CATAM News 2000-2001
What's new in C A T A M
Read CATAM News for up-to-date information about the Computational Projects and changes to the PWF network facilities.
Recent CATAM news headlines:
New: 27 Jul 01 Part II project booklet published 20 Jun 01 Part IB project booklet published 03 May 01 Submission of projects (update) 01 May 01 Programming problem with Part II 8.6 01 May 01 Minor correction to Part II 15.5 30 Apr 01 Submission of Part II 8.3 30 Apr 01 Electronic submission of project files (updated) 30 Apr 01 Submission of projects 26 Apr 01 Minor corrections to Part II 8.5 24 Apr 01 Minor corrections to Part IB 2.6 18 Apr 01 Minor correction to Part II 12.3 12 Apr 01 Availability of demonstrators 10 Apr 01 Minor correction to Part II 12.3 06 Apr 01 Minor corrections to Part II 2.9 05 Apr 01 Correction to Part II 5.1 04 Apr 01 IB mark scheme published 02 Apr 01 Revised CCATSL library file 30 Mar 01 PWF networks not available (updated) 29 Mar 01 Correction to Part IB 2.6 26 Mar 01 Minor correction to Part IB 2.6 20 Mar 01 CCATSL Manual version 2.1 20 Mar 01 Late night working 15 Mar 01 IB mark scheme published 14 Mar 01 Easter Closing Arrangements 02 Mar 01 Corrections to Part II 21.2 02 Mar 01 Minor correction to Part II 15.2 02 Mar 01 Correction to Part II 19.4 02 Mar 01 Prerequisites for Part II 14.1, 14.3 02 Mar 01 Minor corrections to Part II 1.1 26 Jan 01 Updating of online manual 26 Jan 01 Credit for Part II 11.1 & 20.4 19 Jan 01 Minor correction to Part II 1.1 19 Jan 01 Correction to Part II 16.2 19 Jan 01 Minor corrections to Part II 8.6 22 Dec 00 CCATSL Version 2.0f with LaTeX 12 Dec 00 Minor correction to Part II 21.2 08 Nov 00 Minor correction to Part II 10.9 27 Oct 00 Learning to use C green booklet 24 Oct 00 Submission of Part II project 8.3 23 Oct 00 CCATSL software availability 19 Oct 00 Minor corrections to Part II 21.2 02 Oct 00 Part II lectures delayed 02 Oct 00 Corrections to Part II 8.6 30 Aug 00 Minor corrections to Part II 1.1 1 Aug 00 Part II Project 8.3 is withdrawn 1 Aug 00 CCATSL available for download 1 Aug 00 - Keep your project files secure. 1 Aug 00 - Mill Lane Lecture Rooms security 1 Aug 00 - Hard disk cleanup on PCs and Macs 1 Aug 00 - Printer credit on CATAM printers 1 Aug 00 - CATAM PWF computers running Windows NT
News Headlines 1999/00 News Headlines 1998/99 News Headlines 1997/98
Part II project booklet published
The paper copy of the 2001/02 Part II project manual is now available from DAMTP reception in Silver Street. The online version is available from here. Note that the Faculty Board has decided that full credit in Part II can be obtained by completing projects totalling 32 units (compared with 40 units in the recent past).
If you are no longer in Cambridge and anticipate needing a paper copy of the project booklet before you return in October, please email the helpline with your postal address.
Ian Farquharson
CATAM Director
Part IB project booklet published
The paper copy of the 2001/02 Part IB project manual is now available from DAMTP reception in Silver Street. The online version is available from here. Note that, notwithstanding what I told you in lectures, the Faculty Board has decided that full credit in IB can be obtained by completing both core projects and two of the additional projects.
If you are no longer in Cambridge and anticipate needing a paper copy of the project booklet before you return in October, please email the helpline with your postal address.
Ian Farquharson
CATAM Director
Submission of projects (update)
Further to the note below, the final submission times for those in possession of a suitable letter from their Tutor will be
Part IB Tuesday 8 May, 1pm -- 4pm
Part II Wednesday 9 May, 1pm -- 4pm
If anybody who wishes to submit has a good reason why they cannot submit at these times, please get in touch with me asap.
Ian Farquharson
CATAM Director
Programming problem with Part II 8.6
For question 6, it appears that the standard Pascal/CATSL system cannot easily be coerced into dealing with the case of 10000 points. Given this, full credit for this question can be obtained by taking as many points as possible if you're using Pascal.
Ian Farquharson
CATAM Director
Minor correction to Part II 15.5
Two lines up from the bottom of p.2 it should read
..., but we prove this by observing that C(fM) = C(f)M^{-1}, where M acts on C as a Möbius transformation, ...
