Simulating Complex Systems In Introductory Dynamics

In my past offerings of courses in dynamics, I felt that the problems I assigned were all of a rather idealized nature. We seemed to make numerous assumptions in all the problems and only analyzed one or two moving parts and usually only analyzed the problem at one particular instant in time. The students have certainly found these assignments challenging, but I couldn’t help but feel many students left the course wondering how practicing engineers analyzed “real” dynamic systems. It seems my sense was not unique, as recently as 6 years ago an in-depth study of 12 engineering programs found “computers are usually not used effectively in undergraduate engineering science courses. Often, they are not used at all” [1].