Department of Mathematical Sciences

Course Announcement
Spring Semester 2009

MATE 6995 (topics)

In the last 25 years, chaos has exploded over the landscape
of mathematics and has been seen in many scientific
disciplines. Hence is of vital importance to understand its
structure. In this course we will integrate notion from
difference equations and discrete dynamical systems.
Lectures will be oriented on stability theory in one and two
dimensions including periodicity and the famous method of
Lyapunov, chaos theory, bifurcation theory and fractals with
emphasize on real-world problems on ecology, epidemiology
and other fields.

Instructor: Karen R. Rios-Soto, PhD (karen_rs@math.uprm.edu)

Book: Discrete Chaos(with Applications in Science

and Engineering) by Saber N. Elaydi
Reference Books:

1. An Introduction to Chaotic Dynamical Systems by R.

Devaney
2. Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos by S. Strogatz
3. Mathematical Models in Population Biology and
Epidemiology by F. Brauer and C. Castillo-Chavez

Prerequesites: The minimal prerequisites are calculus and

and linear algebra.