CS 221 Fall 2011 Problem Set 3

Problem 1: Plotting Time Series Data in MATLAB

• Use the "csvread" command to import the data from "coalprod.csv" into a 500-by-3 matrix called "Data". (See the help file for details on how to use "csvread" to create this matrix from the file.) The first column of "Data" will contain the time of each data point as a fraction of a year. The second and third columns contain weekly coal production estimates for Kentucky's eastern and western regions, respectively, in thousands of short tons.

• Extract the first column of "Data" and store it in a 500-by-1 matrix (vector) called "Years". (Use the ":" notation for referring to "all rows".) Similarly, extract the second and third columns and store them in arrays called "Eastern" and "Western". (Note: These will be column vectors. If you want to convert them to row vectors, you need to transpose them. The transposition of a matrix is what results when you interchange its columns and rows. In MATLAB, the postfix apostrophe is the transpose operator. For example, if M is a matrix, M' is the transpose of M. But plot will work with either row or column vectors.)

• Plot the historical production data for Kentucky's two regions using MATLAB's "plot" command. Note that you can plot multiple datasets with "plot(X1, Y1, X2, Y2, X3, Y3 ...)". (Hint: Often you will want to use the same variable to represent X1 and X2. See the help page for details.)

• Next, we want to project the trend in the data out through 2014, assuming current trends continue. (Of course, many factors could affect the actual coal production output.) First, create a range of time values from 2002 to 2014 in increments of 0.05 years. Store this as an array in a variable called "TrendYears".

  MATLAB has numerous curve-fitting tools. You can use the graphing interface for curve fitting, but for this problem, use the following code to create your trend lines:

  EP = polyfit(Years, Eastern, 1);
  WP = polyfit(Years, Western, 1);
  ETrend = polyval(EP, TrendYears);
  WTrend = polyval(WP, TrendYears);
  

  (See the help files for polyfit and polyval for details. You may also want to experiment with quadratic or higher level polynomial fits by changing the "1" in the first two lines, above, with "2", "3", etc. But in the version you submit, use a linear fit, which is what "1" gives you.)

• Update your plot command to plot the actual and projected data on the same graph. Use "Years" as the X axis for "Eastern" and "Western", and "TrendYears", as the X axis for "ETrend" and "WTrend".

• Choose a suitable title, axis labels, and other details, following the guidelines in chapter 5 of your textbook. Save your graph as a JPEG file called "coalprod.jpg".
  Put both your MATLAB script (coalprod.m) and JPEG graph (coalprod.jpg) in same zipped folder with the files for the other part of this assignment.

Problem 2: "Smoothing" Data

Sometimes when working with a highly variable time-series of measurements it is useful to create a "smoothed" version of the data—that is, a version in which sudden changes have been "filtered" out. A simple way to smooth a sequence of data points is to replace each value with a "moving average" obtained by averaging that value with the values in a "window" around it. In the simplest case, each value is replaced by the average of the value and the two values on either side of it. (Note that first and last values are not changed by this method.)

Write a function smooth() that takes a single m-by-n matrix (array) A as its only argument, and returns a matrix with the same first and last rows as A, but with with the values in each row averaged with the values in the previous and following rows. So, for example, given this matrix:

A = [ 4,      100,      3,       55;
     -1,        0,     57,       22;
     76,       13,     78,       33;
     88,       45,    101,       50 ]

smooth(A) = 
    [ 4,      100,       3,      55;
     26.3,    37.7,     46,      36.7;
     54.3,    19.3,    78.7,     35;
     88,       45,     101,      50 ];

Note the following:

• The returned array will be exactly the same size as the original; the first and last rows of the returned array must be the same as in the original. (You may want to initialize the array that will be returned by copying the entire ouput array into it.)

• If the original matrix has fewer than three rows, your function should return a copy of the original matrix, unchanged. (Use the size() command to determine the number of rows and columns in the array.)

• Your function should print nothing. Every assignment statement should be followed by a semicolon to suppress output, and the function should not use any calls to "disp()" or "fprintf()".

Submission Instructions

• Create a folder titled Last_First_HW2 (replacing "Last" and "First" with your actual names) on the Desktop.
• Move the 3 files you are supposed to turn in (coalprod.m, coalprod.jpg, and smooth.m) into that folder. Nothing else should be in the folder.
• Create a zip file containing the folder and its contents. (The main course web page has instructions for creating a zip archive.)

  Important: Verify that the contents of the zip archive are correct. It should contain the directory (folder) and the three files, and nothing else. (Do this by double-clicking the zip file.)

• Upload the zip archive via the portal, as

  Important: save the folder and its contents to a flash drive or elsewhere, for two reasons: (i) in case something goes wrong with your submission; and (ii) we will sometimes build on your solutions in later problems.

• Very Important: save the number the submission system gives after you upload your submission. It is the only acceptable proof that you uploaded your file.