Introduction to MATLAB for Earth Scientists

This course was designed to introduce coding to our undergraduate majors, average enrollment 25

During this course, you will:

  • Get a crash-course in coding using MATLAB, with numerous code examples and an emphasis on application towards Earth scientific research and classes.

  • Watch lectures on the “principles” of coding in MATLAB, code-along with in-class demonstrations, and complete worksheets that develop your MATLAB skills

What can you do with this knowledge?

  • MATLAB’s low barrier to entry makes it a widely-used coding environment within the sciences and data analysis sector, and this in turn makes MATLAB proficiency a highly marketable skill.

  • MATLAB is often a prerequisite to participation in undergraduate geophysical research projects, as well as being almost indispensable for completing coursework in numerous upper-division Earth Science classes.

Instructor: Zach Eilon
Email: eilon@ucsb.edu
Office: Webb 2116

Topics to be covered:

  • Basic programming

  • Analysis using vectors and matrices

  • Logical operations and indexing

  • Data import/export

  • Visualization and plotting

  • Designing functions and packages

  • Interactive user interface

  • Debugging.

Prerequisites:
Consent of instructor (preference for Earth Science majors). Having taken linear algebra (Math 4A) will be very useful

Grading:  
Grades are determined based on the following percentages:

  • In-class exercises 50%

  • Take-home exercises 50%