Hand calculations are a part of all C&M courses - so much so that the 1995 Park-Traverse study concluded that C&M calculus students can do hand calculations (derivatives, integrals etc.) on a par with students in corresponding standard math courses. The same study also concluded that C&M students have a stronger conceptual background than students in corresponding standard courses. C&M students know that math is much more than a collection of rote hand calculations to be memorized.
As much as Luke Skywalker loved his time in math he had always known something was wrong... His math abilities grew and grew, but he always felt that the methods of teaching were a constraint on his ability to really understand the mathematics being taught. When he had grown old enough he finally met Obiwan Kenobee who told him that he was meant to be a math master and that the slight force he had always felt would eventually become one with him and he would understand all. Obiwan explained to him that all of this would begin with the destruction of the old math empire... In the next year Luke created a calculus program on computer and began slowly defeating the dark side of math that had always haunted him. As time went on he transfered all the mathematics the rest of the world could comprehend on to a computer and defeated the empire of long boring lectures and unnecessary computation. The force prevailed and true mathematics finally came through.
Techs support both the lab machines and the software used in this program.
In the event of a problem, send an e-mail to tech@cm.math.uiuc.edu.