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FAQs
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Q.
What is Holistic Numerical Methods Institute (HNMI)?
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In
1985, while pursuing his doctorate in Clemson University, the lead
investigator of this project, Autar Kaw
revised a WPAFB Apple IIe based BASIC program for laminate analysis of
composite materials.
Since migration to PCs was not an easy task then, in 1988, he and a
few hardworking independent study students wrote a completely new
laminate analysis program called PROMAL. This tool was then used in teaching
graduate level and senior elective course in Advanced Composite
Materials course. Since 1988, PROMAL, which is now written
in VB2010, has evolved into a product that is used
in over 75 universities worldwide, and accompanies the
Mechanics
of Composite Materials textbook (1997, 2005).
Naturally,
the success of this idea of developing these computational tools was
extended in 1990 to a course in Numerical
Methods. At that time, we started
developing simulations for Numerical Methods using Microsoft
Quickbasic3.0, and then in Visual Basic for Windows. We
unsuccessfully applied to get funding from NSF in the early 1990s
for developing and distributing (via floppy disks) the simulations
and textbook chapters for a comprehensive course in Numerical
Methods. However, when MIT unofficially announced their open
courseware initiative in 1999, our passion for the project
resurfaced. In 2001, we received the first of the
five NSF CCLI
grants to develop, assess, refine and revise a comprehensive open
courseware in Numerical Methods.
The courseware is distributed free of
charge to anyone in the world.
To quote the OCW initiative at
MIT, we are strong believers in "having open dissemination of
educational materials, philosophy, and modes of thought, that will
help lead to fundamental changes in the way colleges and universities
utilize the Web as a vehicle for education." We are
continually looking for self-sustaining avenues of dissemination,
and we have been fortunate so far to find sponsors to keep it free.
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Q.
What does it mean that this is a
developing website? |
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The
core of undergraduate numerical methods consists mainly of eight
topics/mathematical procedures, namely,
1)
approximations, errors & modeling 2) nonlinear equations, 3)
simultaneous linear equations including Eigenvalues/eigenvectors, 4)
interpolation, 5) regression, 6) differentiation, 7) integration, 8)
differential equations
Under the
NSF funding for the prototype
(2002-03), we developed modules
for
1.
Nonlinear Equation
2.
Interpolation
Under the
second NSF grant
(2004-07), we developed four more modules.
3.
Integration
4.
Ordinary Differential Equations
5.
Simultaneous Linear Equations
6.
Regression
Under the
third NSF grant
(2008-12),
we developed five more modules.
7.
Introduction
to Scientific Computing
8. Differentiation
9.
Fast Fourier Transforms
10. Partial
Differential Equations
11.
Optimization
Under the
fourth NSF grant
(2013-16),
we used the developed modules to compare a flipped class with a blended class.
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There
is no registration needed to use the course material. We are
keeping it purely open access without any hassles or obstacles such as
payment of use, registration, downloading, buying expensive software,
etc. But drop me a note to tell me how you are using the
resources. However, I am requiring faculty members who use any
of the the course material to send me brief info
and put link(s) to HNMI
on their web site.
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Faculty members can use the materials to enhance their classroom
lecture by using the power point presentations and simulations. They can ask students to quickly
assess their knowledge by taking the online assessment of multiple
choice questions. They can ask students to pre-study the
topics so that class time is used for discussion purposes.
However,
I am requiring faculty members who use any of the the course material
to send me brief info and put link(s)
to HNMI on their web
site. This will help us to keep this site
unrestricted and at the same time show where it is being used. Back
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Q.
How can a student use the course material? |
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A
student can use it to review background information on a topic,
perform their own simulations, review course material, go for
self-assessment of knowledge, learn how other engineering majors use
numerical methods, have seven different examples to illustrate each
method.
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This
courseware would only be possible with the web. We have taken a
holistic approach where users can review the background information as
well as see the higher level application of what they have
learned. We have also taken a customized approach because had
the contents been written in a a book form, one would have to write 28
versions of the book. But with this courseware, a student has
24/7 access and can work at his own pace with help from text book
notes, simulations and assessment.
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Q.
What
intellectual property policies govern the materials? |
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The
materials given on the web site are original and written by the faculty
and students at the University of South Florida, Florida A&M and Old Dominion
University. Any other material is either in public domain, or permission
has been given for its use and is acknowledged. If you have any questions
about the ownership of the materials, please contact us.
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Q.
How
do we define non-commercial use? |
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The
material on the web site or its derivatives can only be used for nonprofit
purposes in educational institutions of any grade level.
Providing direct links on user's website are critical in fair use of the
materials. For full details, see the
creative commons license. Back
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Q.
How
was the courseware developed? |
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The
course was developed using Microsoft FrontPage and JavaScript for the web pages,
Studymate for assessment tools; Microsoft Office for the text notes and lecture presentations;
MathCAD, Maple, MATHEMATICA and MATLAB for the worksheets;
Acrobat Pro for making of the PDF files; Adobe Photoshop for editing images; Flash for drawing sketches;
and Microsoft Publisher for advertisements.
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Q.
What
are the system and technical requirements for the course materials? |
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Read
all the system and technical requirements.
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Q.
How
do I search the course material I am looking for? |
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If
you know a topic and have a language of choice, the best page to find the course
material is the resource page.
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You can also use
google search that searches the whole
website.
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You can also go to the
site index.
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Q.
How
is HNMI supported? |
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The
Holistic Numerical Methods Institute was funded by National Science Foundation
through their
CCLI program. Support also came from
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the
Mechanical Engineering Department at USF via faculty release time and
conference support,
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the
College of Engineering at USF via undergraduate students through their
REU program,
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the
Engineering Computing at USF via software support and web site maintenance,
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the
University of South Florida via offering the PI sabbatical in Fall 2002 and
Fall 2010 to
develop the web site and form a basis for a full development proposal granted by
NSF in December 2003 and a national dissemination proposal submitted to NSF
in January 2011 ,
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Academic Computing at USF via support of
software training and Blackboard access,
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Maplesoft
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MathWorks
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MathCAD
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Milwaukee School of Engineering
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Florida A&M University
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Old Dominion University
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Arizona State University
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University of Pittsburgh
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Alabama A&M University
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Mississippi Valley State University
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The
long term goals of HNMI are to develop course materials for all the
main topics taught in a course in Numerical Methods.
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Q.
How
does a faculty member contact a real person from HNMI? |
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Contact the Principal Investigator -
Autar
Kaw via telephone, e-mail, fax or mail. Any inquiry, especially from
instructors of Numerical Methods, will be answered. We welcome
your questions, comments, and suggestions. We would like to help
you in incorporating the contents of the website in your course.
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Q.
Why are the
worksheets, especially ones written in
MATLAB, not
modular? |
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The
worksheets, especially those written in MATLAB, at first might appear not
well written; they do not take advantage of
modular programming. However, in our website modules, we wanted
to keep all subroutines and functions within a single script file.
This might not seem logical at first glance.
But, it is
important to note the overall goal of the worksheets is to provide the
student only one file. The content is in one file for
simplicity. Otherwise, there would be dozens of files that the
student would have to manage and understand-- not just one.
Also we want to show a numerical method worked out step-by-step as if
the student was working it out by hand. This is why many of the
worksheets show each iteration separately as opposed to in a loop.
We hope that you would ask your students to write procedures
(subroutines, functions, etc) and use modular programming techniques as part of the learning
process of Numerical
Methods. Back
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