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Deadlines

• Project Proposal (Oct 26th)
• Progress Report (Nov 7th)
• First Draft (Nov 21st)
• Presentation (Dec 12th, 7:00-10:00 PM)

Assessment - 100 pts

• Project Proposal (10 pts) - As complete a description as possible with your goals and an outline of how you expect to proceed.
• Progress Report (20 pts) - Report progress towards goals, outline and webpage. Provide as much detail as possible, including mathematics. The more you provide the easier the next steps will be.
• First Draft (30 pts) - You will be graded on the evidence of work, mathematical detail and understanding and proper exposition. This project should be as close to done as possible in all aspects of research. You are to provide your current webpage, MS Word file, and/or PowerPoint slides.
• Presentation (20 pts) This will be a  presentation to the class based upon your webpage. All electronic materials should be submitted well before the presentation date. The order of presentations will be determined beforehand. A single presenter should take 10-15 minutes plus 3-5 minutes for questions. Groups should take 20-25 minutes plus 5-8 minutes for questions. 
• Webpage (20 pts) Your webpage should provide a mathematically correct exposition to topic. It should be readily moved to the class website with all links working properly. Pay attention to the mistakes made by the previous class. Note that links may move, rendering your page unusable over a long period of time. Make sure that you have made your point in a clear fashion on your own pages. You will be graded on clarity, mathematical content and correctness, exposition, and creativity. The class will contribute to the grading process.
  
  The term web page means an organized collection of materials and your report that can be linked by the instructor to a common projects page. The types of materials that can be used are
  • PowerPoint Presentation
  • Report in Word and/or PDF
  • An HTML page with images and links.
  • Matlab m-files, Maple Worksheets, etc.

Contents

You should make every effort to be as complete as possible in your work. Items, which are important are as follows:

• Author(s) and Title - Clear and to the point.
• Abstract/Short Description - Lead off with an overall description of what the reader will find on your page.
• Introduction - Every paper should have an introduction to summarize your topic and what you are about to say.
• History - Be sure to include the history behind your topic and include interesting characters.
• Theory - Provide a solid mathematical background, using correct mathematical writing style where possible.
• Relevant Graphics - Make use of graphics, but mostly when making a point. Do not use large files. Too many pictures, or videos, on a page, cause slow downloading. For large files, indicate the file size.
• Matlab/Maple Implementation - Everyone should have some numerical implementation of their system, or a related system.
• Summary - Provide a summary of what you have presented and what you have learned. Were your preconceptions challenged? Are you a better person today than when you started ...
• References - Do not forget references. Reference anything that is not your own work using proper referencing format. Your references should include texts and articles. You may also add to you list references to articles online as long as they are reliable.

Paper Writing

• If you use MS Office, then you are expected to use the built-in Equation Editor. All important equations need to be numbered and set off from the text.
• You may use LaTeX. See the LaTeX help for more on this.
• There are a variety of conventions for writing papers in mathematics. For a description of how to write papers in mathematics go to this site.

Projects Ideas

Here are some topics to get you thinking. Of course, there are many others. You will need to be a little more specific in your choice and all topics will need prior approval. No two group projects should be the same.

• Fractal Music
• Fractal Image Compression
• Fractals in Biology
• Chaos in the Solar System
• Chaos and Meteorology
• Controlling Chaos
• Nonlinear Circuits
• Nonlinear Chemical Reactions
• Quantum Chaos
• Turbulence
• Cellular Automata
• Fractals in Nature
• Mandelbrot and Julia Sets
• Iterated Function Systems