This course is designed to give cadets the opportunity to develop skills in model construction and model analysis while addressing interesting scenarios with practical applications from a wide variety of fields. This course serves as the entry point for both the Mathematical Sciences major and the Operations Research major. The course is divided into several major blocks that progress from translating real-world events into mathematical language to exploring the ethical issues associated with modeling. Topics include graphical models and proportionality, model development from data, regression, polynomial model development, linear and cubic spline interpolation, linear optimization, network algorithms, probability models, Monte Carlo simulation, and ethics. Three major interdisciplinary projects based on actual modeling scenarios are used to integrate the various topics into a coherent theme.
