Course: PHY1610 Scientific Computing for Physicists (Winter 2026)

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Select section General

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General

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- Select activity Course Description
  
  PHY1610 Scientific Computing for Physicists (Winter 2026)
  This course is aimed at reducing your struggle in getting started with computational projects, and make you a more efficient computational scientist. Topics include well-established best practices for developing software as it applies to scientific computations, common numerical techniques and packages, and aspects of high performance computing. While we will introduce the C++ language, in one language or another, students should already have some programming experience. Despite the title, this course is suitable for many physical scientists (chemists, astronomers, ...).
  There are three ways to follow this course:
  As a graduate course for UofT PhD and MSc students. Students that wish to do so, should not self-enrol here, but enrol using ACORN/ROSI.
  As a SciNet or Alliance user taking the course for SciNet certificate credits; for that, enrol on this site (note: limited spots).
  As an auditor following along with recordings but not submitting assignments; for this no enrollment is needed.
  This is a hybrid in-person/virtual course.
  Teacher: Ramses van Zon
  Start date: 1 Jan. 2026
  End date: 1 May 2026
  Scientific Computing Credits: 28
  High Performance Computing Credits: 8
  Upcoming events:
  6. Gravitational Waves is due - Friday, 13 March, 11:59 PM
  6. Gravitational Waves (+) is due - Friday, 13 March, 11:59 PM
- Select activity Lecture Location: SciNet Teaching Room, 11th floor...
  
  Lecture Location: SciNet Teaching Room, 11th floor on the MaRS West Tower, 661 University Ave., Suite 1140, Toronto, ON M5G 1M1
  Date and Time: Tue/Thu 11:00 am - 12:00 noon EST
  Office Hours: In-person/Virtual Wed 11 AM - 12 PM EST (log in to see the link below).
- Select activity Syllabus
  
  Syllabus Page
- Select activity Course question forum
  
  Course question forum
Select section Lecture Slides

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Lecture Slides
- Select activity Slides of lectures 1-3 and part of lecture 4
  
  Slides of lectures 1-3 and part of lecture 4 File
- Select activity Lecture 4: The Teach Cluster
  
  Lecture 4: The Teach Cluster File
- Select activity Lecture 5: Modular programming
  
  Lecture 5: Modular programming File
- Select activity Lecture 6: Version Control
  
  Lecture 6: Version Control File
- Select activity Lecture 7: Debugging
  
  Lecture 7: Debugging File
  
  Uploaded 26/01/26, 21:38
- Select activity Lecture 8: Libraries and Testing
  
  Lecture 8: Libraries and Testing File
- Select activity Lecture 9: Numerics
  
  Lecture 9: Numerics File
- Select activity Lecture 10: Commenting and documenting
  
  Lecture 10: Commenting and documenting File
- Select activity Lecture 11: Ordinary differential equations
  
  Lecture 11: Ordinary differential equations File
- Select activity Lecture 12: Molecular Dynamics
  
  Lecture 12: Molecular Dynamics File
- Select activity Lecture 13: Partial Differential Equations
  
  Lecture 13: Partial Differential Equations File
- Select activity Lecture 14: Basic Linear Algebra Libraries
  
  Lecture 14: Basic Linear Algebra Libraries File
- Select activity Lecture 15: Fourier transforms
  
  Lecture 15: Fourier transforms File
- Select activity Lecture 16: I/O and NetCDF
  
  Lecture 16: I/O and NetCDF File
Select section Recordings

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Recordings
- Select activity Recording 1: Course information and C++
  
  Recording 1: Course information and C++ File
- Select activity Recording 2: C++
  
  Recording 2: C++ File
- Select activity Recording 3: More C++
  
  Recording 3: More C++ File
- Select activity Recording 4: Finishing C++ and Teach cluster
  
  Recording 4: Finishing C++ and Teach cluster File
- Select activity Recording 5: Modular programming
  
  Recording 5: Modular programming File
- Select activity Recording 6a: Finishing up "make"
  
  Recording 6a: Finishing up "make" File
- Select activity Recording 6b: Version control (git)
  
  Recording 6b: Version control (git) File
- Select activity Recording 7: Debugging
  
  Recording 7: Debugging File
- Select activity Recording 8: Libraries and Testing
  
  Recording 8: Libraries and Testing File
- Select activity Recording 9a: General Assignment Feedback from A1 & A2
  
  Recording 9a: General Assignment Feedback from A1 & A2 File
- Select activity Recording 9b: Numerics
  
  Recording 9b: Numerics File
- Select activity Recording 10a: More numerics
  
  Recording 10a: More numerics File
- Select activity Recording 10b: Documentation
  
  Recording 10b: Documentation File
- Select activity Recording 11: Ordinary Differential Equations
  
  Recording 11: Ordinary Differential Equations File
- Select activity Recording 12: Molecular Dynamics
  
  Recording 12: Molecular Dynamics File
- Select activity Recording 13: Partial Differential Equations
  
