Incorporating Matlab In Mechanical Engineering Courses

Abstract

Nowadays, entry-level engineers may find themselves in an environment that programming, simulation and modeling may become an integral part of their career. In instances that they are involved with enhancement and development of pre-existing programs, the size and complexity of a particular program may become overwhelming. Universities are faced with preparing the students to cope with the challenges that they are faced in their work environment in the context of simulation and modeling. Different tools may be adopted in various departments for training the students in programming such as C, C ++ , Basic ,Visual Basic, Fortran, or Matlab to name a few and the departments are faced with the question of what environment to adopt to train the students. One of the requirements of the Mechanical Engineering program at Alabama A&M University is that all students participate in a project in every course. These projects require utilization of computer programming. Two programming environments adopted by the ME Department are Fortran and Matlab. In some courses such as Strength of Materials, Automatic Control Systems, Analysis and Instrumentation of Physical Systems, Kinematics and Dynamics of Machines, and Finite Element Methods, students are given the option of utilizing either a Matlab or Fortran to develop their projects. In some cases students find that the development time in the Matlab environment may be shorter, easy access to the built-in functions may eliminate the "overhead" associated with developing and or calling relevant subroutines, and the graphical features in that environment may be utilized directly in their report preparation. This paper discusses how Matlab is used in the ME program to enhance the programming skills of the students.

Utilizing Computational Tools to Enhance Student’s Understanding of Linkage Mechanism

“…(3) an ability to apply written, oral, and graphical communication in well-defined technical and non-technical environments; and an ability to identify and use appropriate technical literature (5) an ability to function effectively as a member of a technical team.…”

“…Teaching linkage kinematics and kinetics very often present challenges for the instructors due to the mathematical difficulties and the students' lack of understanding of the mechanism [3,4]. Matlab and Excel program has been used to help students analyze linkage mechanism [5]. 3D modeling and printing labs have also been developed to improve the teaching quality and students' understanding [6].…”

Improving Student Laboratory Experiences through Integration of Instructions, Worksheets, and Computer Code using LiveScripts

“…Many universities utilize MATLAB in a number of laboratory classes, in different departments. These can include disciplines such as electrical and computer engineering [1], freshman year experience courses [2,3], and mechanical engineering [4,5,6]. While the courses in question may focus on programming [7,8,9], many courses use MATLAB more as a means to an end in teaching other material.…”