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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Simulation and modeling of natural processes by University of Geneva

4.2
stars
359 ratings

About the Course

This course gives you an introduction to modeling methods and simulation tools for a wide range of natural phenomena. The different methodologies that will be presented here can be applied to very wide range of topics such as fluid motion, stellar dynamics, population evolution, ... This course does not intend to go deeply into any numerical method or process and does not provide any recipe for the resolution of a particular problem. It is rather a basic guideline towards different methodologies that can be applied to solve any kind of problem and help you pick the one best suited for you. The assignments of this course will be made as practical as possible in order to allow you to actually create from scratch short programs that will solve simple problems. Although programming will be used extensively in this course we do not require any advanced programming experience in order to complete it....

Top reviews

DM

Apr 4, 2021

Great course, it presents mathematical models and implementations to simulate behaviors of natural systems with the right level of difficulty. It offer awesome insights to solve and optimize code.

SM

Sep 2, 2020

I really enjoyed this course. This course has motivated me to learn more computational tools to apply in any field of sciences. It was thoroughly designed and challenging.

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51 - 75 of 99 Reviews for Simulation and modeling of natural processes

By Rihouey M

Apr 21, 2019

Week 5 and 6 where harder to follow and the projects where more complicated to understand (even though it shows that effort were put into them)

By GIRISH B

Sep 9, 2018

Very systematic and detailed introduction. Good way to start off into the science of simulation and modelling.

By 杨名

Apr 25, 2018

Introduce many interesting topics. The Lattice Boltzmann Model is the most challenging one. Implementation examples are demonstrated all through the class and there are chances to experiment and execute the code. However, the projects are already half-finished. Although building the code from scratch is a bit hard, I still think it's a really crucial step.

It would be better if more challenging questions and topics are introduces and there should be more explanations on a more fundamental level. The homework is somewhat ambiguous in some weeks and guessing the REAL meaning of the problem was quite annoying.

By M

Feb 1, 2021

Pretty good introduction to the various techniques in scientific modeling but could have been done better. Might be too difficult for people who do not have a solid background in vector calculus, algorithms, and programming. Yet if you already have such a background, you are probably already familiar with most of the material covered, as the models discussed in this course are all toy/classroom examples given during a typical undergrad treatment of these CS/Math topics.

By Andy E

May 19, 2018

There are a frustrating number of mistakes in the questions and sometimes in the lecture slides. I think the course gives a good grounding in the types of simulation required for different problems and I like the examples used. I'm not a huge fan of the style of lectures as it's incredibly different to learn from flicking through slides. Lectures where examples are worked through in a more interactive way (such as on white boards) are far more effective for teaching.

By Pedro P R

Mar 7, 2018

The topics covered in the course are extremely interesting and its a great place to get the fundamentals right. Special mention to the cell automata and the LB method. Although, I feel extra exercises would be needed to further deep the material. Overall, a great course if you are looking to learn fundamentals but exercising what is show is much dependent on your own imitative.

By Vinicius M d C

Sep 10, 2019

I believe this course has a great content. I had almost none background on this subject and I was able to go through the end and learn new things. I don't think it has as many errors in language as the other ratings make you think. But the course is abandoned. No interactions from the tutors.

By Xihan Z

Mar 1, 2018

The course is useful, but there're too many mistakes in the quiz and assignments

By Ikechukwu U

Sep 21, 2022

This is one of the best courses that I have ever seen. It's well organized and detailed. My major interest was to learn programming/Simulation but the course is beyond that.

Thanks to the Instructors who have gently introduced me to programming/simualtion world. Though, the course is challenging but the skills worth the challenge.

Thanks.

By Galina R

May 29, 2022

This is a very nice course: many model examples are given. However, they aren't explained in detail. I wish the authors created a Specialisation in this subjet where it would be possible to go in depth of different types of models. Mass-movement dynamic models could be of a particular interest then as well.

By Azeddine R

Apr 18, 2018

Excellent course for people who love math, physics and simulations ! I choose it to get an insight on Lattice Boltzmann Method, I was happy to apply it and extend it to other cases.

