Teaching an Undergraduate Introductory MATLAB Course: Successful Implementation for Student Learning

In our institution, we offer a one-quarter long MATLAB class for the Mechanical Engineering (ME) and Mechanical Engineering Technology (MET) curriculum. This course teaches computational methods to solve engineering problems using the program MATLAB. The coursework involves teaching fundamental programing along with engineering principles to build the concept, analyzing simple structural problems using matrix algebra and then solving a wide variety of engineering problems dealing with statics, dynamics, fluid mechanics, and heat transfer. Students enrolled in this class solve a variety of problems by setting them up analytically then programing them and solving them in MATLAB. As we are in a quarter system, it is challenging to solve multidisciplinary complex engineering problems in regular class lectures. Therefore, students enrolled in this class are required to program a variety of engineering problems within a short time. These problems must have adequate engineering complexity and themes conveying interesting knowledge or technical concepts, and at the same time be concise enough to be completed during the course. While a course in MATLAB could be a common offering in many universities, the authors of this paper presents the pedagogical approaches undertaken to successfully implement the course objectives to the undergraduate engineering students. The topics and techniques applied to teach different topics of engineering problems to enhance students learning outcomes are addressed in this paper. The paper also presents how different topics taught in this class fulfill the targeted course objectives, which are mapped with ABET Engineering criteria.