Ian Farquharson
CATAM Director
Submission of Part II 8.3
The write-ups for project 8.3 which were handed in last October will be available at the Part II submission times. The project will be returned to you and you will be able to either include it as part of your official submission or take it away. Only those people who handed in a write-up in October will be allowed to submit it now.
There is no need to submit electronically any Project 8.3 computer program files which you previously handed in on floppy disk.
Ian Farquharson
CATAM Director
30 Apr 01 Electronic submission of project files
You are required to submit copies of your programs to the Project Assessors for checking. Click for further information.
Note that you do not have to use the SUBMIT program - you can copy files using Windows Explorer or the COPY command if you prefer.
David Harris
Submission of projects
The submission of projects will take place in MR6 in the basement of Pavilion B at CMS; the route from CMS reception will be clearly signposted.
Following on from the email you received from the Heads of Department at the end of last term, there are now 2 submission dates for each part of the Tripos
Part IB Tuesday 1 May, 10am -- 4pm; Tuesday 8 May
Part II Wednesday 2 May, 10am -- 4pm; Wednesday 9 May
The precise time interval for submissions next week will depend, to some extent, on what proportion of the projects is submitted this week but is likely to be 1pm -- 4pm.
You will need to fill in a form stating the projects which you wish to submit for examination credit and containing a declaration on collaboration which you must sign. It will help the submission procedure to run smoothly if this form is completed in advance; to that end, copies of it can be found on this site:
Part IB dvi format, postscript format, pdf format.
Part II dvi format, postscript format, pdf format.
Note that the wording on the form assumes that the two pages are on reverse sides of one sheet of paper; if you print it out on two sheets, they should be firmly attached to each other. Copies of this form will be available from CMS reception on all submission days.
If you wish to submit on the later date you will require a letter from your College Tutor, which you should bring with you to submission (if your tutor has already written to me direct, there should be no need to ask for another letter to bring with you.)
The letter doesn't need to go into any details about why you wish to submit on the later date; we suggest something along the lines of:
To the Director of CATAM
My student, [name], wishes to submit his/her CATAM project write-ups one week after the previously announced formal deadline, because of difficulties caused by this year's exceptional circumstances concerning the administration of CATAM. This follows the suggestion recently circulated by the Heads of the Departments of Mathematics.
You are reminded that each project write-up needs to be in a separate plastic wallet for submission.
Ian Farquharson
CATAM Director
Minor corrections to Part II 8.5
The last line of Step 3(b) on page 3 should read
Once this has been done for all (i,j), then set V_n(i,j)=Vbar_n(i,j) for all (i,j).
Ian Farquharson
CATAM Director
Minor corrections to Part IB 2.6
In Lemma 2, the random variables R and U need to be independent.
The full mark for question 9 will be gained by computing the MLEs. Any correct computation of the variances will be rewarded by means of the "overall merit" marks.
Ian Farquharson
CATAM Director
Minor correction to Part II 12.3
The 2nd sentence of question 6 should read "Plot these on a scatter diagram of z_{n+1} against z_n; ...", i.e., z_n should be along the horizontal axis.
Ian Farquharson
CATAM Director
Availability of demonstrators
We plan to have demonstrators available in the Mill Lane PWF between 2pm and 4pm on each weekday from Wednesday 18 April.
You are reminded that the entire PWF will be unavailable on Tuesday 17 April because of software upgrades on the central system. It is possible (but not planned) that this work will continue into the Wednesday
Ian Farquharson
CATAM Director
Minor correction to Part II 12.3
The first line of section 3 should read "How does the curve of questions 6 and 7 vary as r decreases?"
Ian Farquharson
CATAM Director
Minor corrections to Part II 2.9
The line after equation (9) should read "where J_1 is the Bessel function of the first kind (which could be computed by using the CATSL function Fnj(1,x) or the CCATSL function BesselCL(1,x))." The numerator of the first term in equation (12) should be q^{1/2}t, not qt.
Ian Farquharson
CATAM Director
Correction to Part II 5.1
The question should read "Find 5 band boundaries in the range -1.5 < E < 2.5 ..."
Ian Farquharson
CATAM Director
IB mark scheme published
The draft mark schemes for all of the IB projects are now available on this site.
Ian Farquharson
CATAM Director
Correction to Part IB 2.6
In question 11, the simulated model should be y_{n+1} = ... + N(0,0.6)
Ian Farquharson
CATAM Director
02 Apr 01 Revised CCATSL library file
A revised version of the CCATSL library file, libccatslv2.0.a (272972 bytes) is available for download. This contains a bug fix for SetRandomCL.
