At its September 22 meeting, the Curriculum Committee approved the department’s proposal to change the focus of MCS-253 (Differential Equations), effective starting in spring of 2005. The course will now have a prerequisite of either MCS-221 (Linear Algebra) or PHY-230 (Applied Mathematics for Physics and Engineering). This first year, students having difficulty adjusting their plans to accomodate the new prerequisite are urged to contact Professor LoFaro, who will be teaching the course. The new course description follows:
This course will focus on ordinary differential equations and their applications. First and second order ordinary differential equations will be reviewed. Existence and uniqueness theorems will be presented. We will focus primarily on systems of differential equations including the solution and classification of linear systems, analysis of non-linear critical points, and methods for describing other local and global behaviors. Elementary bifurcation theory and chaos will be discussed.