M443: Applied Linear Algebra

Instructor Jose Rodriguez Van Vleck Visiting Professor

Information Announcements will be made at this website. The syllabus is available here.

Office Hours (Van Vleck 7th floor):

Book: Introduction to Applied Linear Algebra Vectors, Matrices, and Least Squares by Stephen Boyd and Lieven Vandenberghe.

Class : MWF 11:00AM - 11:50AM in White Hall 4281

Final: Dec 16, 2019 from 12:25PM - 2:25PM.

The focus of the quiz will be announced on the prior Friday in class.
You are encouraged to bookmark this website to check for new announcements.
I do not send reminders via email.

Important dates:

Dec 16, 2019 Final Exam Monday 12:25PM - 2:25PM in SOC SCI 6102

Dec 11-13 Poster with fundamentals write up are due.

Announcements:

Dec 12 There will be extra office hours Saturday at 11:15am.

Dec 10-b Don't forget to upload your poster and fundamentals as pdf's to canvas before the December 13, 11:59pm.

Dec 10-a Final exam outline updatedhere.

Dec 06 Final exam outline here.

Dec 06 Peer Feedback forms are due.

Dec 2 HW C9: Give a one page to two page summary (one sided) of the Friday lectures covering Chapter 9 or summarize Sections 9.1-9.5 of the book. (Since many of you are traveling I will accept this HW on Dec 4 without penatly.)

Nov 26 Do not print your poster. I only want digital copies.

Nov 20-b You have a substitute again on Friday.

Nov 20-a Here are some references for SVD: here and here.

Nov 13-b You have a substitute on Friday on Chapter 9.

Nov 13-a HW has been posted, see above.

Nov 11 I am delayed because of the weather, and I will not be able to have office hours today. There will be class today.

Nov 6-b On Friday you will have a substitute that will talk about using Python to solve problems in linear algebra. Come with questions.
I personally use a Python Development Environment in Atom. Here is a tutorial.

Nov 6-a Next week I would like to do SVD.

Nov 11 Quiz on definitions C11-C12, HW-C12[3, 4, 7, 8].

Nov 04 No quiz, HW-C11[7, 8, 12, 13, 16, 17, 18, 22(a,b)].

Nov 01 Poster project proposals due.

Oct 30-b C11 HW has been assigned.

Oct 30-a Please review exercises 11.1-11.6. I would like to ask for volunteers to provide solutions to these exercises.

Oct 27 Quiz on Chapter 10. HW-C10[4, 5, 6, 7, 11, 17, 18, 34, 37, 39, 40]

Oct 22-c If you plan to do a chapter summary for your poster, great. But, please tell me in class as soon as possible what chapter you plan to do.

Oct 22-b I will have extra office hours Wed Oct 23 at 9:30am.

Oct 22-a I fixed the issue that prevented the website from updating.

Oct 20 Quiz, HW-C8[4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 13, 15]

Oct 18-b No office hours on Monday because I will on an airplane on the way to class.

Oct 18-a Today we reviewed for Monday's quiz.

Oct 15-b REU: Oregon State University

Oct 15-a REU Site: Algebra, Combinatorics, and Statistics

Oct 13 Quiz, HW-C7[2, 4, 9, 12(b), 13, 14, 15(a)]

Oct 6 HW-C6[3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12(c,d), 13, 14, 15, 19]

Oct 04-b We covered Section 7.1 in class today. Read Section 7.2 on your own and we will cover 7.3 and 7.4 on Monday. After this, I want us to cover Section 8, then Section 10.2, then Section 9, then Section 10.3 and 10.4.

Oct 04-a Chapter 6 and Chapter 7 HW has been shortened.

Oct 02-c During the class right before Thanksgiving we will provide poster feedback to volunteers in small groups.

Oct 02-b Today we covered the chapter on matrices and matrix groups. A reference for matrix groups is here.

Oct 02-a Flu shot information here.

Oct 01 I will begin accepting poster proposals and Collaboration Agreement Forms.

Sep 30-b No quiz next week.

Sep 30-a Quiz, HW-C4[1, 2, 3, 4], and HW-C5[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6].

Sep 28: The Homework due Monday has been updated and shortened.

Sep 23-b Quiz, HW-C3[1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 15, 16, 17, 20, 21, 26, 27].

Sep 23-a: After the feedback the class provided on Question 4 from Quiz 3, this is an update on how quizzes will proceed: On future quizzes, questions on content not covered in lecture will be bonus and not appear as standard questions.

Sep 20-b: The quiz will cover Chapter 3.1-3.4.

Sep 20-a: For those that are interested: Visualizing sorting algorithms.

