Proposal

Narrative

This proposal requests a three-year, unlimited-user site license for Mathematica, a programming language and computational engine created by Wolfram. This software is intended to aid in the development of our students through research and academic pursuits by keeping FAU competitive with other research intensive universities. We hope that competence in programming in general, and Mathematica in particular, will make our students more attractive and competitive to potential graduate schools and employers.

Coding and computational skills are becoming vital for work in technical fields. There are a number of reasons for this. For one, these skills require students to break difficult and complicated problems into more manageable pieces. Sometimes this is through expansion techniques and mathematical “tricks,” but often it is a simple application of delegation and organization. In addition, these skills require students to think logically through algorithms and data structures. This builds intuition into how to generate data, organize large sets of data and finally store the data. At first glance, this seems unimportant but allocation of resources (memory, storage, power, time) is a perpetual problem in computational fields. Finally, there are still lots of good jobs in programming because of applicability into nearly any academic discipline or way of life.

A site license extension will have significant impact in many departments and colleges at FAU. In the Charles E Schmidt College of Science, it is clear that it will be essential to Math, Chemistry and Geosiences. However, it can also be a powerful tool for departments closely aligned with the Center for Complex Systems and Brain Science…departments such as biology and psychology. Outside of the CESCoS, it is also apparent that there would be great values for departments in the College of Engineering. What may not be obvious is use in unexpected places like the College of Business. Numerical skill, particularly using tools such as Mathematica, is becoming a key part of the study of financial markets.

While I am less familiar with the details of how other departments would use Mathematica, I am familiar with how it would be used in our department. I feel that this could be representative of the value that other departments would see. The Department of Physics at FAU is continually searching for ways to set our majors apart. In the last 10 years, there have been a number of “tweaks” to our curriculum intended to make our program more relevant and competitive. Our investment, we feel, is paying off. We have an excellent track record in placing our majors in competitive NSF funded summer research projects. Our graduates that choose to go to graduate school also get into prestigious programs and they don’t just meet, but often exceed requirements for these programs.

To better prepare our students for these opportunities and challenges, the FAU Physics Department is incorporating an explicit requirement for computational physics into our curriculum. Starting Spring 2016, we will expand on an existing “Computational Physics” course for current majors. In Fall 2016, this course will become a required part of the BS in Physics. A primary component of this course is building skills and comfort with Mathematica—for plotting, visualization and programming purposes—although other languages like C, C++, Python, Fortran and Microsoft Excel may be employed. When fully implemented in our curriculum, this course will be intended at the start of the upper-division coursework.

In starting early with the development of computational skills, we can more easily develop broad-platform exercises in computation. Visualization and numerical modeling of systems are powerful tools for experiencing a system without direct construction of the system. These skills then allow students to create virtual experiments…particularly useful in cases where a physical experiment is exceedingly expensive or even impossible (with current knowledge). This is also a valuable skill set as our students compete for summer internships, graduate schools and, eventually, jobs.

Mathematica is not always the optimum tool for every application that we would have in computational physics. There are certainly times that it would be more natural to generate an app, manipulate a spreadsheet or write a simple program for number crunching in FORTRAN. However, Mathematica has tools that will allow us to work on problems even in situations when it is not the optimum tool. Its versatility is unrivaled by other possible languages. For example, it has a sophisticated programming language, powerful graphics tools and pre-built handles for program control after “compiling.” As an added bonus, it has adjustable precision on floating point operations and robust tools for helping to create programs that take use of multiple cores and processes. Finally, there are deep libraries of user generated content for use in applications ranging from finance to GIS and image processing to robotics. Even when it is not the most natural tool, it is very useful to have comfort with a known tool.

Access to Mathematica will become key to many of the lecture courses in the physics curriculum with the addition of this required computational component. Nearly every course in the upper division will be impacted by this change. For example, graphical solutions to differential equations are addressed in PHY 3101C “Survey of Modern Physics and PHY 4324 “Electromagnetism 2.” With Mathematica, this can be expanded to a greater set of problems. In the electromagnetism sequence PHY 3323 and 4324, it is surprisingly easy to come up with problems that are exceedingly difficult to do analytically. With access to Mathematica, we can use simple procedures to develop numerical solutions that give positive feedback to the student. In PHY 3221 “Classical Mechanics,” there are whole curricula developed to study non-linear and chaotic systems numerically. Mathematica is a linchpin tying all of this together.

FAU also has interest in undergraduate research. In physics, we find it is difficult to find projects for students because of the shear cost of experimental work in the field. Using Mathematica, there are numerous opportunities for undergraduate research projects that may even lead to publication quality results.

Mathematica is a flexible first language to learn and is a gateway to other languages. There is virtually no part of the Mathematica experience that would not translate to other more traditional computer languages. In each case, the underlying thought to a program is the key. We would like to use Mathematica as a framework for molding that thought, and would encourage other departments and colleges at FAU to follow our lead. The site license for Mathematica at FAU is an important part of that process.

Facilities

No facilities upgrades will be required. FAU currently has infrastructure in place to support this installation.

Hardware Requirements

Hardware requirements are already met by OIT for this installation. Individual users will be responsible for verifying hardware requirements on their computers.

Software Requirements

There are no additional software requirements beyond the licensing.

Personnel Costs

N/A

Other Costs

N/A

Timeline

Start of Project: (Fall 2015) Start license agreement with Wolfram Research by signing contract. (Fall 2015)

Sustainability

If funding, the agreement would keep the license and installation current for 3 years. If there is sufficient demand to continue after 3 years, additional funding will be sought.

Resource Matching

N/A

Implementing Organization

Implementation and housing of the license server would be performed by OIT to assure compatibility with University infrastructure. Individual users would be responsible for installation of their own machines.