Essential Mathematics

Postgraduate course, University of Oxford, Doctoral Training Centre, 2019

This course gives students a solid grounding in mathematical topics essential for the analysis of biological systems.

Course overview

Both analytical and numerical topics are covered and include:

  • basic algebra revision
  • graphs and plotting
  • differentiation and integration
  • differential equations
  • linear algebra
  • systems of differential equations and their analysis.

Students will use Python to perform both symbolic and numeric computation, alongside pen-and-paper calculation.

Lectures and practical sessions

The course consists of 16 one-hour lectures, followed by 2.5-hour practical sessions to work through problems based on the material covered during the lecture.

Each practical session consists of a problem sheet, and a subset of the problems will be handed in for assessment.