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Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Consulting
Software Workshops
Overview
In collaboration with the Office of Information Technology (OIT), CIRC provides hands-on workshops on mathematical and statistical software packages including MATLAB, COMSOL, Microsoft Access, SAS, S-Plus, and SPSS. We offer both introductory workshops for first-time users as well as advanced workshops on more specialized features of the software packages.
The workshops are taught interactively in an instructional computer lab at UMBC by CIRC personnel and are accompanied by tutorial handouts.
“I am thrilled to be partnering with [the Department of] Mathematics and Statistics to support CIRC. Through our partnership with CIRC, OIT can refer faculty and graduate students to faculty and students in CIRC with much more expertise in statistics and simulation than OIT could ever provide.” - Jack Suess, Vice President for Information Technology, UMBC
Software Workshop Schedules
Software Descriptions
MATLAB
MATLAB is a popular mathematical software package that combines efficient linear algebra operations and powerful graphics with an intuitive, interactive user interface. MATLAB can be useful for a wide range of applications from basic matrix and vector manipulations to full-color 2-D and 3-D visualization. For more information, visit the MathWorks website.Datafile for Basic MATLAB Workshop: matlabdata.dat.
Datafiles for 3D Graphics Workshop: volcanox.dat, volcanoy.dat, volcanoz.dat.
Datafiles for Numerical Methods Workshop: testode.m, predatorprey.m.
Datafiles for Intermediate Programming Workshop: de_driver.m, euler.m, frhs.m, plot_error.m, plot_sol.m, true_sol.m.
COMSOL Multiphysics
COMSOL Multiphysics is a powerful package for the solution of partial differential equations using the Finite Element Method (FEM). It is extremely intuitive and user-friendly because of its sophisticated graphical user interface (GUI). The user does not need to know the numerical methods used inside the package. For more information, visit the COMSOL website.Mathematica
Mathematica is a powerful mathematical software that combines symbolic and numerical computations. Mathematica can be useful in all areas of mathematics including applications in graphing, calculcus, and linear algebra. For more information, visit the Wolfram Research website.Maple
Maple is a popular package for symbolic computations such as computing derivatives and integrals and solving non-linear systems of equations. Additionally, Maple has numerical computation and graphing capabilities, both in two and three dimensions. For more information, visit the Maplesoft website.SAS
SAS is a powerful statistical software package. It can handle most data analysis issues ranging from simple data exploration to advanced modeling. SAS has convenient built-in functions and procedures for dealing with a large variety of statistical problems. For more information, visit the SAS website.Datafiles for download: Profit.xls, Salary.csv.
S-Plus
S-Plus is a powerful statistical software package that handles most data analysis issues ranging from simple data exploration to advanced modeling. It also has extensive and powerful graphics capabilities. For more information, visit the TIBCO Software website.Datafile for download: Profit.xls.
R
R is a powerful open source software system for statistical computing. It has become immensely popular due to its intuitive programming language, built-in support for statistical procedures, and ability to produce beautiful graphics. R is extensible through a package system, and numerous contributions from its user community are freely available. R is available on Windows, Macintosh, and Linux platforms. For more information, visit the R Project website.SPSS
SPSS for Windows provides a powerful statistical analysis and data management system in a graphical environment, using descriptive menus and simple dialog boxes to do most of the work for you. Most tasks can be accomplished simply by pointing and clicking the mouse. For more information, visit the SPSS website.Datafile for download: Profit.xls.
Microsoft Access
Microsoft Access is a relational database management system (DBMS). A DBMS is a software product that allows a user to store, manipulate, and retrieve data. Microsoft Access allows the user to store more data than spreadsheet based software products such as Microsoft Excel, while providing a more user-friendly interface to manipulate and retrieve data than commercial statistics based software packages such as SAS or S-Plus. For more information, visit the Microsoft Access website.Datafile for download: Cows.xlsx, Cows.accdb.
Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet program used to store, organize, and manipulate data. In addition to these basic functions, Excel also features data analysis and graphing capability. Through a user-friendly point-and-click interface, the non-statistician can perform data analysis without becoming lost in the intricacies of programming. In addition to familiarizing the user with the statistical analysis tools available in Excel, this workshop will also serve to introduce the user to the Excel 2007 interface, which differs considerably from previous versions of Excel. For more information, visit the Microsoft Excel website.Datafiles for download: Profit.xlsx, Salary.txt.