Hi, my name is Nathan Kutz and I'm a
professor and chair of applied mathematics
at the University of Washington.
I'm here to tell you a little bit about
scientific computing, and the course that
you are looking at right now.
This course was developed over a decade
ago at the University of Washington, to
address the needs, of the students in the
engineering, physical and biological
sciences.
In particular, today, it's very difficult
to do any kind of scientific work without
having computational fluency.
The course tries to highlight the major
themes and techniques used mathematically
from such diverse fields as biology to
physics.
It is a first of three courses offered by
Corsera from applied mathematics.
This course being scientific computing,
the second being data analysis, and the
third course being high performance
computing.
Combined together, they offer a wonderful
survey of the methods and techniques in
scientific computing.
What's needed for this course is a strong
background in linear algebra, differential
equations and some background in
algorithim and programing development.
With those skill sets and a lot of work,
you can wi, work your way through and
cover the major themes and techniques
mathematically that allow you to solve
some of the world's most complex problems.
In fact, the challenges posed by today's
modern computation.
Such as solving for how neurons interact
in the brain for doing computations and
functionality or for solving for very
complex systems such as predicting weather
or climate changes; are the kind of things
we're after in doing scientific computing.
I hope you'll join me in this course.
I think you will find it to be a wonderful
experience, and that you will learn a
great meaning of mathematical techniques
and cutting edge methods that you can use
and apply across a great range of science.