CS 615:
Numerical Methods for
Partial Differential Equations

I've written an overview of what I hope the course will be like.

We'll write software using:

popov.math.purdue.edu, a dual-processor, 500 MHz Alpha 21264, with 2 Gbytes of memory. It's running Red Hat 6.0 Linux, gcc 2.95.2, and the latest version of the Compaq C compiler. I'll arrange for everyone to get an account.
(a hacked version of) Gambit-C 3.0, a Scheme->C compiler with runtime and interpreter, written by Marc Feeley. You can find the documentation here
Meroon, a CLOS-like object-oriented system for Scheme written by Christian Queinnec. You can find the documentation here.

I've written some software that can be used in finite-element methods; you will be expected to use and extend it during the course. (Update: the software now contains contributions from the students of CS 615.) It's not complete, it doesn't even seem to all work, but it's a start. Also, see my notes about things that may be important about setting up your account on popov.

If you've never written a program in Scheme before, I suggest you study The Schematics of Computation by Manis and Little. The object-oriented system they introduce in the book is quite different from Meroon, but the rest of it will be helpful. The University Bookstore at Grant and State has five copies of the book available, and I'm sure they'll order more if necessary. Be prepared to start programming soon.

I've added a list of subprojects that might give you ideas about what to do to contribute to the large project.

A list of reference books on reserve in the Mathematics Library can be found here.

New: I've written an abstract of a talk about the software developed in this project.

New: The version of Meroon that we use in the course is now available.