Introduction to Computational Engineering with MATLAB

Introduction to Computational Engineering with MATLAB® aims to teach readers how to use MATLAB programming to solve numerical engineering problems. The book focuses on computational engineering with the objective of helping engineering students improve their numerical problem-solving skills. The book cuts a middle path between undergraduate texts that simply focus on programming and advanced mathematical texts that skip over foundational concepts, feature cryptic mathematical expressions, and do not provide sufficient support for novices.

Although this book covers some advanced topics, readers do not need prior computer programming experience or an advanced mathematical background. Instead, the focus is on learning how to leverage the computer and software environment to do the hard work. The problem areas discussed are related to data-driven engineering, statistics, linear algebra, and numerical methods. Some example problems discussed touch on robotics, control systems, and machine learning.

This second edition includes several corrections, additions, and new exercises across all chapters. The linear algebra chapter is reorganized with the least squares regression, eigenvalue, SVD, and PCA material separated into their own chapters. Additional content was also added on the Cholesky decomposition of positive definite matrices, numerical stability, and applications of the orthogonal QR and SVD matrix decompositions in rectangular systems of equations.

A new chapter provides detailed reference material seldom found in undergraduate textbooks, describing modern orthogonal matrix factorization algorithms with source code implementations of QR decomposition, eigendecomposition with the QR and Francis (implicitly shifted QR) algorithms, and the singular value decomposition.

Features

• Demonstrates through algorithms and code segments how numeric problems are solved with only a few lines of MATLAB code
• Quickly teaches students the basics and gets them started programming interesting problems as soon as possible
• No prior computer programming experience or advanced math skills required
• Suitable for students at the undergraduate level who have prior knowledge of college algebra, trigonometry, and are enrolled in Calculus I
• MATLAB script files, functions, and datasets used in examples are available for download from www.routledge.com/9781041169086