Sep 17-c: For those that are interested: 3=a^3+b^3+c^3.

Sep 17-b: For those that are interested: Putnam Club https://www.math.wisc.edu/wiki/index.php/Putnam_Club.

Sep 17-a: For those that are interested: Mathematica knowledge is not required for this course. Mathematica is available at University of Wisconsin at Madison, and there is a free training for students: http://url.wolfram.com/9z1DNksE/.

Sep 16 Quiz and HW-C2[Problems 4, 5, 6, 9, 10].

Sep 12: The class will now meet in White Hall 4281.

Sep 11-c: HW-C3 has been posted.

Sep 11-b: HW-C2 has been updated.

Sep 11-a: The department has made a request to relocate our classroom to White Hall 4281 If this request is approved, then I will announce it on the course website.

Sep 09 Quiz and HW-C1[Problems 1.6 - 1.18, completion only] due.

Sep 09-e: Grades will be posted on Canvas. For privacy reasons, I do not discuss grades over email.

Sep 09-d: Collaboration on homework is encouraged. Please include the names of your collaborators.

Sep 09-c: Reminder: the book for this course is by Stephen Boyd and Lieven Vandenberghe.

Sep 09-b: I do not post solutions. You are encouraged to discuss with your classmates or come to office hours if you are concerned about a HW problem.

Sep 09-a: You are not required to bring a calculator to class.

Sep 05-b: Library Databases.

Sep 05-a: Campus Software Library.

Sep 04: The physics students might like this: Punching Water So Hard Light Comes Out.

Sep 04 First day of class.

Aug 29: Questions about waitlists should be directed to Placement.

Final projects:

This project counts 31% towards your grade in the course.

[10%] Proposal: Title, abstract, outline, bibliography. A digital copy should be uploaded to Canvas and a hardcopy should be handed to me by November 1, 2019 that describes (1) the title of your project and why you chose it, (2) an outline of how you will approach the project and concrete goals on the topic, (3) the document should include a bibliography. A list of possible topics is provided here.

[12%] Peer Feedback Provide a feedback form for at least three posters. A digital copy should be uploaded to Canvas and a hardcopy of a completed form should be turned in to me and to the person/people you gave feedback to. The form can be found here. Good feedback should be tactful, polite, and constructive. These forms are due at least one week before the last day of class.

[18%] Fundamentals, Questions + Answers. This is a written document to accompany your poster. This should (1) summarize the fundamental ideas of your poster and (2) provide a list of questions an outsider might have looking at your poster and how you would respond. A digital copy should be uploaded to Canvas by the last day of class.

[60%] Final poster This should be a pdf document of a poster. A guide to a good poster can be found here. Here are some examples of a poster. LaTeX templates can be found here. Your poster must be original, well organized, correct, and provide scientific content. A digital copy should be uploaded to Canvas by the last day of class. Here is another template for a poster.

Clarifications.

Digital copies of every file should be uploaded to Canvas so that we both have a record. In addition, hardcopies of the Title, abstract, outline, bibliography and Peer Feedback that you provided for others should be handed to me by the due date.

If a pair of people would like to work together, then they will need to have a Collaboration Agreement Form filled out and approved by me. Otherwise each individual is expected to submit their own work.

It is strongly discouraged to use the same project in two different classes.

Grading Procedure:

Class Grades: These will be assigned according to the historical distributions (approximately).

Homework: To ensure that your homework is graded, turn it in on time in class. I prefer that you turn in what you have finished on time, then to risk it not being graded by turning it in late.

Collaboration on homework is encouraged.
Please include the names of your collaborators.

Late HW HW not turned in within the first 9 minutes of class the date it is due will be assigned half credit or a zero at the grader's discretion. Exceptions must be cleared by me in advance and only in rare situations. Homework with no name will be assigned a zero.

Homework is graded on

(1) Completion: It is clear that a good effort was made to solve the problem.

(2) Correctness: The mathematical concepts are understood correctly.

(3) Clarity: The proofs are well written and logical.

(4) Style: Information is presented well. For example, the handwriting is legible, homework is stapled and your name is on each page, your student ID is on the first page, etc.

Here are some tips from the grader.
Do not leave drafts on the turned-in papers.
Do not break sections by drawing lines.
Do not use arrows excessively to navigate arguments.
Summarize or conclude with complete sentences.
Cross out unwanted stuff with one line. Keep the crossings tidy.
Do not leave rough edges of the papers.
Always staple pages together.

Drops: I do not drop the lowest homework grade but I do drop the lowest quiz grade. There are no make up quizzes.