GEOP 529/Math 519 Overview and Syllabus
Spring Semester, 2009
M/W/F 11:00 - 11:50 AM, MSEC 351
Professors:
Rick Aster (RA), x5924, MSEC 356; aster@ees.nmt.edu
Brian Borchers (BB), x5813; Weir 222; borchers@nmt.edu
Note that this is a co-taught course, and both professors may not necessarily be present for all lectures due to travel and other obligations. You are encouraged to meet with either professor when you have questions (this may be best accommodated by email and/or discussion before class). Dates when each professor expects to be out of town are indicated on the syllabus below to the best of our ability.
Class Web Site: http://www.ees.nmt.edu/Geop/Classes/GEOP529.html
Text: Parameter Estimation and Inverse Problems, by Aster, Borchers, and Thurber, Elsevier Academic Press, 2004. Note that our textbook will essentially function as the notes for the class (although we will add ancillary material from time to time). There is an accompanying book web site that includes errata.
Book Web Site: http://www.ees.nmt.edu/Geop/Classes/GEOP529_book.html.
Overall
Grading Distribution:
Student Presentations. A major component of this class is an ~20-minute class presentation (plus ~5 minutes for questions) and accompanying concise written report on an inverse or parameter estimation problem that is of particular interest to you. If your talk uses data, you may use either a real data set from your research or from elsewhere, and/or generate and analyze (meaningfully realistic) synthetic data. We alternatively welcome theoretical or implementation talks on specific techniques.
Professors Rick Aster and Brian Borchers will be available throughout the semester to assist you with presentation topic suggestions, references, and details on technical implementation.
In your presentations (as well as generally, of course) it is crucial that you convincingly demonstrate your knowledge of the material through summarizing the context and importance of your topic, insightful understanding and fielding of questions, citing of references, and by applying your own unique perspective. Do not simply reiterate someone else's work from the literature!! Hopefully needless to say, be certain that you do not duplicate anything verbatim from any of your sources without direct attribution! This is plagiarism and can result in your flunking the course. See us if you have any questions about what constitutes plagiarism. The NMT Library also has a useful link on avoiding inadvertent plagiariasm.
For further clarification, check out the NMT Library Plagiarism Link: http://www.nmt.edu/~nmtlib/INFO/ORef/plagiarism.html
Project Reports and Project Deadlines. Your report should be approximately 7-10 pages long and should encapsulate the gist of your project without excessive elaboration, and must feature your own original observations and comments. You are encouraged to use MATLAB and Powerpoint in your presentation. Be certain to have your talk well rehearsed (students are welcome to help each other here and/or show their slides to the professors in advance) and your presentation hardware and software is working well before class starts so that your audience doesn't have to wait for you to get set up. There is a computer-projector projector installed in the MSEC 351 classroom that you should be well familiar with and test with your laptop of choice before giving your talk. You have the option of handing out ancillary notes to the class on the day of your presentation if you feel that it will enhance the lecture. We strongly encourage you to begin planning your project immediately and to keep this assignment in mind throughout the course. The dates for specific presentations will be scheduled in association with the professors. The class web site also has numerous examples of past class projects.
Special dates to remember:
Using MATLAB. It is essential that you become proficient in MATLAB to do well in this course! MATLAB is a very useful and simple to use package that is available on the Geophysics Program Suns and Macs, on TCC-supported machines, and is also available in a low-cost student PC version. If you don't already have a facility with MATLAB, please start familiarizing yourself (e.g., by running the demo program) as soon as possible. We will also spend up to four lectures early on in the course reviewing MATLAB and its linear algebra capabilities. There is also a MATLAB primer posted on the class web page, and of course, there are many resources on-line.
2009 Spring Syllabus (Subject to Minor
Changes)
All reading assignments are from Aster,
Borchers, and Thurber, 2004)
W 1/21 Class Overview
and Introduction RA
F 1/23 Class Overview
and Introduction RA
M 1/26 Linear Algebra
Review w/MATLAB RA
W 1/28 Linear Algebra
Review w/MATLAB RA
F 1.30 Linear Algebra
Review w/MATLAB RA
M 2/2 Linear Algebra
Review w/MATLAB RA
W 2/4 Probability
Review RA
F 2/6 Probability Review RA 1st HW Due
M 2/9 Least
Squares Theory RA
W 2/11 Least-squares
Theory RA
F 2/13 1-norm
Theory BB
M 2/16 1-norm Theory BB
W 2/18 Discretization RA
F 2/20 Discretization RA 2nd
HW Due Deadline
for presentation topic approval, clear with either RA or BB
M 2/23 Tomography BB (RA Gone)
W 2/25 Rank Deficient
Problems RA
F 2/27 Rank Deficient
Problems RA
M 3/2 Ill-posed
Problems RA
W 3/4 Ill-posed
Problems RA
F 3/6 Regularization BB (RA Gone) Deadline for presentation Abstract and Outline, present to both RA and BB
M 3/9 Spring Break
W 3/11 Spring Break
F 3/13 Spring Break
W 3/18 Regularization RA (BB Gone)
F 3/20 Regularization BB
M 3/23 Discretization,
revisited BB
W 3/25 Nonlinear
Regression BB
F 3/27 Nonlinear Regression BB 4th HW due
M 3/30 Nonlinear
Regression BB
W 4/1 Nonlinear
Regression BB (RA Gone) Deadline
for Full draft of final report, present to both RA and BB
F 4/3 Nonlinear Inverse Problems BB
M 4/6 Nonlinear
Inverse Problems BB
W 4/8 Nonlinear Inverse
Problems BB (RA
Gone)
F 4/10 Holiday
M 4/13 Nonlinear Inverse
Problems BB
W 4/15 Bayesian Inverse
Theory BB
(RA Gone)
F 4/17 Bayesian Inverse
Theory BB
(RA Gone);
M 4/20 Global Methods BB
W 4/22 Global Methods BB
F 4/24 Global Methods BB
M 4/27 Global Methods BB (RA Gone)
W 4/29 Student
Presentations
F 5/1 Student Presentations 6th Homework due
M 5/4 Student
Presentations
W 5/6 Student
Presentations
F 5/8 Student
Presentations Last day of classes; Project
Write-ups Due