Computational chemistry in the classroom

Abstract

The increase in general availability of computing power during the past thirty years represents the fastest and longest sustained technological advance in human history. One of its consequences is that currently we have in our classrooms between twenty and fifty times more computing power than all of the computing power available in the world in 1980. Once this capacity is harnessed to the proper computer codes, it is possible to perform computational chemistry calculations in the personal computers of the undergraduate students of a public university. We report on a recent pedagogical experience along these lines.