Resumen de Programming skills in graduate engineering classes: students from disparate disciplines and eras
n many graduate engineering classes there are often present students who meet prerequisites in programming but are rusty because itwas a long time ago or they learnt an outdated language. In courses such as mathematical methods, finite elements, and powerengineering there are students from different engineering disciplines; electrical engineers having programming as an ABET accreditationrequirement, others not. Recent graduates are more sophisticated programmers than older ones. The problem is to bring the students upto competency without vitiating the content of the course to be taught so as to enhance it with modern computational methods. Thispaper describes an initial two-week MATLAB-based module on matrix equation solution that was used in four courses over fivesemesters at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. This module was within the scope of all four courses and, given MATLAB’s ease of useand the students’ mature standing as graduate students with resources among fellow students, it was used successfully (as a low-levelprogramming language rather than a simulation tool as in much of the literature) to train even those who had never programmed before. Programming was thereupon used to enhance the engineering courses through computational exercises and in the process refinestudents’ new programming skills further. A survey confirms the benefits.
