Syllabus

Instructor:  John Roe, Professor of Mathematics, with the assistance of Dong Chen.

Meeting Times:  The class meets four times a week, on Mondays,  Wednesdays,  and Fridays from 11.15 a.m. to 12.05 p.m.  in 113 McAllister Building, and on Tuesdays from 10:10 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.  Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays will be devoted to lectures, and Tuesdays to a review session.

Office hours will take place Wednesday 3:30-4:30 and Friday 9:15-10:00.  My office is 204 McAllister Building.  Students are strongly encouraged to make use of available office hours to discuss any questions or problems that they may have about the course or about mathematics more generally .  Feel free to contact me at john.roe@psu.edu if you want to set up a meeting at a different time. 

There is also a blog for the course at this link.  Participation in the blog is strongly encouraged.  I will monitor the blog and chime in from time to time, but the intention is to give you another tool to collaborate in learning and problem-solving.  The blog is enabled for MathJax which will allow you to include standard mathematical notation.

Textbook: Lecture notes will be provided, and they will constitute the main text for the course.  I don’t know of any book which covers everything that we are going to study – that is because the winding number is connected to so many different parts of mathematics! However, it will be helpful sometimes to have an introductory topology book to refer to.  There are many great books on this subject.  I recommend the book Introduction to Topology by Theodore Gamelin and Robert Greene because it is fairly short, clear, and not expensive (it is a Dover reprint, 12 bucks at Amazon).

Grading:   Your grade will be computed on the basis of the following factors:

  • Homework  There will be regular homework assignments throughout the course.  Homework will be due on Fridays and will be returned on the following Tuesday. I will aim to assign the homework at least a week before it is due. Please see the homework page for a calendar and links to specific assignments.
  • Participation Points will be assigned for posting or commenting on the class blog, and for classroom interaction.
  • Midterm Exam (October 8th, 10:10 a.m. – 12:05 p.m.)
  • Honors Project Each student must work on a  project, which should be a connected and coherent exposition of an application of the course material to a mathematical, scientific, or technical problem.  A list of possible honors projects will be provided but students are free to select their own.
  • Final Oral Exam Individual oral exams will be given in each of the three MASS courses.  These include a discussion of your honors project.

This course is part of the MASS Program at Penn State.  A detailed course outline can be found here.

Penn State welcomes students with disabilities to participate in its educational programs.  More information about accommodations for students with disabilities can be found here.  If this applies to you, please provide the instructor with the required information as early as possible in the semester.

All Penn State policies regarding ethics and honorable behavior apply to this course. Academic dishonesty will not be tolerated. Please read and understand the academic integrity statement for this course.