  Recording 13: Partial Differential Equations File
- Select activity Recording 14: Basic Linear Algebra Libraries
  
  Recording 14: Basic Linear Algebra Libraries File
- Select activity Recording 15: Fourier Transforms
  
  Recording 15: Fourier Transforms File
- Select activity Recording 16: File I/O and NetCDF
  
  Recording 16: File I/O and NetCDF
Select section Assignments

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Assignments
- Select activity 1: C++ on the cluster
  
  1: C++ on the cluster Assignment
  
  Opened: Thursday, 15 January 2026, 12:00 AM
  
  Due: Thursday, 22 January 2026, 11:59 PM
  
  Not available unless: You belong to ACORN
- Select activity 1: C++ on the cluster (+)
  
  1: C++ on the cluster (+) Assignment
  
  Opened: Thursday, 15 January 2026, 12:00 AM
  
  Due: Thursday, 22 January 2026, 11:59 PM
  
  Not available unless: You belong to Self-enrolled
- Select activity 2. Modularize Ants
  
  2. Modularize Ants Assignment
  
  Opened: Thursday, 22 January 2026, 12:00 AM
  
  Due: Thursday, 29 January 2026, 11:59 PM
  
  Not available unless: You belong to ACORN
- Select activity 2. Modularize Ants (+)
  
  2. Modularize Ants (+) Assignment
  
  Opened: Thursday, 22 January 2026, 12:00 AM
  
  Due: Thursday, 29 January 2026, 11:59 PM
  
  Not available unless: You belong to Self-enrolled
- Select activity 3. Writing unit tests
  
  3. Writing unit tests Assignment
  
  Opened: Thursday, 29 January 2026, 12:00 AM
  
  Due: Thursday, 5 February 2026, 11:59 PM
  
  Not available unless: You belong to ACORN
- Select activity 3. Writing unit tests (+)
  
  3. Writing unit tests (+) Assignment
  
  Opened: Thursday, 29 January 2026, 12:00 AM
  
  Due: Thursday, 5 February 2026, 11:59 PM
  
  Not available unless: You belong to Self-enrolled
- Select activity 4. Numerics and documentation
  
  4. Numerics and documentation Assignment
  
  Opened: Friday, 6 February 2026, 12:00 AM
  
  Due: Friday, 13 February 2026, 11:59 PM
  
  Not available unless: You belong to ACORN
- Select activity 4. Numerics and documentation (+)
  
  4. Numerics and documentation (+) Assignment
  
  Opened: Friday, 6 February 2026, 12:00 AM
  
  Due: Friday, 13 February 2026, 11:59 PM
  
  Not available unless: You belong to Self-enrolled
- Select activity 5. Higher-Order Partial Differential Equation
  
  5. Higher-Order Partial Differential Equation Assignment
  
  Opened: Friday, 27 February 2026, 12:00 AM
  
  Due: Friday, 6 March 2026, 11:59 PM
  
  Not available unless: You belong to ACORN
- Select activity 5. Higher-Order Partial Differential Equation (+)
  
  5. Higher-Order Partial Differential Equation (+) Assignment
  
  Opened: Friday, 27 February 2026, 12:00 AM
  
  Due: Friday, 6 March 2026, 11:59 PM
  
  Not available unless: You belong to Self-enrolled
- Select activity 6. Gravitational Waves
  
  6. Gravitational Waves Assignment
  
  Opened: Friday, 6 March 2026, 12:00 AM
  
  Due: Friday, 13 March 2026, 11:59 PM
  
  Not available unless: You belong to ACORN
- Select activity 6. Gravitational Waves (+)
  
  6. Gravitational Waves (+) Assignment
  
  Opened: Friday, 6 March 2026, 12:00 AM
  
  Due: Friday, 13 March 2026, 11:59 PM
  
  Not available unless: You belong to Self-enrolled
Select section Additional Material and Links

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Additional Material and Links
- Select activity How to submit assignments from a repo on Teach
  
  How to submit assignments from a repo on Teach Page
- Select activity Teach Cluster Quickstart
  
  Teach Cluster Quickstart URL
- Select activity cplusplus.com C++ tutorial
  
  cplusplus.com C++ tutorial URL
- Select activity Learncpp.com: Lessons to learn C++
  
  Learncpp.com: Lessons to learn C++ URL
- Select activity MobaXterm: terminal for Windows with X11 server and SSH client and more
  
  MobaXterm: terminal for Windows with X11 server and SSH client and more URL
- Select activity GSL Documentation
  
  GSL Documentation URL
- Select activity Intel MKL cblas documentation
  
  Intel MKL cblas documentation URL
- Select activity LAPACK reference documentation
  
  LAPACK reference documentation URL
- Select activity NetCDF C++ Interface Guide
  
  NetCDF C++ Interface Guide URL
- Select activity FFTW3 documentation
  
  FFTW3 documentation URL

Topic outline

General

PHY1610 Scientific Computing for Physicists (Winter 2026)

Lecture Slides

Recordings

Assignments

Additional Material and Links