Welcome to Pavel Solin's Homepage
I am a Full Professor of Applied and Computational Mathematics at the University of Nevada, Reno (visit page).
Course Materials (Spring 2024)
- Linear Algebra (MATH 330) syllabus, Matrix app
- Num. Analysis and Approximation (MATH 701) syllabus, Python textbook, Python app
My Teaching Philosophy
I believe that students can't learn efficiently by sitting passively in lectures, listening to many new conceptsat once, without having a chance to practice each one, get comfortable with it, and master it, before progressing
to the next one. I also believe that not all students learn at the same pace. The currently accepted model of
higher education, called assembly line education, was established during the 2nd industrial revolution
(A. Levine, S. Van Pelt: The Great Upheaval: Higher Education's Past, Present, and Uncertain Future, 2021).
There is a much better model, called competency-based education (CBE), where students learn at their own pace,
one concept at a time. There is zero doubt in my mind that CBE is the future of higher education.
References: P. Solin: Self-Paced, Instructor Assisted Approach to Teaching Linear Algebra, MCS, Vol. 15 (2021),
P. Solin, A. Freyer: Self-Paced, Instructor Assisted Approach to Teaching Python Programming, MCS, Vol. 17 (2023).
Research
My research group develops advanced computational methods for multi-scale multi-physics problemsin civil, nuclear, electrical, and mechanical engineering. I am especially interested in monolithic
higher-order adaptive discretizations of time-dependent problems. Visit my research group.
Books
