Electric Circuit Analysis in MATLAB and Simulink

Electric Circuit Analysis I is the first course that the students take in Electrical Engineering Technology and the dropout rate is high in this course because students lose interest in just solving problems and analyzing them using simulation software packages. The predesigned software packages are not helpful in understanding the calculation and analysis of electrical circuit components. This paper will discuss Electrical Circuit Analysis in MATLAB and Simulink. Electrical Circuit analysis activity demands an interdisciplinary approach which promotes collaborative project-based learning (PBL). During the undergraduate summer research training program the students were given the task to solve problems in Electric Circuit I course. However, the students working on this had the Electric Circuit I course during the academic year. These students were selected as tutors for the students taking the Electric Circuit I course in the fall semester to help them understand the concept of Electric Circuit I problem solving using MATLAB. It was observed that with implementing the problems in MATLAB the students were gaining a better understanding of Electric Circuit problems and their interest level was also increased which resulted in better retention in the course. The name MATLAB stands for MATrix LABoratory. MATLAB was written originally to provide easy access to matrix software developed by the LINPACK (linear system package) and EISPACK (Eigen system package) projects. MATLAB is computational in nature which provides conceptual approach for designing and solving problems in Electrical Circuits. MATLAB has embedded software called SIMULINK which provides an essential way to model, simulate and analyze Electrical Systems which are characterized by some inputs and outputs. This paper will discuss the summer undergraduate research training project in which the students tested the basic electrical circuits to explore Basic DC/AC circuit computations. The students were also introduced to design/implementation, testing and verification. Students not only worked with other students taking the Electric Circuit I course on campus during fall semester but also worked with the area high school students during the summer programs conducted for creating interest in Electrical Engineering Technology programs.