Goal

Your goal in the course project is to develop a wiki page describing some aspect of Numerical Methods. The write-up can be anything from a theoretical description to an application simulation to a discussion of implementation strategies. Some ideas are below. Your topic of choice must

• highlight a particular topic in numerical methods or numerical analysis
• be helpful to other students

Another critical component to this project is that you must add at least one section to at least one other wiki project over the semester.

Content

Your wiki page will develop over the semester and it is advisable to start playing with ideas and the wiki setup right away. Your page should read like a guide or how-to and should include the following sections (you do not need to use these section headings):

• Introduction
• A brief description of the project and purpose of the write-up.
• Background
• Enough setup information to familiarize the reader with the method, application, etc.
• Content
• These sections should include the core of your content. In these sections you will describe the algorithm or details of your proposed task. You should include code, graphical output, and results if necessary.
• Concluding Remarks
• You should comment of the pleasantries and pitfalls encountered in your project. Include ideas for further expoloration, open ended questions, and shortcomings of your analysis.

Grading

The project is worth 10% of the overall course grade. Since the project is intended to evolve over the course of the semester, it will not be graded until the end of the course. The wiki will be locked on the day of the final exam.

You may work on the project in groups of 1-3. The amount and depth of content in a project should be commensurate with the number of people. Your individual grade for your page will be the same as the others in the group as long as the logged edits represent a realistic division of work. You will also be individually responsible for the "external edit" detailed below.

The wikis will be graded as objectively as possible. Fancy wiki and html editing is not necessary; it will only add additional points to the style portion. The style aspect will be based on organization of ideas, cleanliness of the presentation, and effectiveness of the code, mathematics, and graphics included. The project will be based on 100pts and is distrbuted in the following way:

pts	name	requirement
10	Content: Topic	The topic should be interesting, creative, and applicable to the course.
10	Content: Intro	The abstract and purpose of the page should be firmly stated. The topic and project should be described. The connection to the course is particularly important here to establish a "broader picture".
10	Content: Background	Sufficient background information should be included. In this section you should outline the relevance of the topic by setting up the application, discussing implementation difficulties, or mathematical subtlties. This should not include the "how-to" or "guided" part of the project, but instead the "set-up" portion.
15	Content: Core	The how-to should be methodical and organized. After reading this section, one should be able to follow a series of steps to to arrive at an implementation, results, or simulation that highlights or uses a particular numerical method. The core portion of your project is not merely a description of a process, but more of a guide or a how-to.
10	Content: Concluding Remarks	This should include your own thoughts on the process. The remarks should be professional, yet candid. Comment on the viability of the implemenation, problems one may encounter (perhaps based on your experience), and further exploration one might undertake.
10	Style	The page should be well organized and easy to follow. Reseasonable use of code blocks, sections, lists, and graphics should be considered. Additional points will be awarded for particularly impressive visual appeal and layout. The project should be grammatically correct and read reasonably well.
10	External Edit	Edit another group or individual's wiki over the semester. Avoid making changes to the overall content, goal, and orgranization of another page. Instead, focus on adding a section that details an additional aspect of the project, includes a helpful explanation of the results, or further clarifies a portion of the guide. Vandalism will, of course, result in a zero.
10	Progress: Topic	By March 30, a tentative topic should be chosen. This allows exposure to computational errors, root finding, linear algebra, interpolation, and numerical integration topics. those interested in IVP should make adequate progress in the content by this date to justify reasonable progress.
10	Progress: Draft	By April 20, general outline, progress on the intro and background sections, and evidence of mathematical/compuational investigation should be apparent.
5	Progress: Final touches	By April 27, your page should be far enough along for others to easily add aditional content.
100

Although not explicitly mentioned above, correct mathematics and analysis is essential for full credit.

Note: editing Luke's or the TA's pages is encouraged, however this will not count as your "external edit"

The Process

For those not familar Wiki editing, do not fear. The editor included with Mediawiki is graphical and fairly intuitive to use. You may need some time to get familiar with the wiki. See Wikipedia for different styles in the articles. There is a massive help section at Mediawiki (HELP), the software behind Wikipedia, as well as at Wikipedia itself (HELP). Feel free to add more help pages to the course wiki that you find help ful.

To start your project, you need to one of the following:

1. select a title and use the input box on the Main Page
2. or edit a page and make a link to your new page (which doesn't yet exit). after you save this edit, a link will come up to edit your new page.

After you start a page, make sure you link it somewhere so everyone can see it. Put a link at least on the Main Page.

Suggestions

Comments on the Wiki

• these guidelines may change
• make edits to the wiki at your liesure
• the wiki has no anonymous editing, so every edit you make will be logged. generally, we will only look at the logs in cases of vandalism and in cases where equal participation in a group project is not apparent
• you will be assigned a login and password
• hacking the wiki and the wiki server is prohibited. malicious tampering of pages, settings, or web services of any kind will result in a zero in the course and possible University action
• in the unlikely event that there are hardware or software problems, the wiki project will be replaced by an additional homework. data is backed up.
• Jacob Schroeder is the the primary TA for the Wiki Project. Please see Jacob first regarding editing, ideas, and content.