Session T1A
Matlab for First-year College Engineers
Alexander Haubold
Columbia University, Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science,
New York, NY 10027
ah297@columbia.edu
Abstract - We present our approach to introducing Matlab
to first-year engineering students without declared majors.
Matlab is a widespread tool for computation, which has
experienced a significant increase in usage. Upper-level
courses in particular require students to complete
assignments and projects using this versatile software.
However, without a separate required course offering in
the first-year curriculum, students oftentimes find
themselves learning Matlab once they reach advanced
courses. Taking into account the various applications of
Matlab for different departments and first-year students
who are undecided on their majors, a separate course for
Matlab may prove excessive and lack sufficient focus.
We embed a sequence of six Matlab lectures in an
introductory engineering design course required by all
first-year engineering students. The lectures focus on
introducing the fundamental data structure of a matrix,
programming constructs of loops, conditionals, and
functions, and basic numerical and graphical statistical
analysis. The selection of topics accounts for some of the
most common applications across engineering majors,
drawing playful examples from image and signal
processing and statistical analysis.
We discuss our experiences and curriculum developments
for a period of four years over which the Matlab sequence
evolved. We also address some of the logistical matters of
using homework assignments versus examinations.
Index Terms – Engineering design, first-year curriculum,
Matlab, numerical computation.
INTRODUCTION
Mathworks Matlab has experienced a significant increase in
usage in engineering classrooms [1]. Where traditionally
programming languages like C, Fortran, and Java were
selectively required for students to homework assignments
and projects, Matlab has found wide acceptance as a
numerical computation tool. With its universal approach to
using the matrix as a fundamental data structure, its large
library of pre-made functions, and readily available tools for
audio and image manipulation, Matlab finds application in all
fields of engineering. Faculty has recognized this advantage
over the alternative of using other programming languages for
numerical computation in the classroom. With Matlab,
students are no longer burdened by the high overhead of
acquiring language-specific knowledge. In many ways, Matlab
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offers standardization, which is not available in comparable
packages.
We teach Matlab in our first-year undergraduate
engineering design course to give students an early albeit
broad introduction to a tool, which they will inevitably use in
higher-level courses [2]. Engineering students do not declare
their major until the second year, making it important to not
direct the material at any one major. The instructional material
is therefore designed to convey fundamental knowledge about
Matlab, and introduce a few selected topics for popular
majors.
COURSE OBJECTIVES
In our first-year undergraduate engineering course, students
are introduced to the field of engineering design through
community service learning while they work in teams of three
to eight members [3]. Teams work on various community
projects in categories such as disabilities, environment,
education, architectural designs, and information technology.
The course approaches first-year engineering as a practical
introduction while conforming with several ABET criteria,
including development of professional and communication
skills, practice in application of engineering principles, and
focus on formulation, research, and solution finding for
engineering problems.
A typical student project involves a real client from the
community who presents a real problem to a student team.
Students research the problem space, suggest solutions, and
work on a selected solution for the duration of the semester.
The client interacts with students on a continual basis and
ensures that the proposed solution meets the criteria. Clients
include public school administration, staff from after school
programs, and managers from non-for-profit organizations. To
date, students have worked with the New York City
Department of Parks, various public schools in particular in
low-income areas of New York, organizations catering to
children with disabilities, and over 50 other organizations and
individuals. Students typically provide prototype solutions by
the end of the course, whether in physical form or through the
use of 3D modeling software. The design process for all
projects include background research, market analysis,
interviews with clients, presentations on preliminary results,
design and construction of solutions, and delivery of
completed products in a final presentation.
Our instruction on Matlab and related engineering topics
specifically facilitates stages of technical research, data
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ENGINEERING MAJORS AND RELEVANCE OF MATLAB TOPICS
Theory
Vectors, Matrices
Matlab User
Interface
Applied Physics & Applied Mathematics
Biomedical Engineering
Chemical Engineering
Civil Engineering
Computer Engineering
Computer Science
Electrical Engineering
Earth and Environmental Engineering
Industrial Engineering
Mechanical Engineering
analysis, and effective communication of statistical results.
