MAT 440 – BIG Problems
Fall 2025 Syllabus (Coming Soon…)
(Please forgive my appearance: Site construction in progress…)
Course Description: BIG Problems in Mathematics will engage students with research problems in the areas of Business, Industry, and Government (BIG) agencies. Through the course of the semester, students will work toward a solution to a single or series of problems posed by BIG liaisons, concluding with a final written report and video presentation to the sponsoring agency. Specific course topics will change depending on the needs of the sponsoring agency.
Course Timeline
This is a project-driven course, so the schedule beyond the first few weeks will be shaped by your team’s progress, liaison feedback, and research directions. Here’s a tentative outline of the early sessions to get you started.
| Class Meeting | Before Class | During Class | After Class |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Review syllabus Create a GitHub account |
Course overview Meet your team and liaison Discuss project background |
Set up your software environment (git, Python/R/Matlab, IDE of choice) |
| 2 | Research project and approach | Crash course in git/GitHub | Create a private team repo Add teammates (and me!) Write a basic README Create a Quarto project notebook |
| 3 | Continue project and approach research | General software workflow basics Soft launch…issues, branches, merging |
Assign basic initial issues branch and close with merges |
| 4 | Update project progress | Research strategies: where to look, how/when to use AI tools, and how/when not to |
Start working! |
| 5+ | Plan for class check-ins Prepare for interim presentations |
Working sessions Present to liaison ~every 3 weeks |
Use feedback to prioritize next steps |
Additional Helpful Resources
You are likely to find the following general resources quite helpful.
- Ted Laderas’ git/GitHub overview
- Meghan Harris: Please Merge Before I Start Crying
- Quarto Guide
- More to come…