Computation and Visualization for Astronomy and Physics

马萨诸塞大学阿默斯特分校物理和天文学系与五所学院天文学系目前正在进行一项倡议，以使本科课程现代化，并确保学生获得在工业和学术部门从事各种职业所必需的培训。这项计划的重点是将计算物理和天文学的元素和技能整合到本科课程的所有级别，无论是广泛订阅的物理和天文学服务课程，还是专业的必修课。学生将在整个本科期间接触到科学计算和可视化的角色和技术，从入门课程中的交互式实验室演示和家庭作业，到高级课程中的数据接口和数值模拟。为了充分实现这些目标，我们正在创建一个物理和天文学学生计算和可视化实验室。该设备使计算实验室项目成为课程的一个组成部分，为学生提供了现代科技项目中日常使用的计算问题解决和数据分析类型的坚实介绍，并使学生能够亲身体验高性能和并行计算以及图形可视化。学生通过多种方法(口头、数学、图形、观察)学习物理，并能够在多种环境(文本、方程、静态和动画图形，以及条件、实验和观察的模拟)中进行积极的探索。该计划的一个关键产品是为国家教育界生成和输出实验室和课程项目模块。

The Department of Physics and Astronomy of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, together with the Five College Astronomy Department, are currently engaging in an initiative to modernize the undergraduate curriculum and ensure that students obtain training fundamental to entering a wide variety of careers in the industrial and academic sectors. The keystone of this initiative is the integration of computational physics and astronomy elements and skills into all levels of the undergraduate program, both for the widely subscribed service courses in physics and astronomy and the required courses for majors. Students will be exposed to the roles and techniques of scientific computation and visualization throughout their undergraduate experience from interactive laboratory demonstrations and homework assignments on the introductory levels to data interfaces and numerical simulations in the advanced courses. To enable full realization of these objectives we are creating a physics and astronomy student computation and visualization laboratory. The equipment allows computational laboratory projects to become an integral feature of the courses, offers students a solid introduction to the types of computational problem solving and data analysis used daily in modern scientific and technological projects, and enables hands on experience in high performance and parallel computing and graphical visualization. Students learn physics through multiple methods (verbal mathematical, graphical, observational) and are able to engage in active exploration through multiple environments (text, equations, static and animated graphics, and simulations of conditions, experiments, and observations). A key product of this program is the generation and export of laboratory and lesson project modules for the national educational community.