For the successful completion of their project, students are
required to find and present on data related to their project.
The motive behind presenting such data is to make a
convincing argument on the feasibility and/or importance of
their project. This typically includes a discussion on
demographic distributions and regression of past data for
prediction of future trends. However, students are free to
choose a point of interest to consider.
COURSE LECTURES
The sequence of six Matlab lectures is grouped into three
themes: theory, programming, and data analysis. Introduction
to the basic theory in numerical computation is intended to
even the otherwise widely varying experience of first-year
students. Fundamental concepts in programming are essential
for computation, in particular when basic methods of matrix
manipulation do not suffice. Data analysis is common to all
fields of engineering and provides the foundation of statistical
evaluation. A mapping of themes and individual lecture topics
to engineering majors is presented in Table I. While the theme
of programming is applicable only to selected engineering
majors, they comprise the majority of student interest.
I. Theory
Lecture 1 – Interface and the matrix data structure
This lecture serves to build an understanding of the Matlab
interface, basic mathematical operations, and the fundamental
data structure of the matrix. Parallels of the interface are
drawn to a typical calculator: the command window is the
calculator’s keypad and display, the memory workspace is a
graphical view of the calculator’s memory, etc. Because of its
analytical nature, the workspace of Matlab deserves to be
emphasized greatly – from experience, students do not use it
enough to understand and correct problems in their work.
Starting with conventional calculator-like operations,
students are introduced to scalar and variable arithmetic,
including a discussion on some elementary functions available
in Matlab. Vectors as one-dimensional extensions of scalars
are covered next, followed by matrices as one-dimensional
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TABLE I
Programming Data analysis
Plotting, Meshing
Images – Theory
sheet processing
Audio – Theory
Programming –
Programming –
Audio analysis,
Image analysis,
Dataset/spread-
Conditionals
Functions
synthesis
synthesis
Statistics
Loops
extensions of vectors. Topics of matrix arithmetic, such as
scalar-matrix operations and matrix-matrix operations, are
discussed as part of this session, and important concepts of
elemental operations versus matrix operations are pointed out.
Vector range notation and the closely related topic of matrix
indexing, some of the most powerful data manipulation tools
in Matlab, deserve the most amount of time during this first
lecture. Finally, scripting is briefly touched upon as a
convenient method of collecting expressions to facilitate
weekly exercises and assignments.
Lecture 2 – Practical examples of vectors and matrices
During the first lecture, students work only with purely
theoretical and mostly random numerical data, similar to the
material presented in typical math classes. The second lecture
serves to strengthen this material by drawing parallels to real
data. We select playful audio and image examples, both of
which effectively convey applications of vector and matrix
data structures and data manipulation. Besides using audio and
image files as examples of data, this lecture serves to
demonstrate the powerful set of functions, which are standard
in the Matlab distribution. Without obtaining instruction on
the intricacies of image formats, image encoding,
representation of sound on a bit/byte level, or even file
manipulation, users of Matlab can easily work with these data.
Images are practical and convenient examples of matrices,
because students have an inherent understanding of images,
drawing on their multimedia and television related savvy.
Simultaneously to making images a motivating example for
matrix manipulation in Matlab, students are taught some
fundamental theory about images. This includes the RGB (red,
green, blue) color space used for display technology,
numerical representation of RGB, and data bandwidth issues
related to images and their temporal extrapolation to video.
Because most engineering students have a natural interest for
the field of technology, the theory on bandwidth tends to be
very popular and motivating. A comparison is presented in
class (see Table II). Comprehension of the magnitude of
information data size is important, in particular for the fields
of computer science, computer engineering, and electrical
engineering.
