Motivated by the fractional calculus' application background, there are a large number of papers dealing with the solvability of fractional differential equations (see [7 12]).
This contest's real-world math problems engage the enthusiasm of students, who typically have a background in calculus, differentiated equations, statistics, number theory and computer science.
Students interested in this program will need a background of calculus, linear algebra, stats, basic physics, Python and computer algorithms.
First of all, for a general overview of the discrete fractional calculus, together with substantial background on the integer-order difference calculus, we direct the interested reader to the textbook by Goodrich and Peterson [3].
The UBM group of four students, two with no mathematics background beyond calculus, studied this switch in detail, giving us some indication of how to teach it at a level appropriate for a class of 20 first-year students.
Many faculty members were not in favor of the change, either because the change was perceived as being too difficult for the students or, for the research intensive-faculty, that a background in calculus was unimportant to their own research.
Because background in calculus is not required for most of the modules, and because significant parts of several modules require relatively low-level mathematics, these modules provide a particularly attractive entry into discussions of the need for mathematical models and of methods for building and using mathematical models.
In Section 2, we give a background of fractional calculus.
In the next section we give some background on fractional calculus and the sinc collocation method.
