MATH 151A
Applied Numerical Methods
Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Requisites: courses 32B, 33B, 115A, Program in Computing 10A or Computer Science 31. Introduction to numerical methods with emphasis on algorithms, analysis of algorithms, and computer implementation issues. Solution of nonlinear equations. Numerical differentiation, integration, and interpolation. Direct methods for solving linear systems. Letter grading.
Units: 4.0
Units: 4.0
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Most Helpful Review
Spring 2018 - Okay. I'll speak from personal experience here. This is for 151B by the way. In a nutshell, Deutsch's lectures aren't the best, but the graded classwork and exams are very manageable. Lecture-wise, his handwriting was hard to read, and he would repeat what he writes without giving much context. Thus, it's super hard to digest the information, especially with the very algorithmic and computational nature expected of the material in 151B. However, if you need to take the class, what I advise is to truly take some time to sit through and understand the corresponding sections in the book deeply. His tests do not have unreasonably hard curveball questions, so you should end up thoroughly knowing how to do the easier derivations and how each method works, as well as advantages/disadvantages. I mean, I could tell that he's a nice professor too, as he offered to drop one of our midterms later in the quarter and curved pretty generously at >=85% being at least an A- (probably because the final had a median of 70, but in my opinion, it was pretty fair). All in all, unclear lectures, but manageable work and tests.
Spring 2018 - Okay. I'll speak from personal experience here. This is for 151B by the way. In a nutshell, Deutsch's lectures aren't the best, but the graded classwork and exams are very manageable. Lecture-wise, his handwriting was hard to read, and he would repeat what he writes without giving much context. Thus, it's super hard to digest the information, especially with the very algorithmic and computational nature expected of the material in 151B. However, if you need to take the class, what I advise is to truly take some time to sit through and understand the corresponding sections in the book deeply. His tests do not have unreasonably hard curveball questions, so you should end up thoroughly knowing how to do the easier derivations and how each method works, as well as advantages/disadvantages. I mean, I could tell that he's a nice professor too, as he offered to drop one of our midterms later in the quarter and curved pretty generously at >=85% being at least an A- (probably because the final had a median of 70, but in my opinion, it was pretty fair). All in all, unclear lectures, but manageable work and tests.
Most Helpful Review
I highly recommend Professor DeVita! He is a pretty young guy, especially compared to others in the math dept, so he can relate to undergrads. Upper-divs can be a great or horrible experience, depending on the professor. With DeVita you will get effective lectures that go by the book, concise homework, and very fair exams (open book/notes!!). I was in 151A the term before with Fattorhini, so I can directly compare their teaching styles. Even though Fattorhini was very friendly and wanted us to learn, it was clear that he cared more about theory than the application or large-scale computing. Even though it was supposed to be numerical ANALYSIS, that professor focused on proofs and barely touched coding. The difference with DeVita was night-and-day; he approached the same topics with a focus on application and encouraged use of programs like Matlab. The pace was great for an intro class.. he started with the basics of using a programming language and familiar processes like bisection method. Lectures were very clear and involved both derivations and examples.. no sweat if you missed lecture, because it was clear which section in the book to read. My favorite thing about Professor DeVita was his awareness of industry application. A lot of math professors forget that most undergrads are more interested in industry than academia. Professor DeVita spent just as much time discussing effective coding (minimizing computational error, using binary, etc) as he did on theorem proofs. I look forward to taking 151B with him next quarter :)
I highly recommend Professor DeVita! He is a pretty young guy, especially compared to others in the math dept, so he can relate to undergrads. Upper-divs can be a great or horrible experience, depending on the professor. With DeVita you will get effective lectures that go by the book, concise homework, and very fair exams (open book/notes!!). I was in 151A the term before with Fattorhini, so I can directly compare their teaching styles. Even though Fattorhini was very friendly and wanted us to learn, it was clear that he cared more about theory than the application or large-scale computing. Even though it was supposed to be numerical ANALYSIS, that professor focused on proofs and barely touched coding. The difference with DeVita was night-and-day; he approached the same topics with a focus on application and encouraged use of programs like Matlab. The pace was great for an intro class.. he started with the basics of using a programming language and familiar processes like bisection method. Lectures were very clear and involved both derivations and examples.. no sweat if you missed lecture, because it was clear which section in the book to read. My favorite thing about Professor DeVita was his awareness of industry application. A lot of math professors forget that most undergrads are more interested in industry than academia. Professor DeVita spent just as much time discussing effective coding (minimizing computational error, using binary, etc) as he did on theorem proofs. I look forward to taking 151B with him next quarter :)
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