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 Session T1A

FIGURE 1
EXAMPLES FROM IMAGE PROCESSING: (LEFT) ORIGINAL IMAGE; (MIDDLE) CONTRAST AND BRIGHTNESS ADJUSTMENT USING SIMPLE MATRIX-SCALAR OPERATIONS;
(RIGHT) COLOR SPACE CONVERSION USING LOOPS, CONDITIONALS, AND THRESHOLDS.
To further motivate the use of vectors, the inherently
TABLE II sequential and therefore one-dimensional data of sound is used
MATRICES REPRESENTING IMAGE DATA: COMPARISON OF BANDWIDTH
in conjunction with Matlab’s sound functions. Having had
Pixels Size in Size in
pixels Mega bytes significant personal exposure to digital audio through trend-
Example matrix 4x5 20 0.0 setting technology such as the CD player or the iPod, most
(lecture 1) engineering students have a natural interest in the topic of
Small image 320 x 240 x 3 230,400 0.2 audio representation. Using a single channel audio file,
(standard in 1990)
students are presented with tools for loading, playing back,
Computer display 1280 x 1024 x 3 3,932,160 3.7
(standard in 2006) and plotting this type of data. Key concepts from the audio
DVD Video 720 x 480 x 3 x 30 31,104,000 29.7 domain, such as frequency and sampling rate are discussed in
(standard in 2006) class. Data manipulation for vectors similar to that used on
Computer display 1280 x 1024 x 3 x 40 157,286,400 150.0 images is motivated using parallels to sound editing functions.
refreshing at 40
times / sec
Volume amplification and attenuation are demonstrated using
Color images are represented as three-dimensional matrix-scalar multiplication and division.
matrices in Matlab, encoding rows, columns, and color. The II. Programming
relatively high dimensionality makes them excellent
candidates as examples for matrix indexing. For purposes of This section focuses on programming constructs, which
demonstrating data structure manipulation, the lecture focuses primarily address students in the fields of computer science
particularly on addressing discrete scalars and extracting sub- and engineering, electrical engineering, and applied math,
matrices using vector range notation. Analysis of image data is where algorithmic design are key concepts. Programming
motivated by selecting pixels from the image, extracting their constructs include loops, conditionals, and the use of
representative numerical values, and theoretically determining functions.
the color value. Validation is found by visually examining the Lecture 3 – Loops
color image.
Matrix data manipulation is motivated by drawing This lecture is primarily focused on the theory and practice of
parallels to image manipulation software, such as Adobe writing loops. Practical exercises build on the material
Photoshop. Multiplication operations between matrices and discussed in lecture 2. Instead of analyzing existing image and
scalars are related to a simple color contrast adjustment model, audio data, this lecture uses loops to synthesize, i.e. artificially
where multiplication of numbers larger than 1 increase, and produce data in these domains.
division thereof decrease contrast. Similarly, addition The theory of loops is conveyed first through simple
operations between matrices and scalars are compared to a constructs, which use the vector range notation and a loop
simple brightness adjustment model, where addition of variable to access individual elements of a vector. The lecture
integers larger than 1 increase, and subtraction thereof then simulates Matlab’s built-in vector-vector operations, such
decrease brightness. Drawing analogies between the image as elemental multiplication. Because these operations are not
domain and matrix manipulation provide immediate visual readily available in other programming languages, their
feedback, which, besides adding instructional value to the benefit in Matlab can be illustrated by comparing it to the
course, many students consider interesting as determined by alternative of using loops. This example also strengthens key
student evaluations (see Figure 1). concepts, like vector indexing and the use of functions to
Exercises with images in Matlab also animates a determine vector length. The discussion on vectors establishes
discussion on data types, since image data is represented by a the theory which is next applied to higher-dimensional
much more restricted set of values. Concepts of discrete structures, i.e. nested loops for two-dimensional matrices.
values and limited ranges are conveyed during this lecture.
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FIGURE 2
EXAMPLES FROM SOUND AND IMAGE SYNTHESIS USING LOOPS: (LEFT) RAINDROP SOUND EFFECT; (MIDDLE) 1D GRADIENT; (RIGHT) 2D GRADIENT.
