due at 10:00am, Tuesday, Oct 18.

The second project is due at 10:00am, Tuesday, Nov 22.

Software: There will use the programming language Python (3.5) to do numerical, graphical, and symbolic computations that would be painful or impossible by hand. You will need to have a computer with a Python programming environment. The (free) Anaconda distribution, which comes with all standard packages included, is recommended. (If you are building your installation from scratch, you will need to add to the base distribution the following libraries: python-numpy, python-scipy, python-sympy and python-matplotlib.)

Laptop: On some days, I will ask you to bring your laptop to class, and you should always bring your laptop to recitation. If you do not have a laptop you can bring to class and recitation, talk to me right away to discuss possible accommodations. IMPORTANT: Use of a laptop, tablet, phone or other communication device for non-class purposes during class is strictly prohibited: any and each infringement of this will result in penalty of one third of a letter grade on your overall course grade.

Academic Integrity: Cheating in any form will not be tolerated. Any violation of this policy will be pursued to the fullest extent of university policy.

Posting of grades: Grades will be posted anonymously on the public course website so that you can see how you are doing, both in absolute terms and relative to everyone else. You will provide me with an "alias" (a made-up name) of your choice, so you - and only you - know which row in the grade sheet is yours: this alias can be anything you like that cannot be traced to you (cannot be your real name or an abbreviation of it, not your person number, not your gmail account name, etc.).

How to be successful in this course: Sustained steady effort: starting today! Make full use of the resources available to you: the website, me (Ask questions in class! See me during office hours, and by appointment.), Wikipedia, Google, Youtube, etc., the TA (in labs, during office hours, and by appointment), and last but definitely not least your fellow students! Get a study-group together. Start homework assignments early!

Adding or Dropping the Course: Monday, Feb 1, is the last day to add the course or drop it without a record on your transcript. Friday, April 15, is the last day to resign the class (with an R on your transcript).

Incomplete Grades: A grade of Incomplete (I) will only be given under extraordinary circumstances. Additionally, an incomplete will only be given if you have a passing average on all previously graded work in the course. To make up an Incomplete in a math course you must :

Accessibility Resources: If you have a diagnosed disability (physical, learning, or psychological) which will make it difficult for you to carry out the coursework as outlined, or requires accommodations such as note-takers, readers, or extended time on exams, please advise me before the first day of the course so we may review possible arrangements for reasonable accommodations.