In previous versions SetRandomCL had to be called to initialise (seed) the random number generator before using RandomCL or RandomIntCL. Now it can be omitted, in which case a standard, fixed seed is used.
If SetRandomCL is called with a seed <= 0, a seed derived from the current time is used. This can be used to generate a different random sequence each time a program is run.
Look in folder %CCATSL%\lib (%CCATSL% is where you installed the CATAM software). Move the old libccatslv2.0.a to another folder (just to be safe) and download the new file into \lib. The file should have the same name as the previous version - if necessary rename it to the old name.
David Harris
30 Mar 01 PWF networks not available (updated)
Please note that the Computing Service are upgrading the Netware software on the PWF fileservers in the near future and the entire PWF facility including PWF-MATHS will be unavailable on the following weekdays:
Friday 6th April
Tuesday 17th April
Up-to-date information is in the PWF News file.
David Harris
Correction to Part IB 2.6
Lemma 2 should read "If R^2 is an exponential random variable ..."
Ian Farquharson
CATAM Director
Minor correction to Part IB 2.6
The first sentence of Question 6 should read "Fit the data to the model H_2."
Ian Farquharson
CATAM Director
20 Mar 01 CCATSL Manual version 2.1
Version 2.1 of the CCATSL Yellow Book is now on the Web.
manual2.1.zip is available for download (467910 bytes).
David Harris
20 Mar 01 Late night working
It is not possible to issue keys to the Mill Lane Lecture Rooms building to undergraduates. You can apply for a late key for Computing Service PWF networks in the Phoenix User Area, Phoenix Teaching Classroom and Old Music School, which have the CATAM software.
From the Computing Service Web site:
....the New Museums Site, the Phoenix User Area, Phoenix Teaching Room and Balfour Macintosh Room are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with key access out of working hours. The same key is necessary to gain access to the site after 2200 Monday to Saturday and after 1800 on Sundays. Keys may be obtained from Sales against a deposit of 10.
David Harris
IB mark scheme published
The draft mark schemes for most of the IB projects are now available on this site.
Ian Farquharson
CATAM Director
Easter Closing Arrangements
The Mill Lane Lecture Rooms building will be closed over the Easter period from Friday 13th April to Monday 16th April inclusive. Note also that the Mill Lane Lecture Rooms building is closed on Saturdays outside Full Term.
When the building is closed, the PWF will be available for use by MLLR keyholders, but a continuous service cannot be guaranteed during the Easter holiday period.
Corrections to Part II 21.2
There was a discrepancy between the PAM matrix data file and the manual with respect to the score s(A,-) between an amino acid A and a gap. The data file has been amended in order to agree with question 10 of the manual; i.e., s(A,-)=-2 in the data file. The formatting of the file has also been slightly changed in order to make it easier to read into a program (while retaining its human-readability). The original version still exists, but has been renamed as oldpam.dat. In the 3rd line of section 4.3, it should be T[1,j] not T(1,j].
Ian Farquharson
CATAM Director
Minor correction to Part II 15.2
Question 5 should read "Modify the program of questions 3 or 4 to use ..."
Ian Farquharson
CATAM Director
Correction to Part II 19.4
The sequence (1) should read 101010101010101010101 rather than 101010101010101010100 (i.e., the final character is "1" not "0").
Ian Farquharson
CATAM Director
Prerequisites for Part II 14.1, 14.3
The General Relativity course mentioned in the preamble to these projects is the joint II(A)/II(B) course, not just the IIB course as stated in the printed manual.
Ian Farquharson
CATAM Director
Minor corrections to Part II 1.1
The last of the corrections announced earlier was perhaps not as clear as it should have been. The amendments to question 3 were as stated; the next text in the manual "Use the FFT to approximate the FT of ..." is the start of question 4. The final question (number 4 in the printed manual) should in fact be number 5. Also equation (5) is in fact an approximation to equation (2) (not to equation (1) as stated in the printed manual)
Ian Farquharson
CATAM Director
Updating of online manual
The automatic system for propagating changes in the manual to the website appears to have been broken for some time. This means that corrections announced here may not all have been echoed in the online versions. We apologise for any confusion this has caused; please contact the CATAM helpline if any discrepancies remain.
Ian Farquharson
CATAM Director
Credit for Part II 11.1 & 20.4
There was an inconsistency between the index & the project text concerning the available credit for these projects. In both cases the figure in the project text is correct; i.e., project 11.1 is worth 7 units and project 20.4 is worth 9 units.