As a practical example for one-dimensional loops used
for vector manipulation, the lecture presents an exercise on
synthesizing a sound effect of a raindrop. The raindrop sound
is generated by concatenating a sequence of short vectors,
each representing a sampled sine wave at a different
frequency. A single loop over a selected number of
frequencies is defined and, using a common formula for
sampling a sine wave to produce a set of samples for a given
frequency, the vector containing the final sound effect samples
is gradually constructed (Figure 2).
Upon successful completion, this exercise leads to a
discussion on topics related to signal processing, namely audio
sampling rates, undersampling, and audio quality versus
sampling rate. While not directly related to programming
loops, this discussion intends to present some simple yet
interesting topics in signal processing.
A second exercise for one-dimensional loops, which sets
the foundation for nested loops, draws on the discussion of
images and color from lecture 2. The goal of this exercise is to
generate an image of gradient color values, such as a gradient
of black to red. The equivalent tool can be found in most
image processing software packages. This exercise places
emphasis on using loop variables for both indexing into the
synthesized image matrix and computing color intensity
values. For simplification, the color gradient is generated
along only one row, requiring students to work with one loop
variable. In a related assignment, the loop construct is
extended to a nested loop, where two loop variables are used
to vary color in two dimensions (Figure 2).
Lecture 4 – Conditionals and Functions
This lecture focuses on conditional statements and use of
functions. Along with loop constructs, these two topics
complete the discussion on the foundation of programming
with Matlab.
The theory on simple conditional constructs are presented
using the familiar problem of checking the denominator for
zero values before performing division. While Matlab allows
these operations without bringing a program to halt, other
programming languages are not as forgiving. Generally,
proper error checking requires the use of conditionals to
prevent unexpected failures of programs. In a following
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exercise, the use of conditionals is extended beyond the simple
if-else construct to include the evaluation of a series of
conditionals as well as boolean operators. The example is
drawn from evaluation of elemental matrix operations, which
require that the size of matrices are comparable. If the size of
one or both dimensions do not meet this criteria, Matlab
produces an error but does not inform the user about which
dimension caused the error. To simulate a more user-friendly
error message, a series of conditional statements are used in
this exercise to evaluate all possible error combinations with
appropriate error messages for a selected elemental operation
between two matrices.
To build on the previously discussed topic of color
images and to provide an application of conditionals in a loop
construct, the final exercise simulates the conversion between
color spaces. Specifically, a 24 bit full-color image is
converted to a 3 bit color space, where only 8 base colors are
available. Using nested loop constructs to iterate over the
three-dimensional image matrix and conditional statements to
compare color intensity values to a selected threshold value,
every intensity value in the matrix is changed to a binary high
or low intensity (see Figure 1). Topics of interest related to
this problem include the popular method of thresholding,
bandwidth for mobile devices, where color intensity of high
granularity are not required, and the evolution of display
technology.
The exercise on color intensity thresholding also leads to
a short demonstration of animation in Matlab. Instead of
defining the previously used threshold as a constant, the value
can be made variable. With a simple extension of
encapsulating the code in another loop iterating over variable
thresholds, the temporal dimension is encoded. The animation
based on variable thresholds can be reviewed with ease in
Matlab.
Students have thus far used a number of pre-defined
functions. For the second half of this lecture, they are
introduced to writing functions. Emphasis is placed on error
checking using pre-defined methods commonly found in
Matlab functions, as well as variable function inputs and
testing for proper definition of optional arguments using
conditionals.
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FIGURE 3
EXAMPLES FROM DATA ANALYSIS: (LEFT) PLOTTING, LABELING; (MIDDLE) STATISTICAL MEASURES: MIN, MAX, MEAN; (RIGHT) POLYNOMIAL REGRESSION.
III. Data Analysis
Statistical analysis and functions for graphing are some of the
most popular features of Matlab. These tools find application
in all fields of engineering and science, and are thus
indispensable for instruction. In a first-year engineering design
course based, these tools are also the easiest to link to
individual projects, because all projects benefit from some
statistical analysis.
