Latest News/Announcements

(archived announcements at bottom of page)

03/20/2019:  Update on Final/Strike:

The administration deems the campus to be accessible (see ucsc.edu/status) and so the AMS10 final will go ahead in a normal fashion.

I realize that it may still be a bit different from normal to get onto campus and sympathize with that.  Please be careful, and allow yourselves plenty of time to get to the final.

GOOD NEWS!!! -- 82% of you completed the SETs and therefore you are ALL getting a 1% bonus on your total grade!   Thanks for taking part in making this class better!

See you soon!

03/18/2019:  Important news regarding Final/Strike:

As you all know by now, there is projected to be a strike on campus on Wednesday March 20th, the day of your AMS10 final examination (noon-3pm).

Please be aware that currently the University's policy is that it is "business as usual" for the campus on that day.  The campus information webpage ucsc.edu/status says:  "The campus expects to hold all exams, review sessions, classes, discussion sections/ labs, and office hours as normal."

I am therefore duty bound to let you know that the final is happening on Wednesday as expected, unless this status changes.

I know this might cause some inconvenience to some of you, as getting onto campus may be different from usual.   Luckily our exam is at noon and so at least we will all have plenty of time to figure it out.

If there is any change in plan, I will update you as soon as I can.

03/15/2019:  Extra office hours before finals:  Bhishek Mon 10-12.   NB Mon 3-5pm

03/11/2019:   Student Evaluations of Teaching (SETs):  These are the online questions where you get to comment on what in class helped you to learn (and what did not etc).  I have been involved in implementing a new system and new questions in an attempt to improve things.  You guys are all guinea pigs in this experiment!  See what you think of the new questions and new style!  Help future generations by giving your opinions on what works for this class and what doers not.  It helps if more people participate too, so I am offering a 1% grade bump to the whole class if we get more than an 80% response rate!

03/11/209:  FINALS ARE COMING SOON! 

  • The material for the final was all concluded by the end of week 9.  No new testable material this week (Week 10)
  • We will do some reviewing of the whole course in Week 10.  Remember that the final is cumulative so the whole course is fair game!
  • There is a PRACTICE FINAL HERE (and solutions here)
  • Make the most of the sections, office hours, LSS sections, etc etc in the run up to the finals.
  • Remember, you must get more than 60% in the final to pass the course.
  • A review sheet is here!
    •  
Linear Algebra  

General Class Information

Our main goal is to introduce the main concepts in linear algebra to engineering students. The course will cover complex numbers, systems of linear equations, their matrix form, the properties of matrices (including rank, inverse, determinant, eigenvalues and orthogonality), vectors and vector spaces, and linear transformations. All of these ideas will be taught in a context of applied problems and with frequent use of computational resources. In particular, students will get a gentle introduction to the use of the software MATLAB.

Lectures:

Tu Th, 03:20-4:55pm,  Thimann 3 (click here to get a map)

Classes are now webcast!  Go to webcast.ucsc.edu  
You need password information to access the webcasts.  The password information is here.

Instructor:

Name: Nic Brummell

  • Email: brummell at soe.ucsc.edu
  • Phone: (831) 459 2122
  • Office: BE 357A
  • Office hours: Mon 5-6pm, Wed 5-6pm (and by appointment)

Teaching Assistants:

Name: Skylar Trigueiro

  • Sections: A & B (Mon & Tues)
  • Email: striguei at ucsc.edu
  • Office hours: BE 312 C/D, Tues 11am-1pm

Name: Bhishek Manek

  • Sections: C & D (Wed AM & Thurs)
  • Email: bmanek at ucsc.edu
  • Office hours:  BE 312 C/D, Wed 2-4pm

Name: Natural Chan

  • Sections:  E & F (Fri & Wed PM)
  • Email: najchan at ucsc.edu
  • Office hours:  BE 312 C/D, Fri 2-4pm

 

Sections:

Regular class sections

  • Section AMS10 01A, Min Ong Windows Lab: Merrill Room 103, Mon 9-11am, Sky
  • Section AMS10 01B, Min Ong Windows Lab: Merrill Room 103, Tues 9-11am, Sky
  • Section AMS10 01C, Min Ong Windows Lab: Merrill Room 103,  Wed 9-11am, Bhishek
  • Section AMS10 01D, Min Ong Windows Lab: Merrill Room 103, Thurs 9-11am, Bhishek
  • Section AMS10 01E, Min Ong Windows Lab: Merrill Room 103, Fri 9-11am, Natural
  • Section AMS10 01F, Min Ong Windows Lab: Merrill Room 103, Wed 5:30-7:30pm, Natural

LSS  sections

Learning Support Services (LSS:  https://lss.ucsc.edu/}) will provide extra free small group tutoring (SGT) sessions with a class size of 10-12.  This can be very very useful!  All students are eligible for 2 hours per week.

