PH 542 Non-linear Dynamics (Autumn 2018-19)

Instructor Name: Punit Parmanand


Course Type: Theory


Pre-requisites: None 

Course Content:
Simple Harmonic Oscillations (damped, forced), Logistic Map, Bifurcations, Feigenbaum constants, Dynamics in 1,2 and 3 dimensions, Bifurcations, Lyapunov Exponents, Experimental tools used in research.

Other Topics Covered:
Index theory, fractals


Books:
Non Linear Dynamics and Chaos - Steve Strogatz.


Lectures:
"Lectures are interactive, and fun to sit in. Professor strongly encourages paying attention in class and contributing, and so expects 100% attendance, especially in the presentations. Professor sometimes assumes that students know and are familiar with mathematics that they usually are not. Explanations tend to be more intuitive rather than have a mathematical rigour, which may feel disconcerting at times. 

Slides are used for the lectures, which were shared later"


Assignments:
No formal assignments. Professor gives some coding assignments to willing students, but they are not considered for grading. Tutorials are discussed in class. Professor usually tries not to fail students, but only gives 2 or so AAs


Exams and Grading:
"One quiz, midsem, endsem, of total weightage of 70% (distribution was decided by mutual consensus to be 20 for quiz, 25 each for midsem and endsem). 20% to weekly presentations, 10% for in-class interaction.
Students were divided into groups of 4, and had to present on a topic of their choosing in front of the class, the TAs and the Prof."

Pro-tips:
google, for the coding.


Respondent: Vedant Shneoy

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