Lecture 5 – Data sets, plotting, meshing
This lecture demonstrates the use of datasets, importing of
such data into Matlab, and basic elements of graphical
analysis. Datasets of observations are crucial factors of
evaluation in engineering. Datasets come in various sizes,
some as small as ten and others as large as millions of
observations. However, some popular graphical spreadsheet
programs, while easy to use due to their interactive nature, are
not designed for evaluation of large datasets. As a fusion
between a programming language and a large library of
commonly used analytical functions, Matlab is especially
useful for the topic of data analysis.
For the purpose of simplicity, students are introduced to
the graphical importation tool, which is a graphical interface
of functions otherwise available in Matlab. The lecture
provides an example spreadsheet of gasoline price
development in various regions throughout the U.S. over a ten
year period. The spreadsheet is properly delineated with row
and column header information, which is used to demonstrate
the separation between numerical and non-numerical data in
matrices. Differences of numerical data types were discussed
in lecture 2 by introducing images and their restricted set of
discrete intensity values. Differences and parallels between
numerical and textual data are outlined in this session, in
particular for the purpose of labeling graphs.
Two-dimensional plotting and three-dimensional meshing
are covered using examples of line and bar graphs, labeling of
figures, manipulation of axes’ labels and tick marks, and
overlaying of various data sets (Figure 3).
Lecture 6 – Basic statistical analysis
After the introduction of graphical analysis tools, students
now work with some basic statistical functions and an
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example method of regression. Mean, standard deviation,
variance, minimum, and maximum values are common
measures used in statistics. Similar to many other functions,
these five selected ones share the same syntactic rules for
vectors and matrices. Drawing on the dataset from lecture 5,
statistical and graphical evaluation are demonstrated in this
session (Figure 3).
Regression is a statistical tool, which is often used for
prediction of trends in datasets. Fitting of data to a function is
achieved relatively easily in Matlab with pre-defined
functions. While there exist various types of methods for data
fitting, e.g. to periodic, exponential, and logarithmic functions,
this lecture focuses on fitting to polynomials with various
degrees.
For an introductory exercise, a second-degree polynomial
is fitted to a sampled sine wave of one period (Figure 3).
While the fit is almost perfect, drawbacks are demonstrated as
the fitted curve is extended beyond the original data set’s
domain. Clearly, a fit to a periodic function is required.
Using the dataset of relatively variable gasoline prices,
the following exercise attempts to find a polynomial fit. The
exercise leads to a discussion on optimal fitting versus finding
reasonable trends.
ASSESSMENT
Assessment of student learning has evolved since the
introduction of Matlab lecture series. Initially, we assigned
individual homework following each lecture to reinforce the
covered lecture material. We soon noticed that students were
completing the assignments by referring to the tutorials and
seeking help, but were still unclear about the fundamental
concepts. However, as long as the student completed his/her
homework and received a credit for the assignment, the
student did not seek additional help for clarifying any unclear
concepts.
The introduction of an exam at the end of the Matlab
lecture series served as the solution to this problem. Students
were required to learn concepts rather than relying on course
materials and previous examples to finish assignments. The
comprehensive exam allowed for us to monitor true student
understanding of fundamental concepts. The format of the
exam tested for theory as well as implementation of code.
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TABLE III
RESOURCE REQUIREMENTS BREAKDOWN FOR THE MATLAB LECTURE-SERIES.
Resource First Time Requirement Subsequent Requirement
Teaching Assistants 4 hours/week 4 hours/week
Preparation of 1 hour/lecture
15 hours/lecture
Lecture material
Actual Lecture 1.5 hours/lecture 1.5 hours/lecture
However, students were not permitted to use a computer to
write code.
