2023

Peter Taborek

Professor of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Irvine

Areas: Computer-Aided Education, Education, Engineering, Physics

Peter Taborek’s research is in experimental condensed matter physics, and he teaches mathematical methods for the physical sciences to undergraduate and graduate students in physics, chemistry and engineering. Most of the standard textbooks for this subject were written before the era of personal computers and do not equip students with the tools of modern technical problem solving. To remedy this situation, Taborek has developed his own e-textbook, MathematicaHandbook, which is written entirely in Wolfram Notebooks.

The text covers traditional topics, such as complex analysis, linear algebra and ordinary and partial differential equations, but explains and illustrates concepts using computer algebra, graphics and numerics. This text has been used for over a decade and includes many figures, animations and live code so students can perform computations while learning course concepts. Student learning requires numerous practice problems with grading and feedback. For a large undergraduate class, this is labor-intensive, so Taborek has developed a web-based platform to deliver homework problems, which are graded using calls to Wolfram Cloud APIs.