.. _preliminaries:

======================
Preliminaries
======================

Those who officially enrolled in the class
should have received an invitation to join the
`Google group of AMS 209, Fall 2017 <https://groups.google.com/a/ucsc.edu/forum/#!forum/ams-209-fall-2017-group>`_. 
Please join the group to introduce your background by replying the the
following questions. The questions have been posted in the
Google Group.


**Q1.** What is your name and what is your major?

**Q2.** Please tell me about your research interests.

**Q3.** List any courses you took in the past which required for you to use
computers, including word processing.

**Q4.** What do you want to get the most out of it from
this class? What is your motivation in taking this class?
   
**Q5.** What do you think scientific computing is about? Why do you
think people study that?

**Q6.** What kinds of computing resources and software have you used?

**Q7.** What kind of computer(s) do you own and what do you do with them?

**Q8.** Do you have any computing experience using Unix/Linux, or Mac
OS X?

**Q9.** Are you familiar with LaTex?

**Q10.** Have you heard about version control, for instance, svn or git?

**Q11.** Have you been involved in any group project in the past?

**Q12.** How passionate are you in scientific computing? Please let me
know if you have any comments and thoughts.