CHBE230: Computational methods


Intructor in charge
Anthony Wachs
Email: wachs@math.ubc.ca
Offices: CHBE423 and MATH229B
Office hours: By appointment only


MIDTERM EXAM: February 14th 2020, 12:30pm-1:45pm in CHBE314/CHBE316/CHBE318, duration: 1h15min.


Teaching assistants
Arman Seyed-Ahmadi, armanawn@mail.ubc.ca
Mohammad Hosseini, mohammad.hosseini@ubc.ca
TA office hours:
  • Arman, on Monday 1:00pm-2:00pm, in CHBE423, every week
  • Mohammad, on Thursday 11:00am-12:00pm, in CHBE423, every week

Course information
Lectures: Tue/Thu, 3:30pm-5:30pm, Location: CHBE-101
Tutorials: every week on Fri 12 - 2 pm (Jan 10th, Jan 17th, Jan 24th, Jan 31st, Feb 7th, Feb 14th, Feb 28th, March 6th, March 13th, March 20th, March 27th, April 3rd), Location: IBLC-182 (see below)
  • Tutorial 1: January 10th: Python crash course, introduction to Python programming Part I, IBLC-182
  • Tutorial 2: January 17th: Python crash course, introduction to Python programming Part II, IBLC-182
  • Tutorial 3, January 24th: Review of assignments (1 hour) + Solving new problems (1 hour), IBLC-182
  • Tutorial 4, January 31st: Review of assignments (1 hour) + Solving new problems (1 hour), IBLC-182
  • Tutorial 5, February 7th: Review of assignments (1 hour) + Quiz 1 (1 hour), IBLC-182
  • Tutorial 6, February 14th: Mid-term exam, CHBE314/CHBE316/CHBE318
  • Tutorial 7, February 28th: Review of assignments (1 hour) + Solving new problems (1 hour), IBLC-182
  • Tutorial 8, March 6th: Review of assignments (1 hour) + Solving new problems (1 hour), IBLC-182
  • Tutorial 9, March 13th: Review of assignments (1 hour) + Quiz 2 (1 hour), IBLC-182
  • Tutorial 10, March 20th: Review of assignments (1 hour) + Solving new problems (1 hour), IBLC-182
  • Tutorial 11, March 27th: Review of assignments (1 hour) + Quiz 3 (1 hour), IBLC-182
  • Tutorial 12, April 3rd: Review of assignments (1 hour) + Solving new problems (1 hour), IBLC-182

Textbook
S. E. Chapra, Applied Numerical Methods With MATLAB for Scientists and Engineers, McGraw-Hill. Both 3rd and 4th editions are fine
UBC Bookstore has new and used books for purchase or rental. Besides, an online version of the textbook is also available.


Installing softwares on your laptop

The whole course relies exclusively on Python and Jupyter notebooks. You can install Python and Jupyter separately, but this is not recommended.
Instead, the highly recommended way to install these softwares is to install Anaconda https://www.anaconda.com/ with 3.7 version of Python. Anaconda contains all required Python libraries, Jupyter lab and notebooks and other user-friendly Python programming tools as e.g. Spyder.

What are Python and Jupyter ?

Python: a free programming language that can be easily installed on any operation system: MacOS, Linux and Windows. We will use Python 3.

JupyterLab and JupyterNotebook: a user-friendly computing environment in which we will all our Python scripts in this course.


Learn Python with videos: there are many freely available videos in YouTube to learn Python, simply enter "python for beginners" in the search bar of YouTube and you will find many.


Outline of the course



Grading scheme
Final Grade = final exam (50%) + midterm (20%) + quizzes (24%) + homework (6%)
  • Midterm: scheduled for Feb 14th 2019, 12:30-1:45 pm in CHBE 314 + 316 + 318.
  • Final: date and time to be announced, to be written in Computer Rooms.
Policies:
  • Missing a quiz or the midterm results in a score of 0, except with prior consent of the instructor or with a doctor's note. In these latter cases, you will receive no score from the missed quiz or midterm, and its weight will be shifted to the other quizzes or the final exam. If you have a legitimate reason for missing the midterm, for example, your final exam will count for 70% of the grade.
  • Weekly assignments will be posted on the Canvas course webpage every Tuesday after the class and will be due one week after (next Tuesday) before the class, except the 1st homework due on Friday Jan 17th. Due dates are available on the Canvas course webpage. Late homeworks will receive no point. Homeworks are mandatory to hand to get corresponding points but are not marked. Each homework must be handed electronically on Canvas as a single Jupyter notebook.