280418 VU Introduction to Numerical Methods (2023W)

The aim of the course is to equip the students with important numerical methods relevant to astrophysics: solution of linear and non-linear problems, numerical differentiation and integration, numerical solution of ordinary differential equations, approximation of functions, interpolation and extrapolation of functions, discrete Fourier transform, sampling of distributions, optimization, data visualization, introductory machine learning techniques, maximum likelihood and MCMC fitting techniques.

This will be achieved through lectures focused on the theory and exercises focused on the practical implementation of the numerical methods. The programming language that will be used to present algorithms is python; students will receive an introductory tutorial to provide them with the necessary background to successfully carry out the computational tasks.