Math In Industry - Alexiades

GUIDE on Preparing Reports
Each writeup should be viewed as a Report to your Boss!
It should be as self-contained as possible, readable, to the point, understandable by an educated non-expert.
It should be (mostly) typed, preferably using a text-formatting tool (LaTeX, Word, or similar software).
Until you figure out how to work one of these, you may write your reports by hand (but clearly and VERY neatly !). Each report should be organized as follows:
Title page
1. Introduction
2. Problem Statement
3. Methods
4. Solution
5. Discussion/Conclusions
6. Appendix (for supporting material, e.g. code(s))

Here are some general guidelines for each part. These are guidelines,
try to follow them to the extent that's reasonable for each project.
Some parts may apply more or less to each particular project, ... use your judgement...

0. Title Page
M518 - Term YEAR Project # , Date
Project TITLE
Your Name

1. Introduction
A very brief description of what the project is about.

2. Problem Statement and Assumptions
Precise statement of the problem to be solved.
State any assumptions made for the formulation of the model.
State fully and precisely the mathematical problem, explain meaning of all symbols used, make clear what is given and what we are looking for.

3. Methods
Brief Description of method/approach.
Begin with naming or characterizing the method/approach to be used, perhaps explain the basic idea behind it,
to what type of problems it applies, under what conditions, what it achieves, what are its main features, advantages, disadvantages.
Justify why it is applicable to this problem, stating clearly any assumptions you need to make about the problem for the method to apply.
Name some other methods/approaches one could use, and if/why your method may be preferable.

4. Solution/Results
Presentation of your solution and results.
Describe your implementation of the method(s) for this specific problem, any special features, choices of any parameters, stopping criteria, etc.
Present the results in words and plots (annotate by hand if necessary), explain what they mean.
Include your code in an Appendix.

5. Discussion/Conclusions
Closing comments about the solution and the project.
Interpret your solution physically, what we learn from it, comment on strengths/weaknesses of the solution method,
any nice features you want to brag about, possible ways to improve it (e.g. how to make it more accurate, more efficient), as appropriate.