Meeting Time/Place: OSS225, 8:15-9:20 MWF.

Instructor: Dr. Patrick J. Van Fleet

Office/Phone: OSS224/962-5552

Email: pjvanfleet@stthomas.edu

Web Site: This semester, I've added a dynamic web site to the course. Here, you can check the daily schedule, download notebooks and other files, and check your grades. I'm very interested in your feedback on the usefulness of this page. The URL is

You'll need a passwords to access the online grades. Passwords will be assigned in the near future.

Office Hours: MWF 11-12, 4-5. I am around quite often at other times - it is best to schedule an appointment. Certainly you are free to drop by and if I have time, I will be glad to help you.

Text: An Elementary Approach to Wavelets and Their Applications, by Patrick J. Van Fleet. I will provide copies of the first nine chapters to you.

Course Content: We will cover some of the newest mathematical ideas of the 20th century in this course. We will begin with a review of elements of complex analysis and linear algebra. We will discuss convolution and Fourier series. Subsequent topics include filters, the Haar wavelet, orthogonal wavelets, biorthogonal wavelets, and wavelet packets. We will learn how to use all these concepts to perform certain analyses on digital signals or images. In particular, we will study data compression, image enhancement, audio denoising, and boundary detection in images. This class is very much about implementing mathematics on the computer!! Towards this end, we will either use Mathematica or create or own programs to perform basic wavelet analysis. The primary applications will involve digital image files and sound files.

We will heavily utilize the computer in this course. We will write our own programs and use Mathematica. I'm going to encourage people to do their programming in the language of their choice, but the default language for the course will be Mathematica. If you write the programs in your choice of language, a Mathematica notebook will be provided that loads sounds, images, etc. and calls your program externally.

The daily schedule for the course can be found here.

Homework/Computer Projects/Exams/Final Project: Your grade will be determined based on your performance on homework sets, computer projects, three hourly exams, and a final project. Each exam will count for 75 points, the homework/computer labs will be adjusted to count for 300 points, and the final project will be worth 75 points. Homework will be assigned about once a week. Click here to get homework assignments.

There are three unit exams. Click here for a list tentative exam dates. In order to receive a make-up on an exam, you must inform me of your conflict prior to the exam time. For a valid excuse (school function, injury, death in the family) rendered prior to the exam, I will grant a make-up.

The final project will be a group project (1 to 3 people per group). Around the beginning of April I will give the class a list of possible projects and ask the groups to form and choose a project. The project will usually consist of solving an application or sorting out some new application we did not have time to cover, writing a report, and making a short presentation.

Course Grade: There are 600 possible points available. The grading scale is

A 600-560,	A- 559-540,	B+ 539-520,	B 519-500,	B- 499-480
C+ 479-460,	C 459-440,	C- 439-420,	D+ 419-400,	D 399-380
D- 379-360,	F 359-0

I have written a program to allow you to check your grades online. You'll need a password for this program. To access your grades online, click here to check your current grade.

Note: This syllabus is subject to change with prior notice.