Description
Book Synopsis
Introduction to Modeling and Simulation with MATLAB and Python is intended for students and professionals in science, social science, and engineering that wish to learn the principles of computer modeling, as well as basic programming skills. The book content focuses on meeting a set of basic modeling and simulation competencies that were developed as part of several National Science Foundation grants. Even though computer science students are much more expert programmers, they are not often given the opportunity to see how those skills are being applied to solve complex science and engineering problems and may also not be aware of the libraries used by scientists to create those models.
The book interleaves chapters on modeling concepts and related exercises with programming concepts and exercises. The authors start with an introduction to modeling and its importance to current practices in the sciences and engineering. They introduce each of the pr
Trade Review
Gordon (Ohio State Univ.) and Guilfoos (Ohio Supercomputer Center) provide a practical introduction to the techniques involved in developing computer models and simulating those models. The emphasis in the text is on engineering applications, but natural and social science applications are addressed as well. The presentation is purposely constrained to a depth of coverage suitable for a first undergraduate course in the subject, with useful pointers for students who wish to visit the subject more deeply. The authors do a good job of introducing two computing environments for developing models and simulating them: the MATLAB commercial product and the freely available Python programming language. By judicious choice of Python libraries, the presentation of the two environments are virtually identical, leaving the choice of environment up to the instructor (or student). Readers using Python will need to correct minor errors in the text regarding how to set up the recommended Anaconda environment. Or, they might profitably choose simply to use the standard command line and code editor interface for that language.
--C. Vickery, Queens College of CUNY (CHOICE)
Gordon (Ohio State Univ.) and Guilfoos (Ohio Supercomputer Center) provide a practical introduction to the techniques involved in developing computer models and simulating those models. The emphasis in the text is on engineering applications, but natural and social science applications are addressed as well. The presentation is purposely constrained to a depth of coverage suitable for a first undergraduate course in the subject, with useful pointers for students who wish to visit the subject more deeply. The authors do a good job of introducing two computing environments for developing models and simulating them: the MATLAB commercial product and the freely available Python programming language. By judicious choice of Python libraries, the presentation of the two environments are virtually identical, leaving the choice of environment up to the instructor (or student). Readers using Python will need to correct minor errors in the text regarding how to set up the recommended Anaconda environment. Or, they might profitably choose simply to use the standard command line and code editor interface for that language.
--C. Vickery, Queens College of CUNY (CHOICE)
