Computation and Visualization for Astronomy and Physics

位于阿默斯特的马萨诸塞州大学物理学和天文学系与五所学院的天文学系一起，目前正在开展一项举措，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。该计划的重点是将计算物理学和天文学元素和技能整合到本科课程的各个层次，无论是广泛订阅的物理学和天文学服务课程还是专业必修课程。学生将接触到科学计算和可视化的角色和技术，从互动实验室演示和家庭作业的入门级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。该设备允许计算实验室项目成为课程的一个组成部分，为学生提供了一个坚实的介绍类型的计算问题解决和数据分析日常使用的现代科学和技术项目，并使高性能和并行计算和图形可视化的实践经验。学生通过多种方法（口头数学，图形，观察）学习物理，并能够通过多种环境（文本，方程，静态和动画图形，以及条件，实验和观察的模拟）进行积极的探索。该方案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.