By Farbod O

Mar 4, 2023

A perfect course learning you exactly what you want step by step

By yanewang

Dec 17, 2022

very good。Every teacher 's classes are very clear.

By Andrey G

Aug 29, 2023

I find this course very useful for me

By Alexandre T

Apr 10, 2022

Really great as an introduction.

By MINNING W

Nov 30, 2022

It's a nice course,I like it.

By Giles R

Jan 27, 2021

Very enjoyable course split up into lots of smaller modules. Video content from several tutors was very professional. There was a variety of worked examples to complete after each week of the course. Great opportunity to learn python programming language and apply your knowlege to some realistic applications. Some of the multiple choice questions were very tricky and take several attempts to get right. Some the the computing assignments required a specific number to be entered for the final answer. This was sometimes quite difficult because there was not much room for error. There is a forum which you can browse for each week of the course which was useful to obtain some tips for answering these questions. I particularly enjoyed learning about the Lattice Boltzmann method in week5. The demo python exercise for this was very interesting and useful too (flow over cylinder).

By David D

Jan 7, 2021

An excellent MOOC, thank you! The subject is of great interest and I loved the balance between practical Python exercises and theory. To further improve the MOOC, I suggest:

- Provide more complementary materials as conditional readings (e.g. good books and articles on the topic),

- Don't try to teach Python in 1 hour, rather make it a prerequisite for the MOOC instead and use that module to deepen the real subject: modeling,

- Review the coverage of ODEs and PDEs, the explanations provided are either too confused or high-level. What is the learning objective? Probably not to teach ODEs and PDEs in 1 hour, right?

- At the end of the MOOC, propose a tough modeling challenge. The last challenge is so childishly easy.

By Chenyu L

Oct 27, 2019

I would recommend this course for those who want to gain a non-trivial introductory insight into this subject and also who want to look into doing object oriented programming for simulations. The algorithms are clearly stated and codes are good. The annoying issues are the team is not very supportive (no intention to offend) and you need to look into discussion forum to get pass some quizzes for which the key is Wrong. Overall, nice course. I would probably study these codes on my own after completion

By Michail V

Jan 20, 2021

The content of the course is very extensive especially for someone with no prior background to modelling of natural processes. The build-up during the first 3 weeks moves at quite a reasonable pace. I would say that later weeks could be more informative when it comes to material and accessibility of example cases. Having said that the amount of example cases overall, for code implementation is very satisfying. All in all a course that gives you the ability to take back a lot if you invest time.

By Lekhraj S

Feb 2, 2023

Good introduction to various techniques of modeling natural processes. Audio can be improved a bit as there are several places where it is not clear (audible) which gets further pronounced with instructors (they are great in their knowledge!) accent! Would welcome more examples, references and quick refresher/note on related math. A advanced (part 2) version with recent updated techniques (including using of ML) would be welcome as well.

By Alessio V

May 20, 2020

The course is a great introduction to the world of modelling and numerical simulation. The material provided is sufficient to get ahold of the different modelling techniques available in the field. During most weeks, the assignments provide examples of real models that really help understanding the concepts explained during the lessons. The scripts provided are clear and easy to handle despite Python is not my preferred language.

By James M R Q

Aug 30, 2020

I learnt a lot in the course, but, I felt that they expected you to have some sort of programming, math or science related knowledge because some topics where taught superficially but the quizes related to that topic where pretty hard in some cases. Aside from that and the fact some slides had mistakes, I really enjoyed the course, they showed complicated topics in a simple and to the point way, and I always appreciate that.

By Mitch C

Jan 11, 2022

I feel young again ;)

Some parts of the course covered methods I had last seen in numerical methods courses in the 1980s. Other topics such as the Verlet leapfrog method were new to me, and they made me want to revisit old vispy n-body simulations.

The presentation of Lattice Boltzmann methods improved my understanding of inflow and outflow boundaries. Now I need to fix some bugs in one of my hobby projects...

By Jack S

Jun 25, 2019

This course covers a lot of different numerical simulation methods. Considering the length of video lectures, it is hard to go deep with certain details. I definitely recommend my peers to spend their own time to play around with some code. This will help you understand what's going on!