ZCE 111 Computational Physics

Instructor: Yoon Tiem Leong
Course webpage: www2.fizik.usm.my/tlyoon/teaching/ZCE111/1112SEM2/
USM elearning course webpage for ZCE 111 (for forum discussion and assignments submission)

Wednesday: 10 - 11 am, 2 - 5 pm
Friday 2 - 4 pm
(tutorial)
(computer lab, School of Physics, USM)
The time slots are still tentative, and may be modified for the conveniece of all (to be decided after discussing with the students)

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Course information


FAQ about ZCE 111

Who should take this course? Is it difficult? What's the difference between MAT 181 and ZCE 111? Check out here:

Lecture Notes/tempates and Mathematica codes

Lecture notes and sample codes can be found here. Please read the lecture notes before attending the class. It also contains lecture templates. These are *.nb  files updated online concurrently
when a lecture is being conducted.

Homework Assignments

There is a certain number of homework assignements you must submit. These assingments are to be submitted in the form of Mathematica notebook file (xxx.nb). You are urged to submit only one single .nb file for one homework assignment. Name your Mathematica notebook file systematically, e.g., Assignment_1, Assignment_2, etc. The Mathematica notebook files are to be submitted to the USM elearning portal. Please also check out a template for the homework assignment, assignment_template.nb. Details of the assigments are to be found in the USM elearing portal

Project

1)     It is compulsory to submit ONE project for the ZCE 111 as part of the assessment requirement. 

2)     For this project, you must form a team of two persons. You are also allowed to do it alone if you prefer so. Choose one (or more if you wish) project(s) from the titles listed here. Each team only submits one report even if there is more than one person in the team.

4)     You are to submit a FULL report prepared in a single .nb file (i.e., use the Mathematica to prepare your project report).

5)     Presentation: Prepare a separate 20-mins .ppt presentation for your team’s project. The presentation could be conducted anytime when you are ready, but it must happen a week after the last day of final semester examination.

The format in your reports is as follow (apart from the usual essential information such as names and date etc).

1)               Title of your project

2)               An abstract providing a brief but essential description of your project

3)               Fully-commented codes, and possible a necessary description of your algorithm behind the code.

4)               Discussion of the essential physics and outcome of your program.

5)               Conclusion.

6)     A few samples of previous year project report can be found here for your reference.

Assessment

100% continuous assessment. NO FINAL EXAM.

Assignments / exercises - 40%,
Project  - 20%
Tests - 30%
Attendence / participation- 10%


Additional requirement:

Attendence is now compulsory. You may be barred from continuing this course if you fail to attend the classes (> 30% absence).

Mathematica Resources

  • You can now download and install Mathematica in your own PC / laptop for free. USM has now a compus-wide Mathematica license. Click here (password required to unzip the file) to download the Mathematica 8 installation file (~ 800++ MB).
  • To complete the installation of Mathematica in your own PC/laptop, you will need to obtain an activation key from Wolfram, the company that sell Mathematica to USM. To this end you have to go through some online procedures before they send you the passwords and license. Please follow the online instruction here. The most essential information you need to supply is your USM student email account. Wolfram will not entertain your request if you do not supply them with an USM email account (e.g., tlyoon@student.usm.my).
  • Alternatively, you can also install the Mathematica using network license. The "location" for the network license is the IP: 10.205.19.205. Computer installed with network license can only get activated if the computer remains connected in USM local network.
  • Mathematica is a very powerful software pacakge for symbolic computationa, graphics, and more. You may bookmark the Mathematica Documentation Center so that you can refer it at your finger tips. You are also suggested to work through Fundamental of Mathematica Programming.

Textbooks

Links to selected computational physics courses

Questions, Comments, ...

The preferred forum for subject-related questions and comments is the forum on elearning.usm.my. Feel free to contribute answers as well as ask questions! Email me at tlyoon@usm.my regarding personal issues