Mathematics 860, Spring Semester 2006 January 13, 2006

Instructor: Andrew Sommese (sommese@nd.edu)

291 Hurley Phone: 631-6498

Time/Place: MWF: 1:55 to 2:45 in Hayes-Healy 215

Class Website: www.nd.edu/~sommese/math860

Office Hours: I am available after class, 10:30-11:30 T in my office, and by appointment. Dr. Gennady Margolin (gmargoli@nd.edu), who will help with problems and tests is available on Th, 2–4, in room 112, Hayes-Healy.

Examinations, homework, and grades: There will be two examinations worth 100 points and a final examination worth 150 points. All examinations will be likely be home.

Homework will be assigned regularly, and is an integral part of the course. Typically homework will be assigned on Wednesday and collected the following Wednesday. I strongly encourage you to see me or Dr. Gennady Margolin if there is material in the course that you are unclear on or would like to know more about. You are allowed and encouraged to use your notes and any library books while doing the homework.

Both examinations and the homework are conducted under the honor code. While cooperation in doing homework is permitted (and in fact encouraged), copying is not.

Homework will be worth 100 points. Thus the total number of possible points for the semester is 450. The numerical break points for letter grades (A, A-, B+,…) will be based only on the test scores and the homework.

There is no assigned book. A number of useful books are on reserve for the class in the Mathematics Library Implementation of algorithms is of basic importance in applied probability (and a lot of fun also). We will mainly use Maple and Matlab for this purpose.

Exam 1: Monday, March 6 in class (probably take home). Exam 2: Monday, April 10 in class (probably take home). Final: Wednesday, May 10 in class (probably take home).

The most recent version of this handout plus other useful materials can be found

at www.nd.edu/~sommese/math860.