Running Maple and Matlab from home

MATLAB

MatLab is a programming language and development environment that provides students with a way to more quickly develop and implement programmed solutions to engineering problems than would typically be possible with programming languages like Fortran or C/C++.

The large library of commands (functions) available and the variety of ways in which students can perform the calculations make MATLAB a very powerful tool in an engineer's repertoire. In CS310, students will learn basic programming as well as how to use built-in functions to solve problems like linear systems, data fitting, successive numeric approximations, finding solutions to ordinary differential equations, and how to write programs that can process experimental data.

If you know how to program in other languages, the basics like if statements and loops will be familar. If you have never programmed anything before, that's why were here; to help students learn how a program can help solve larger problems much faster than would be possible by hand or with a calculator. Matlab also has rich publishing features that allow students to create visually aesthetic presentations of their work.

Maple

Maple is a program that can be used to find symbolic solutions to problems. Once a symbolic solution is found, the result can be reused for any combination of the variables remaining in the solution to find new results. Maple also has commands that can be used to "program" your solutions. The large library of commands (functions) available and the intuitive interface (worksheet or document mode) enables students to perform calculations to check their own work or find new results that would not otherwise have been discovered.

In CS310, students learn some of the most common functions used by engineers to solve problems in a variety of disciplines. Maple also has a very expressive library of plotting commands to allow sophisticated visualizations of solutions. This visualization of the problem and results often makes difference in whether a problem or solution is well understood or not. Students will also learn how to use built-in functions to find roots of equations, solve systems of equations, find the minimum or maximum value of a function expression, find the solutions to ordinary differential equations, or the volumes of revolutions and other shapes.

Mathematica (not covered currently)

Mathematic is another application that is used to find symbolic solutions to problems. Currently, Maple is available to all engineering students. If you have a specific desire to learn how problems are solved using Mathematica, contact the course coordinator.

Fortran (not covered currently)

Fortran is a programming language that has been around for many decades. It is still widely used in weather forecasting, other atmospheric and oceanic studies, and for analyzing research results in a variety of engineering disciplines.

While many people find the strict formating and naming rules hard to learn in the beginning. Most Fortran programmers love the efficient and fast programs that they are able to write when using the Fortran language.

If any student wished to learn more about Fortran than is being covered in the current semester's curriculum, they are encouraged to contact the course coordinator and get some additional guidance and materials for learning this very important programming language.

C/C++, Java, C# (C-sharp), Visual Basic (not covered currently)

These languages are used by a wide array of programmers to produce many of the applications that we all use every day. While they can certainly be used to solve engineering problems, most engineers prefer to use languages and environments that have been specially designed and developed for their needs.

Spreadsheets (not covered currently)

Spreadsheets, like Microsoft's Excel program, are popular applications that can do a fair amount of serious computing. Spreadsheets excel at reading in data files (almost any format), performing computations on all or part(s) of that data and providing a rich set of charts to present that data. Engineers use spreadsheets along with other tools to perform, save, and present their results and solutions.