640:423:01 Elementary Partial Differential Equations



Class meets: MW4 (0200pm-0320pm), TIL-251 LIV.
Instructor: Dr. Zheng-Chao Han
Office Hours: Th2:00-3:30 or by appointment at Hill-522. I will also try to be in the classroom 20 minutes before the class starting time to answer questions.
Email: zchan at math dot rutgers dot edu (The preferred email communication tool is the Canvas email tool so that students' emails from this course will be distinguished from other emails to my Inbox. I will try to answer questions raised via email in a timely fashion, but prefer to answer math questions with back-and-forth interactions during office hours).
Text: The following is the required text for this course: W. Strauss Partial Differential Equations: An Introduction, 2nd edition, 2007 (ISBN: 978-0470054567), Wiley.

You may find the following book to be an additional reference. J. David Logan, Applied Partial Differential Equations (ISBN: 978-3319124926). Rutgers students can get free online version via Rutgers' library system, or a softcover copy at $24.95. Here is a direct link to the springer site and here is the library link.
Canvas The course will use Canvas for all course material during the semester. All enrolled students should have automatic access to the site after logging into Canvas. Current information about syllabus and homework will be found there.


Prerequisites

The listed prerequisite for this course is CACL4; a good command of Green's and Gauss' theorems from CACL3 is equally essential.


Homework and Quiz Policy

Homework and Quizzes: You will have weekly regular assignments and occasional quizzes. The quizzes will come in the form of pre-lecture reading quizzes, which will be given during the hours before the start of the lectures, and assessment quizzes, which will be given during pre-announced time-slots. Only a portion of the assigned problems will be graded, but it is important to do all the problems, as only by doing enough problems can you learn the material; and quiz and exam problems are often based on the assigned problems.

Unless instructed otherwise, discussion with fellow classmates is allowed at the strategy formulation stage of homework, but not at the writing-up stage; if you do have discussion with fellow classmates in completing your homework assignment, you need to make explicit acknowledgement (provide name(s) of classmate(s) with whom you have had discussion with) in the problem(s) for which you have engaged in some discussion. In addition, if you consult any other source (such as a web page, solutions from a previous semester, etc.) in the preparation of homework, you must acknowledge this by citing that source; moreover, the work you turn in must be composed and written up entirely in your own words, not copied from a source, or completed with the help of others. Failure to observe these restrictions will be treated as a violation of the Rutgers ACADEMIC INTEGRITY POLICY.


Grading Guidelines

The grading of the regular assignments, quizzes, and exams will expect reasonable justifications for the computations and derivations. Complete sentences should be used to explain your solution methods and strategies. Solutions to assignments to be turned in should be clearly legible in the scanned pdf submission and the file size of each submission should be under 5MB.


Course Grading Policy

Attendance and Make-up Policy: Class attendance is strongly encouraged, despite the fact that lectures will be recorded and maintained in Canvas. No late work will be accepted. There will be no make-ups for quizzes. A make-up midterm will be given only if you have a serious health or a family emergency, and obtain my approval in advance.

Your course grade will be determined on the following basis:


For comments regarding this page, please send email to zchan at math dot rutgers dot edu.