We also required that student groups include
computational analysis using Matlab for their group projects
due at the end of the term. Since one of the goals of the course
is to show students the real-world application of concepts
learnt in class, this was the ideal solution to show students the
usefulness of Matlab. We notice that the quality of project also
improved with this requirement. Often times, student teams
would propose solutions that were unfeasible due to
considerations that were not calculated during the scope of
their design project. Thus, the addition of numerical analysis
to all projects required for students to rethink actual feasibility
and in essence increased the success rate of completion as
more projects could now be taken to prototyping and
implementation stages.
CHALLENGES
A curriculum in a first-year engineering design course with
students without major selection offers challenges that are
uncommon in topically directed courses. The most significant
concern arises from the expected lack of field-specific
knowledge by students. Students’ high school backgrounds
offer little common ground due to the national and
international diversity of standards. Levels of instruction in
natural and life sciences vary significantly with some students
excelling at related first-year college courses, and others
requiring much additional study. It is commonplace for course
evaluations to contain a uniform distribution of ratings and
comments, ranging from too fast/difficult to too slow/easy. It
would be reasonable to separate the class into several sections
of varying degrees of difficulty; however, this approach is
principally not the goal of a first-year design course.
A second challenge arises from the variety of project
categories in a given semester. With more than 30 projects
with different problems and implementation goals, it is
infeasible to provide instruction on detailed numerical
computation satisfying all. We have therefore selected the
broadly applicable topic of statistical analysis as a common
ground for all projects.
In an earlier version of the course, engineering design
focused on a narrower topic of personal transportation
vehicles. Matlab lectures linked concepts from physical
mechanics to student projects and students were required to
present on calculations related to their design projects. We
found that this topic proved challenging due to the relatively
small number of students who excelled in this field. Three
lectures were designed for topics on the physics of the Segway
Human Transporter, including computation of estimated
battery life. The lecture material set up the theoretical
framework of various forces (aerodynamic drag, rolling
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resistance caused by friction, drag caused by mass and
acceleration), which described the amount of force required to
move the mass of the vehicle and the person at some velocity.
Equations were introduced for energy from batteries,
regenerative breaking, battery inefficiency, propulsive
efficiency, etc. With a complete setup of functions, students
computed the distance traveled on a hypothetical terrain of
inclines, declines, and level surfaces. While these lectures
were much more closely related to engineering, the material
was not absorbed very easily. We have observed that
comparatively, a sequence of topically less specific lectures is
perceived with more engagement.
RESOURCE REQUIREMENTS AND SUSTAINABILITY
The implementation and resource requirement for the Matlab
lecture-series is comparable to any other college lecture
course. Since the series is embedded into an engineering
design course, the total duration for the Matlab aspect is
limited to 6 weeks. Table III shows the resource breakdown
for the onset of the lecture series followed by subsequent
administrations.
Teaching assistants hold office hours and grade papers.
The preparation of the initial course material requires the most
amount of time (approximately 90 hours). However, time
allocation necessary for sustainability drops significantly once
the course material is created. Thus, sustainability of the
Matlab lecture series within an engineering design course
structure is highly manageable.
CONCLUSION
In this paper, we have presented an approach to effectively
introducing the use of Matlab in a first-year undergraduate
engineering design course at Columbia University.
Introducing students to the software package at an early stage
is helpful for the students during their more technical courses
when professors assume some basic familiarity with the
software package. The general student reaction to the use of
Matlab has been positive. Providing basic instruction that
students of all skill-levels can understand provides for a better
learning experience. Using interesting engineering design
examples aids in showing students the real-world
implementation of this powerful computational tool.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The author would like to thank the Fu Foundation of
Engineering and Applied Science at Columbia University and
the Gateway Coalition.
REFERENCES
[1] Azemi, A., Stoock, C. "Utilizing MATLAB in undergraduate electric
circuits courses" Frontiers in Education Conference Proceedings, 2,
1996, pp 592-602.
[2] http://www.aquaphoenix.com/lectures
[3] Dutta, P., Haubold, A. “Engineering design via team-based service-
learning projects: Case survey of five unique project genres.” American
Society of Engineering Education (ASEE) Annual Conference, 2007.
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