Ian Farquharson
CATAM Director
Minor correction to Part II 1.1
In addition to the corrections announced earlier, equation (5) should read A_s = T/N times the sum This change was made to the online file before, but not mentioned here.
Ian Farquharson
CATAM Director
Correction to Part II 16.2
In Question 3, the first polynomial should be
X^9 + X^7 + X^6 + 3
Ian Farquharson
CATAM Director
Minor corrections to Part II 8.6
Several minor inconsistencies in the notation have been tidied up in the online version.
Ian Farquharson
CATAM Director
CCATSL Version 2.0f with LaTeX
A new version, 2.0f, of the CCATSL software is now available.
Changes and improvements include instructions for installing LaTeX document formatting software.
If you have any outstanding problems with the CCATSL software please download and install the new version to see if this cures the problem, before asking the CATAM helpline.
David Harris
Computer Officer
CATAM support
DAMTP
Minor correction to Part II 21.2
In section 4.3 equation 2 should read
v-bar(i,j)=max{ 0, v-bar(i-1,j-1)+s(S(i),T(j)),
v-bar(i-1,j)+s(S(i),-),
v-bar(i,j-1)+s(-,T(j)) }
Yoav Git
CATAM Director
Minor correction to Part II 10.9
The final hint should say that you may assume Gamma(3.0001,lambda) is approximately Gamma(3,lambda), which is approximately Chi^2_6 for some suitable scaling.
Yoav Git
CATAM Director
Learning to use C green booklet
Version 2 which is now installed on the PWF room computers is not backward compatible. As such, the old green booklet for CCATSL ver 1.0 or 1.1 has a naming convention which is not valid for version 2.
You can still use the old booklet as reference for basic programming in C, but the new green booklet, Learning to use C and CCATSL, is now available on-line at http://www.maths.cam.ac.uk/undergrad/tripos/catam/ccatsl/ and will be available from DAMTP reception within a week.
Once the hard copies are in the reception, if you have a copy of the old Learning to use C green booklet, you can exchange it, free of charge, for a new version 2.
Yoav Git
CATAM Director
Submission of Part II project 8.3
Some of you have attempted CATAM project 8.3 over the summer and may wish to submit it. You may submit it on Wednesday, 25th October at the end of the CATAM lecture at Room 9, Mill Lane. Alternatively, you can submit on Friday 27th, at 1:45 pm, Room 9, Mill Lane.
Please bring your write-up with a floppy disc containing your program, and include a cover sheet with your name on it (BUT DO NOT WRITE YOUR NAME ON THE PROJECT ITSELF)
At Easter, on the day of submission, you will have a chance to collect back your manuscript and include it in your official submission if you decide to do so. May I stress again that you will not be penalised in any way whatever decision you make.
Yoav Git
CATAM Director
23 Oct 00 CCATSL software availability
The Computational Projects C programming tools, CCATSL Version 2.0 are available on the University PWF networks.
A new manual for programming in C is available on the Web. A paper version is being printed.
The latest version (2.0d) contains further checks to avoid problems in Windows 95/98 installations.
CCATSL is available free of charge for downloading onto your own computer and college networks from http://www.maths.cam.ac.uk/catam/ccatsl. Please ask your college Computer Officers to contact catam@maths if they require further information about CCATSL network installation.
A very limited number of installation CDs are available for loan to students who have computers which are not connected to the Internet.
David Harris
Computer Officer
CATAM Support
DAMTP
19 Oct 00 Minor corrections to Part II 21.2
In section 3.2 V(i,j) is the gap weighted score between S[1,i] and T[1,j] rather than T[i,j]. Also, in the definition of G(i,j), V(i-1,j-i) should be replaced with V(i-1,j-1).
Yoav Git
CATAM Director
02 Oct 00 Part II lectures delayed
Due to myself having to travel to abroad, the first Part II CATAM lecture will take place on Monday 16th October rather than this Friday. Apologies for the inconvenience.
Yoav Git
CATAM Director
02 Oct 00 Corrections to Part II 8.6
The second algorithm in project 8.6 contained an error in tracking the top of the stack. A corrected version is now available on-line
Yoav Git
CATAM Director
30 Aug 00 Minor corrections to Part II 1.1
(1) In equation (6) W_N should equal exp 2 Pi i /N.
(2) The Toolkit the project refers to is the Catam Software Library.
(3) The last part of question (3) should read:
...Use different colours for real and imaginary parts. You should find that the inverse transform is virtually identical to the original function. Comment on this, and on any non-random features of the {A_s}.
