Under construction. This area is a framework being built: most courses have no teaching material yet, and things may change or break. Private self-study. Not an official programme and not recognised by any ministry or school. No qualification, mark or document is issued, and “years 1 to 3” and “advanced” are names of study paths only.

E43 Computing and programming for mathematicians

Years 1 to 3 pathE: Proposed extensionsplannedabout 100 h (planning estimate)

Planned: syllabus only, no teaching material yet. Nothing on this page can be studied; it describes what the course would cover.

Named in: Years 1 to 3 pathway

Why this course

Mathematicians need working programming, data handling and automatic differentiation to apply anything.

Prerequisites

Required: B01 Mathematical language & proof, B04 Linear algebra I: computation & geometry
Recommended: B05 Discrete mathematics
Can be taken at the same time: none
Everything required, transitively (3 courses): B01, B04, F01
Courses that require this one: none

Concept-level units

Units follow the syllabus order, as a recommended sequence rather than a gate.

Python and its numerical stack
Data structures and complexity in practice
Floating-point arithmetic and its failures
Vectorization and arrays
Automatic differentiation (forward and reverse)
Plotting and reproducible notebooks
Testing numerical code
Reading other people's code

Assessable outcome

Implement and test a small learning algorithm from scratch, with automatic differentiation, and explain its numerical behaviour.

Assessment design

topic exercises
mixed problem sets
unseen proof or derivation problems
cumulative examination

cumulative; uses spaced retrieval

Resources

Every title here is candidate, unverified unless marked verified. Titles were suggested while planning. Nobody has checked that they exist, what they cost or how they are licensed.

Python documentation and NumPy documentation (free)
Griewank and Walther · Evaluating Derivatives
Higham · Accuracy and Stability of Numerical Algorithms

Content record

Version

0.0.0

Review

no review of any kind

Provenance

PROPOSED by the assistant on 4 Nov 2026 so that a person with a mathematics degree can read AI articles fluently; not in the owner's brief; APPROVED by the owner on 4 Nov 2026 as an elective; still needs a curriculum reviewer

Known issues

Approved as an elective on 4 Nov 2026; syllabus only, no lessons, candidate resources unverified, needs a curriculum reviewer.

Type

course

Bridges and laboratories

No bridge or laboratory is attached to this course yet.

You and this course

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