Computational Mechanics of Materials, Fall 2003

Abstract:: 16.225 is a graduate level course on Computational Mechanics of Materials. The primary focus of this course is on the teaching of state-of-the-art numerical methods for the analysis of the nonlinear continuum response of materials. The range of material behavior considered in this course will include: linear and finite deformation elasticity, inelasticity and dynamics. Numerical formulation and algorithms will include: Variational formulation and variational constitutive updates, finite element discretization, error estimation, constrained problems, time integration algorithms and convergence analysis. There will be a strong emphasis on the (parallel) computer implementation of algorithms in programming assignments. At the beginning of the course, the students will be given the source of a base code with all the elements of a finite element program which constitute overhead and do not contribute to the learning objectives of this course (assembly and equation-solving methods, etc.). Each assignment will consist of formulating and implementing on this basic platform, the increasingly complex algorithms resulting from the theory given in class, as well as in using the code to numerically solve specific problems. The application to real engineering applications and problems in engineering science will be stressed throughout.

Exploring data: graphs and numerical summaries

Abstract:: This Unit will introduce you to a number of ways of representing data graphically and of summarising data numerically. You will learn the uses for pie charts, bar charts, histograms and scatterplots. You will also be introduced to various ways of summarising data and methods for assessing location and dispersion.

No Strings Attached

Abstract:: This module discusses how it is possible to describe functions in four different ways: graphically, verbally, algebraically, and numerically.

Abstract:: Engineering applications of approximation and interpolation, solution methods for ordinary differential equations, numerical solution of partial differential equations, nonparametric and parametric probability and regression estimation, and Monte Carlo and uncertainty analysis.

Abstract:: Exploration of formal and informal modes of writing nonfiction prose. Extensive practice in composition, revision, and editing. Reading in the literature of the essay from the Renaissance to the present, with an emphasis on modern writers. Classes alternate between discussion of published readings and workshops on student work. Individual conferences. As the course title suggests, this class is meant to acquaint you with the literary and rhetorical tradition of the essay, a genre which has been described by one scholar as "the meeting ground between art and philosophy," and by another as "the place where the self finds a pattern in the world, and the world finds a pattern in the self". Though the essay is part of a tradition of prose which stretches back to antiquity, it is also a thoroughly modern and popular form of writing, found in print media and on the web.