Utilizing MATLAB in undergraduate electric circuits courses

The use of MATLAB and its companion toolboxes in teaching graduate and undergraduate control systems and signal analysis courses have been long realized and reported by many educators. More recently, some have started using this package in undergraduate electrical engineering circuits courses. These works concentrate on the numerical capabilities of MATLAB for solving linear equations and its plotting capabilities. This paper describes the use of MATLAB in an undergraduate circuits analysis course focusing on those features of MATLAB that have not been adapted by other educators before. We will present the following topics: (i) generating analytical solutions with the Symbolic Math toolbox, (ii) creating interactive simulations with user interface control, and (iii) the use of MATLAB Compiler and MATLAB C Library to produce stand-alone applications. These topics should also be of interest to those who are developing interactive multimedia courseware products. Examples illustrating these features are included and the codes will be also posted at “http://www.engr.de.psu.edu” site on the World Wide Web. A discussion of how MATLAB helps in reducing the amount of time spent performing computational homework assignments will follow. Finally, the general student reaction to incorporating this software package into circuits analysis course will be reported