Yoav Git
CATAM Director
1 Aug 00 Part II Project 8.3 is withdrawn
Due to a confusion, project 8.3 was included in the Part II manual for this year. Unfortunately, a model solution of the project is in circulation and as such, the project is withdrawn from the manual.
If you have already downloaded it from the net and attempted it, please contact the CATAM Helpline as soon as possible.
I apologise for the confusion and possible problems this may have caused.
Yoav Git
CATAM Director
1 Aug 00 CCATSL available for download
Despite our best efforts, producing version 1.1 and 2.0 is taking longer than expected. We expect version 1.1 to be available to for download on 7th August. Version 2 will be released towards early September.
Yoav Git
CATAM Director
1 Aug 00 - Keep your project files secure.
Do not leave copies of your project files behind on the local hard disk of PWF or College computers. If someone took a copy of your work and incorporated it in one of their own programs, you might be falsely accused of unfair collaboration by the Project Assessors.
If you lose a floppy disk containing your programs, please report it to the CATAM helpline.
David Harris
Computer Officer
CATAM Support
DAMTP
1 Aug 00 - Mill Lane Lecture Rooms security
The Mill Lane Lecture Rooms building is closed at 5pm, Monday-Friday and at 1pm on Saturday. The ground floor doors are deadlocked at closing time so please leave promptly otherwise you will be TRAPPED inside the building!
The hours for which the MLLR building is open are restricted by the University insurers. If theft or damage should occur in a building which is not properly secured the University would not receive full compensation from the insurers.
Only authorised keyholders are allowed to work in the CATAM Room at night when the MLLR building is locked. Students MUST NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES be in the building outside the official hours - see the Part IA/IB and Part IIA/IIB Project Booklets for details. If you do find yourself locked in the building at night telephone the University Security Centre on 31818. The PWF logon records are monitored and anyone found working without permission when the building is locked will be reported to University authorities.
Users of the Maths PWF may also use the Phoenix User Area and Old Music School PWFs which are operated by the University Computing Service. Late-access keys are available from the Computing Service Reception, Pembroke Street.
David Harris
Computer Officer
DAMTP
1 Aug 00 - Hard disk cleanup on PWF machines
Please note that the local hard disk drives on the Maths PWF machines will be cleaned up regularly with little or no warning. You should not keep any permanent files on the hard drive unless you have made arrangements to do so with CATAM staff (email catam@maths.cam.ac.uk). In particular, never store your Computational Project files on the hard drive where they might be deleted or read (and copied) by others.
1 Aug 00 - Printer credit on the CATAM printers.
If you run out of credit on the PWF-MATHS printers send email to the CATAM helpline. Do not go to Computing Service Reception - they do not sell printer credit for the CATAM printers.
Before an additional printer credit is allocated you may be asked to explain why the 300-page allocation for your Project work was not sufficient.
David Harris
Computer Officer
CATAM Support
DAMTP
1 Aug 00 - CATAM on PWF computers running Windows NT (update)
To access the CATAM software and Borland Pascal on University PWF PCs running Windows NT:
- Click on the Start button in the lower-left corner of the screen.
- Select PWF Programs and information.
- Select Teaching Packages.
- Select CATAM.
- Click on Borland Pascal for CATAM.
Note: do not start Borland Pascal from the Start/Programming Languages/Borland Pascal menu item as this does not access the CATSL library units, and you will see a compilation error message about CTbase not being found.
Warning. You should not start your program executing using the Pascal Run menu. Instead use the Windows Start button as described below. Borland Pascal is "16-bit" software originally written to run on Windows 3.1. The compiler produces 16-bit executable programs (.EXE files) which work perfectly well with modern "32-bit" versions of Windows (95, 98, NT) provided the programs are not started from within the Pascal editor.
To run a Pascal program on a Windows NT system:
- Compile the .PAS file using the Compile menu, or press function key F9.
- Click on the Windows Start button in the lower left-hand corner of the screen.
- Click on Run...
- Type the name of the executable program file, for example:
F:\projects\XXXXX.EXE
where XXXXX is the name of your Pascal program file minus the .PAS.
(The Pascal compiler is configured to build executable files in the F:\projects folder on the PWF).
You need to type the name of the executable file only once - Windows keeps the names of previously started files in a drop-down list - click on the small black triangle (an inverted delta) to display the list and then choose the program you wish to start.
Note: the CATAM software is also available on the on the Computing Service PWF networks in the Phoenix User Area, Phoenix Teaching Classroom and Old Music School.
If you do encounter any problems using Windows NT, please send email to the CATAM helpline.
David Harris
Computer Officer
CATAM Support
DAMTP