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Computing for Scientists

Computing for Scientist is an introductory undergraduate course in Computational Thinking which meets the George Mason University Core requirements for Information Technology and Ethics. Computational Thinking is the process where someone looks at problems by identifying the data involved, the mathematical processes needed, and then produces information to answer the problem being asked. The objective of Computational Thinking is to turn raw data and problems into information and understanding. Students with minimal experience programming in a computational type of computer language is NOT at a disadvantage position. In this course, students will learn how to program in MATLAB, a high level language.

Introduction to Scientific Programming

This course focuses on elements of scientific programming using the FORTRAN language with emphasis on the aspects used in the computational and data sciences. The R language is also covered in the spirit of program prototyping and visualization. The main goal of this class is to familiarize students with basic concepts of programming in computational sciences. This course has the following objectives:

• Introduce readily available tools using in scientific programming.
• Explore algorithms and analyze their performance.
• Survey algorithms that solve basic mathematical problems.
• Introduce methods of simulation to explore scientific problems.