Official Course Description:
Buying music on-line, making phone calls, predicting the weather, or controlling disease outbreaks would be impossible without mathematics, statistics, and computer science. This class focuses on methods of reasoning common to these disciplines, and how they enable the modern world. See here for a tentative list of topics.
Requirements Satisfied:
The course satisfies both Mathematics Competency and MCS Divisional requirements.
Course Goals and Intended Audience:
The primary goal of this course is to instill the skills of precise, rigorous logical thinking, modeling, and abstraction. The course is not intended to be a remedial course. Rather, it features an integrated subset of some of the basic elements of mathematics, statistics, and computer science, presented in such a way as both to reveal their inherent depth and beauty and to relate them more immediately to the students' chosen field of study. The target audience for this course are students in disciplines that do not have prescribed needs for specific MCS skills, including many disciplines in the humanities and social sciences in CAS, as well as disciplines in professional schools such as COM and SMG.
Laboratory-Style Support Structure:
In addition to the lectures and discussion sections, the course will feature laboratory sessions designed to give students a hands-on experience with the concepts taught in the course. Examples of labs include using spreadsheets to analyze data, software to visualize population growth models, or simulation to understand computational complexity. TFs will be available to assist with labs and for help during office hours and on-line interaction.
Class Format:
The format of this course resembles that of the Core Curriculum in that the contact time between faculty and students is split between course lectures (three hours per week) and discussion sections (one hour per week). Four faculty members—two from the Mathematics and Statistics Department and two from the Computer Science Department—will team-teach this course. Each faculty member will give the lectures over a three-week period and will lead one of the discussion sections throughout the entire semester. Students are required to register for the main course lectures as well as for one of the discussion sections, each of which will be capped at 20 students, allowing for a more interactive and deeper exploration of topics covered in the lectures.
Assignments and Grading:
Understanding of weekly material will be developed and assessed through homeworks (15% of the course grade), which typically will involve a laboratory component, and short quizzes (15%). Students will complete a course project chosen with the help of the faculty on a subject that interests them (20%). There will also be a midterm (20%) and a final exam (30%).