Interweaving Numerical Processing Techniques In Multisemester Projects

The numerical processing (integration/differentiation/regression analysis) of data is critical to the reduction/manipulation of experimentally acquired data. Students often take classes in numerical processing as either engineering or mathematics courses. Unfortunately, these courses rarely integrate the material in a meaningful manner such that the students truly appreciate the processing at hand. This being the case, the material is often forgotten as the students “hit the reset button” at the end of the course. Two projects are discussed which were used in an undergraduate Mechanical Engineering Math Methods course to attempt to circumvent this generic problem. Each project highlights one technique which is particularly vital for later coursework, with the intent of giving students a better idea of its practical application and importance. The projects (one covering numerical integration/differentiation and one covering regression analysis) go beyond the standard textbook coverage of these subjects. Accompanying each project is a MATLAB-based graphical user interface tool which allows the students to further explore and more deeply understand the details of the techniques. This paper presents those projects along with the assessment of the student understanding prior to and following the implementation of the new projects.