Mathematical Modelling Courses for Engineering Education

This volume in the NATO Special Programme on Advanced Educational Technology addresses the gap between the mathematics taught to engineering students and the mathematics used by engineers in practice.

Klappentext

There is a gap between the mathematics taught to engineering students and the mathematics that engineers use in practice. The mathematics presented to undergraduates is often already in modelled form, there is always enough data, the solution is known, there is a preferred technique, and the students are expected to work by themselves. In practice the engineer will work on an ill-formulated problem and be expected to produce the model, will never have enough data, will never be perfectly sure if the solution is correct, and will be part of a team. Written by internationally renowned engineering scientists and researchers, this volume in the NATO Special Programme on Advanced Educational Technology addresses this gap by discussing the design of modelling courses. Fluid flow and heat transfer serve as examples.

Inhalt
I: Mathematical Modelling Issues.- 1. The Role and Practice of Mathematical Modelling in Industry Today.- 2. The Teaching of Mathematical Modelling.- 3. Using Maple in a Mathematical Modelling Course.- 4. Design of Mathematical Modelling Courses for Fluid Flow in Engineering Education.- II: Engineering Mathematics Education.- 5. Integrating New Information Technologies into Engineering Mathematics Curricula.- 6. Examples of Matlab in Engineering Education.- 7. Issues Involved in Teaching Calculus with Computer Algebra Systems.- 8. A Global Approach to Finite Element Method.- 9. Finite Element Method by Using Mathematica.- 10. Ingmath: Software for Engineering Mathematics.- 11. Power Series Solutions of ODEs.- 12. Comments on the Teaching of Computational Fluid Dynamics.- III: Mathematical Modelling in Fluid Flow and Heat Transfer.- 13. Finite Difference Modelling of Two-Phase Flow Instabilities in Boiling Systems.- 14. Numerical Modelling in Heat Transfer by Spectral Methods.- IV: Workshops.- A. Computer Algebra Systems in Mathematical Education.- B. Mathematical Modelling in Fluid Flow.- Author and Subject Index.