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Science Mathematics and Statistics

Computational Mathematics for Science and Engineering (MATH5305)

Overview

MATH5305 is an honours and postgraduate coursework Mathematics course

Partial differential equations (PDEs) provide a natural mathematical description for many phenomena of interest in science and engineering. Such equations are often difficult or impossible to solve using purely analytical (pencil and paper) methods, especially for realistic industrial problems. This course introduces finite difference and finite element methods for elliptic and parabolic PDEs, and discusses key concepts such as stability, convergence and computational cost. Relevant techniques in numerical linear algebra are also discussed.

The course includes a substantial practical component dealing with the computer implementation of the algorithms used for solving partial differential equations.

Note: Students must have some prior experience with computer programming.

Units of credit:Ìý6

Exclusion: MATH3101 (jointly taught with MATH5305), MATH3301

Cycle of offering: Term 2

Graduate attributes: The course will enhance your research, inquiry and analytical thinking abilities.

More information:  The Course outline will be made available closer to the start of term - please visit this website: www.unsw.edu.au/course-outlines

Important additional information as of 2023

UNSW Plagiarism Policy

The University requires all students to be aware of its .

For courses convened by the School of Mathematics and Statistics no assistance using generative AI software is allowed unless specifically referred to in the individual assessment tasks.

If its use is detected in the no assistance case, it will be regarded as serious academic misconduct and subject to the standard penalties, which may include 00FL, suspension and exclusion.

If you are currently enrolled in MATH5305, you can log into for this course.

Course overview

Topics to be covered in the course include:

  • Finite differences for stationary problems in 1 dimension
  • Finite differences for parabolic problems in 1 dimension 
  • Finite differences in 2 dimensions
  • Finite elements in 2 dimensions