We live in an exciting world where the internet has provided a way to connect many smart people with their great ideas.

This is especially true with engineering education. Using Matlab, you can cover many topics including elementary applied mathematics, basic numerical methods, and problem solving methodology.

I was first introduced to Matlab while attending the University of New Mexico back in 1983 when I was a Ph.D student. I was taking a numerical analysis class from the creator of Matlab, Professor Cleve Moler and saw the power of this computing tool to show quickly various concepts.

Using Matlab, you can demonstrate many applications. For example, let's say you want to do a circuit analysis problem with one consisting of resistors connected in series.

The circuit analysis example can show several facets of the problem: the basics of electrical engineering, use of some elementary mathematics and computer programming. In fact, I view electrical engineering as applied mathematics where you take the a series mathematical operations (or algorithms) and implement it either in either hardware or software or a hybrid of the two.

Matlab appears to be a good language choice for technical courses for the following reasons:

1. Easy to learn and use
2. Powerful and can be adapted to extend its capabilities
3. Fast and accurate
4. Many technical disciplines use it
5. Supported by a network of professional software developers and software company

What I want to accomplish in this lens is to:

Present a logical way to solve engineering problem using matlab visualization features.

Show a large variety of examples on how matlab can be used to solve a large number of problems.

I'll start off with some basic computing fundamentals as it applies to engineering. Next, I'll present numerical techniques and conclude with some special applications.

I will assume you have no prior experience with a computer but you have a mathematical background in college algebra and trigonometry.

One approach to problem solving is based on the following process:

1. State your problem as clearly as you can.
2. Describe the parameters at the input and output
3. Start off simple by working out a problem by hand.
4. Write a Matlab program that solves the simple problem.
5. Modify your program to solve a variety of problems or test cases.

Our examples in this lens will provide real-world applications with usable code. Here are some interesting challenges:

- speech recognition and understanding
- image recognition and understanding
- modeling the weather for predicting its effect in the future
- improving sports car performance
- locating energy sources efficiently: gas and oil

A key advantage in using Matlab is its visualization capabilities since it's important to develop and understand the solutions. You will not only learn how to generate a large variety of plots but also learn to analyze, interpret and evaluate the data.

While developing the code to solve the problem, engineers are encouraged to use the best software practices. Specifically, this will include the code being user-friendly, reusable, and readable.

Other engineering concepts can be introduced in the area of systems engineering such as: documentation, life-cycle, maintainability, modularity, abstraction and prototypes.

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