This is the course page for the 18.A01 MIT First-Year Advising Seminar in Fall 2018, taught by Prof. Steven G. Johnson. Wednesdays 3–5pm in 2-146.

In this seminar, we will use computational experiments to explore classic topics in numerical analysis, such as root finding, numerical integration, error propagation, and so on. We will use a cutting-edge language called Julia that is well-suited to numerical computation, but previous experience with any programming language is fine. Basic calculus knowledge will also be helpful.

All course materials will be posted or linked to from here.

• First meeting, using juliabox.com: Numerical derivatives

There will be an optional tutorial session for the Julia computer language that we will be using in this semester. The tutorial session will be oriented towards beginning students in 18.06 and some other classes that are just using Julia as a "fancy calculator" that happens to have lots of linear algebra and other capabilities, whereas in 18.A01 we will be doing a bit more "real programming." Bring your laptops, and try logging into juliabox.com beforehand. More information:

• Instructions/links for using Julia
• Overview slides
• Julia cheatsheet
• Tutorial notebook

Note that Julia 1.0 was released very recently, and some of the tutorial materials and notebooks are still being updated for it.