Fall 2025
John Ringland ringland@buffalo.edu
Lecture: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 8:00AM-9:20PM.
Lecture location until Oct 23: 205 Math Bldg
Lecture location after Oct 23: remote via Zoom
Office hours: Math Bldg Room 206. Thursdays, provisionally 9:30-10:30am.
The course will be quite hands-on, and you'll be writing quite a bit of code. The language you will use is Python. Please download and install the current Anaconda distribution of Python, if you haven't already. This includes Jupyter notebook, a useful coding environment.
The goal is that you'll emerge from the class with not only theoretical understanding but also practical skills.
Website: https://blue.math.buffalo.edu/537_f25
UBlearns will be used only for you to submit your homeworks and project.
Weekly starting 2nd week. Due at 11:59pm Fridays. You will upload your work to UBlearns.
There will be 2 midterm exams (80 minutes each) and a comprehensive Final Exam (3 hours).
A single hand-written sheet of notes will be permitted in each exam. No other resources are allowed.
An exercise longer than homework problems. Several options to choose from.
Homework 20%
Class participation 10% (includes arriving on-time each day)
Midterm 1 20% Tuesday, September 30
Midterm 2 20% Thursday, Nov 6
Project 10% Project submission due: class time, Tuesday, Dec 2
Final Exam 20%. Thursday Dec 11. (8:00-11:00am, comprehensive.) This exam also serves as a Qualifying Exam for those in the Math PhD program.
The programming language you'll be using is Python.
Generative artificial intelligence, as currently available in the form of large language models such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Github Co-pilot, Cursor, etc., is going to radically transform human activity and society in ways we can now only begin to imagine.
On the one hand, the use of AI to aid you in this course is not forbidden. Indeed it's almost unavoidable: a normal Google search today leads first to an AI response.
On the other hand I caution you as follows:
(i) Research has shown that students who routinely use AI for coursework assimilate significantly less that those who don't. Leaning heavily on AI will likely be counter-productive for you in the long term.
(ii) When submitting work in this course you are implicitly declaring that it is something you yourself could reproduce without human or AI assistance. In any situation where I doubt this, I may decide give you an oral examination on the material. Failure to perform satisfactorily on such an exam will not only result on a failing grade on the assignment, but it will be considered a violation of academic integrity policies.
UB's Academic Integrity policies will be enforced. The overarching principle is that the work you turn in will be what you did, or could do, yourself - without human or AI assistance.
If you need accommodations due to a physical or learning disability please contact the UB Accessibility Resources Office to make appropriate arrangements.
The major course topics will be:
The content of the course will correspond to selections from Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9.
Material on computer arithmetic error bounds will also come from:
A supplementary gentler text providing introduction and more motivation: