DANIEL C. SLOUGHTER
Department of Mathematics
Furman University
Greenville, South Carolina  29613
Phone:  864-294-3636
Fax:    864-294-3001
E-mail: Sloughter_Dan/furman@furman.edu

Computational science in a liberal arts setting

With the help of an NSF ILI grant (grant number DUE-9451512), Dr. Hayden 
Porter (Computer Science), Dr. Frank Taylor (Physics), and I (Mathematics) 
introduced an undergraduate interdisciplinary course in computational science 
in the spring of 1995. We built the course around lecutures, structured 
laboratory work, and team projects. The lectures were used to review and 
enhance the students' knowledge of topics such as differential equations, 
computer arithmetic, stability, parallel computing, physical modeling, and 
techniques of visualization; the laboratory work included introductions to 
various software tools, exercises on obtaining and compiling software over 
the Internet, and applications to particular physical models. Each student 
team was composed of a physics major, a computer science major, and a 
mathematics (or mathematics/computer science) major. Each team chose a 
project from a list of suggestions and, at the end of the term, made a 
joint presentation covering the physical, mathematical, and computational 
aspects of their work. The four projects worked on this term were the Ising 
model, atmospheric modeling, the n-body problem, and normal modes of 
vibrations for coupled harmonic oscillators. Although the course had a number 
of rough edges in its initial offering, on the whole I believe it was a 
success. Information regarding this course, including an edited version of 
the original NSF proposal, a syllabus, and some of the lecture and laboratory 
notes, is available on the Internet at http://iris3.furman.edu/.