Math 170A, Winter 2016

Class Forum and Email Policy:
The best way to keep up-to-date about the course is via this course's Piazza page. Sign up for this class on Piazza here. (Or look for an activation email from Piazza: data from TED was transferred over and you have been sent an invitation; check your official UCSD email address.) Piazza includes a discussion forum to ask general questions that can be answered by the instructor, TAs, or fellow students. To help accommodate people who may feel uncomfortable posting with their identities, anonymous postings are also allowed. Piazza also has an equation editor that allows display of math notation not available in email.

Because of these available resources, and the anticipated large size of the class, please check Piazza first (and maybe ask there), and then this webpage, before sending emails. Any such email answerable by other means will not get a response. Many questions about homework assignments will require in-depth responses, which are more appropriately answered in office hours; in that case, email should primarily be used to set up appointments in case you cannot make it to an office hour. Please be considerate and remember that I am a fellow human who has other life responsibilities outside of work, so not every email, especially those out of reasonable working hours, can be expected to receive a prompt response.

There is also TED for this course, though it will only be, for our purposes, a place to check your grades. Piazza will still be the main place for discussion.

Lecture Meeting Times and Location: MWF 12:00p-12:50p in Pepper Canyon Hall (PCYNH) 106
Sections and TAs: Your TAs are Francesca Grogan, Yi Luo, and Jeremy Schmitt.

Catalog Description: 170A. INTRODUCTION TO NUMERICAL ANALYSIS: LINEAR ALGEBRA (4)
Analysis of numerical methods for linear algebraic systems and least squares problems. Orthogonalization methods. Ill-conditioned problems. Eigenvalue and singular value computations. Three lectures, one recitation. Knowledge of programming recommended.

Textbook: Fundamentals of Matrix Computations, Third Edition, by David S. Watkins.
Prerequisite: Math 20F (knowledge of programming basics or MATLAB basics, which should have been covered in 20F, is highly recommended [but see below in Grading and Exam policies])

There are two midterms (on Friday 1/29/16 and Friday 2/26/16) and a final exam (on Wednesday 3/16/16). The grading breakdown is as follows:

• You may bring an 8.5 x 11, double-sided sheet of notes to the midterms, and two such note sheets to the final.
• No make-up exams will be given. In the case of, and only in the case of, a medical emergency, with a doctor's note, you may be excused from an exam, and your grade will be determined by re-weighting the other exams.
• No calculators will be allowed (or needed) on the exams.
• Exams will be heavily based on homework. Therefore it is to your advantage to do the homeworks, go to lecture, discussion sections, and office hours to get proper feedback, even after you have submitted it or received a grade for it, and even if such a grade received is good.
• Grades will be adjusted ("curved") in a way so that an average grade will be no lower than a B-. However, we will strive to make exams in a fair manner that eliminates the need to adjust the grading scale: the curve exists as an insurance policy for differences in opinion of what I think is "reasonable" and "based on homework".