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Introduction to Modern Mathematical Modeling with R and Python:
A User's Manual to Train Mathematical Consultants

Mathematical Modeling Book Cover
  • This book is written by a well-known math modeler and an experienced instructor. It follows the progressive education theory of learning-by-doing. Specifically, this book allows you to use your computer and its R or Python code to interact with the book and generate the figures in the book. You can also modify the computer codes to analyze and visualize your own data. Learning-by-doing is the core methodology of the progressive education of John Dewey (1859– 1952), an American philosopher and educator. Having this book readily available you should reduce the time to achieve sufficient technical and theoretical proficiency in mathematics to become a productive researcher or employee.
    - PROFESSOR JOHN J. SMITH

  • "Introduction to Modern Mathematical Modeling with R and Python: A User's Manual to Train Mathematical Consultants" by Sam Shen is an excellent text for students. Its companion instruction materials, such as the computer code and data, are very useful for both instructors and students. I have never seen such comprehensive supporting materials for a book with a similar title. Its examples, such as the measure of the gravitational acceleration g using a simple pendulum, are so well chosen that students can gain the confidence for innovations and research.
    - PROFESSOR STEVEN WONG

  • This is a very attrative book with modern pedagogy, examples, and data, as well as beautiful figures. The book is very friendly to use because its data and the computer code of R and Python are already on the book website for download. The book has models of many kinds, ranging from economics to moon surface, from electric circuits to chemical mixing. The book is certainly a worth desk copy for a scientist and engineer.
    - PROFESSOR CATHERINE ROBISON

Headshot of Samuel Shen

About the author: Samuel S. P. Shen is Distinguished Professor of Mathematics and Statistics at San Diego State University, and Visiting Research Mathematician at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego. Formerly, he was McCalla Professor of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences at the University of Alberta, Canada, and President of the Canadian Applied and Industrial Mathematics Society. He has held visiting positions at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, the NOAA Climate Prediction Center, and the University of Tokyo. Shen holds a B.Sc. degree in Engineering Mechanics, and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Applied Mathematics.

Citation: Shen, S.S.P., 2025: Introduction to Modern Mathematical Modeling with R, Version 9.0: A User's Manual to Train Mathematical Consultants, San Diego State University Lecture Notes, 321pp.