SYST 500 / CSI 600
Quantitative Methods for Systems Engineering, Operations Research, and Computational Science

Professor
Ariela Sofer
Science and Technology II, Room 123
phone: (703) 993-1692 or 993-1670 (secretary)
Office hours (Fall 2001): Tuesday 5:00--6:30, Wednesday 2:30--4:00 or by appointment
electronic mail: asofer@gmu.edu
fax: (703) 993-1521 (on cover sheet put: A. Sofer, SEOR Dept.)

Textbooks
Dennis G. Zill and Michael R. Cullen, Advanced Engineering Mathematics (2nd Edition), Jones and Bartlett (2000).
Hwei Hsu Probability, Random Variables and Random Processes Schaum Outline Series, McGraw Hill, 1996

Optional Text
Matlab Student Version, The Mathworks, 1999. The book comes with MATLAB Software on a CD-ROM, suitable for Windows and Linux platforms. Alternatively students may wish to use The Student Edition of Matlab 5, available still for a short while from Prentice Hall. A comparison of the two versions is available.

Course Description
This course is designed to provide the basic quantitative foundations that students need to pursue a graduate program in Systems Engineering, Operations Research, and Computational Science. Topics include vector and matrices, differential equations, Laplace and Fourier transforms and probability theory. A brief review of calculus and complex numbers will also be provided. The course will require some computational work using the software MATLAB.

Schedule

Grading
The will be two in-class exams: a midterm and a cumulative final. The midterm will make up 35% of the grade and the final will make up 35% of the grade. Homeworks will make up 30% of the grade. In computing the final grade, the lowest homework grade will be dropped.

Homework to date

Exam Dates
Midterm: Tuesday October 30 (tentative date)
Final exam: Tuesday, December 11, 7:30-10:15

• Make-up exams will only be given for extreme situations, and only if I am contacted before the exam is given and full arrangements are established. Full adherence to this policy is the responsibility of the student.
• The exam dates above are tentative, and it is the students responsibility to keep abreast of changes.
• Homework will be assigned each class, and usually collected. All work must be clearly written. Illegible work will not be accepted.
• There will be a penalty of 10% of the total grade for every day homework is late.