Summer classes on differential equations for an LA resident?

April 16, 2008 10:59 PM

Looking for summer courses in differential equations, online or in the Los Angeles area.

Since I got my bachelor's four years ago, I haven't had a lot of opportunities to use my skills in mathematics. I'm starting a Ph.D. program in the fall, which will involve some computational modeling of physical processes, and I would really like to brush up on the rustier bits.

It is proving difficult to find summer courses in differential equations, since it's not a tremendously popular subject. Can someone recommend a school--preferably within a half-hour drive of Santa Monica or Long Beach--that might have such a thing? I've checked UCLA and USC with limited success. Extra bonus points if the same institution has courses in programming (C++ or Java, for preference.)

Online courses would be excellent too, even preferable, but I'm even less sure where to start with those. I'd prefer something with a human instructor, rather than an entirely self-directed option like MIT's OpenCourseWare. Are there any distance learning programs with solid advanced mathematics classes?

posted by fermion to education (3 comments total)

Santa Monica College offers two sections for the summer. Unfortunately, they're both Monday-Thursday classes (don't know what your schedule's like).

Check their summer schedule for the CS classes.
posted by hobbes at 11:09 PM on April 16

It looks like Cal State Long Beach might be a good bet for you. They're teaching a course called "Applied Mathematics I (MATH 370A)" this summer, and it covers "First order ordinary differential equations, linear second order ordinary differential equations, numerical solution of initial value problems, Laplace transforms, matrix algebra, eigenvalues, eigenvectors, applications." Just what the doctor ordered!

Course schedule.
Catalog.
posted by mr_roboto at 2:14 AM on April 17

You said you aren't interested in OCW, but there's a complete differential equations course with good quality audio and video at iTunes U. You can also find UCB's Java-based data structures class here, for example. The latter link seems to have crummy audio so you might want to see if any other semesters sound better.
posted by harmfulray at 4:24 PM on April 17