MATLAB Earns High Grade in the Classroom

Kolej Universiti Teknologi Tun Hussein Onn (KUiTTHO), as a college university in Malaysia places considerable emphasis on MATLAB based courses. These practice-oriented classes and labs are included from first year to final year courses of different undergraduate programs. One of the program's goals is to give graduates a competitive edge when moving into the job market. Many believe that since MATLAB is so widely used across professional disciplines, students who use MATLAB will have advantage when pursuing their careers. In this institution, it started when the electrical engineering department instructors adopted the tool for teaching signal processing, communication, control theory and fuzzy logic subjects. Other departments are also quickly following suit: the Faculty of Information Technology & Multimedia and Science Studies Centre adopted MATLAB to teach Mathematics and programming. The Faculty of Management Technology staffs are using the tools to teach neural network and research on unemployment rates and risk analysis.

Hands-on learning experience

"I gained a lot of practical experience using MATLAB while I was a student", said a recent graduate of the program offered by the college university. In the industry, MATLAB is adopted by engineers and scientists for different application areas, among the users are Motorola, Texas Instrument, IBM, Seagate, Toyota, Shell, Exxon Mobil and GlaxoSmithKline.

Fundamentals are Key

 In KUiTTHO the courses are designed to help students learn and appreciate the fundamental and advanced technology in engineering and sciences through MATLAB, upon completion, students are well prepared for upper-level courses that use MATLAB. "Because MATLAB provides a library of higher-level mathematical functions and focused toolboxes, it's ideal for any courses." Next, the academic institute's Mechanical engineering instructors are going to use MATLAB and SIMULINK to improve their control teaching curriculum in addition to the current research applications. The Civil Engineering Department has also planned to emphasis MATLAB usage in structural analysis, remote sensing, highway and environmental engineering.