You need to sign up to be able to access this extra tutoring (beginning Jan 11th) at https://lss.ucsc.edu/programs/small-group-tutoring/index.html

The Learning Assistant supplied for the course is  Margaret Clinton : meclinto at ucsc.edu

Margaret has added some more detailed instructions on how to sign up in the Forums at https://ams010-winter19-01.courses.soe.ucsc.edu/forums/general-discussion

 

Class Rules and Regulations

A brief summary:

    • Required text: David Lay, 'Linear Algebra and Its Applications', Addison-Wesley
    • Discussion sections are mandatory.
    • There will be a very easy quiz in each discussion section
    • There is one homework per week due on by Fri 5pm (drop boxes, Jack's Lounge) on the previous week's material
    • There is one midterm
    • There is one final
    • Grades: 10% homework, 10% quizzes, 30% midterm, 50% final
    • You must get 60% to pass including at least 60% in the final
    • Maximise your chances: read the book, do homework and practice problems, go to section, tutorials, office hours

Resources you will need all the time:

Other Resources:

  • Disability Resource Center:

    • UC Santa Cruz is committed to creating an academic environment that supports its diverse student body. If you are a student with a disability who requires accommodations to achieve equal access in this course, please submit your “Accommodation Authorization Letter” from the Disability Resource Center (DRC) to me privately during my office hours or by appointment, as soon as possible in the academic quarter, preferably within 1 week. I also am open to and want to encourage you to discuss with me ways I/we can ensure your full participation in this course. If you have not already done so, I encourage you to learn more about the many services offered by the DRC. You can visit their website (http://drc.ucsc.edu/index.html), make an appointment, and meet in-person with a DRC staff member. The phone number is 831-459-2089 or email drc@ucsc.edu.

 

 Archived Announcements

02/08/19:   Yay!!! MIDTERM is DONE!!!   Here is the midterm exam and its solutions. We are currently grading like crazy (trust me, grading 225 exams is far worse than taking 1 exam!).   Grades will be out as soon as possible.  You can get your exam back and discuss the solutions in sections.   Back to normal now for a few weeks .  Remember, there is still homework due today, sorry, gotta keep on rolling along!

01/30/19:  MIDTERM NEXT WEEK -- THURS FEB 7th in class! 

  • The midterm will be on all the work we have done so far up until the end of this week:
    • complex numbers;
    • solving linear systems of equations;
    • augmented matrix form (rank etc);
    • matrix-vector form (inverses, link to soln of eqns, etc);
    • general matrix theory (algebra, transposes, etc);
    • applications;
    • simple knowledge of useful MATLAB functions and data entry. 
  • Here is a REVIEW SHEET
  • Here is an example midterm and solutions (posted here and on the lectures schedule)

 

01/18/19:  MONDAY IS A HOLIDAY!  People who are in the Monday section (section 1A with Sky) can EITHER go to Sky's office hours on Tuesday 11am-1pm (BE312 C/D) for a makeup section OR go to any of the other sections that week by any TA (see below for section times).

01/18/19:  HW1 DUE IN TODAY!   Drop your HW off in Jack's Lounge (map here) by 5pm, in the drop boxes (#6,7,8) with your TAs name.  If you can't get your HW in the correct drop box (e.g. it is full), then drop your HW in the "overflow" drop box, Box #5.

01/14/19:  WEBCAST:  Unfortunately, due to the microphone malfunction, there is a 10 minute piece of the webcast (froim the 43:00 min point on) where there is no audio.  Sorry!  Don't think there is much I can do about that.  Hopefully the video and other aids (book, your memory of the actual lecture, office hours, etc) are good enough to get you through that short piece!

01/10/19:  Margaret, our LSS tutor, added some detailed instructions on how to sign up for the Small Group Tutoring sessions on the Forums page (see menu to left). 

01/10/19:  You will learn some MATLAB in this class!  If you are unfamiliar with MATLAB, there are some useful starting resources in the "MATLAB resources" menu tab to the left of this page, or go to: https://ams010-winter19-01.courses.soe.ucsc.edu/forums/general-discussion   

 

01/08/19:  Note that there are NO SECTIONS THIS WEEK!   Sections start Mon 14th Jan 2019

12/20/18:  Get ready to start class Jan 8th!  See you there!