A Programming Course Including C And Matlab For Mechanical Engineering Students

106 COMPUTERS IN EDUCATION JOURNAL
A PROGRAMMING COURSE INCLUDING C# AND MATLAB
FOR MECHANICAL ENGINEERING STUDENTS
Yucheng Liu
Department of Mechanical Engineering
University of Louisiana at Lafayette
Abstract
This paper introduces a programming course
which provides second year mechanical
engineering students the opportunity to develop
engineering-oriented software and Graphical User
Interface (GUI) using the principles of software
engineering. Two object-oriented languages, C#
and MATLAB) were taught in this course to make
the students familiar with different types of
programming languages. Methods used in
teaching this course such as topics,
class/laboratory schedule, and evaluation
instruments are explained. The course objectives
were well met according to the student learning
outcomes and several Mechanical Engineering
B.Sc. program objectives were also supported by
this course. This course was taught by the author
at University of Louisville and will be offered in
University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
Introduction
Computer software and programming techniques
have been widely applied for solving engineering
problems and therefore become more critical in
engineering education. For that reason, courses in
programming with a high-level language (such as
FORTRAN, Pascal, C, or C++) have long been
included in many first and second year
engineering curricula. Such courses have
traditionally been justified as teaching logical
thinking and problem solving, while providing the
students with tools that they will use as practicing
engineers. However, these goals can be achieved
more readily through the use of object-oriented
programming languages such as C# and modern
mathematical software tools such as MATLAB.
Such languages and tools are more powerful and
easier to master than a traditional programming
language, allowing students to solve engineering
problems more easily and efficiently. This paper
introduces a programming course, Structured
Programming, which teaches students using C#
and MATLAB to solve engineering problems.
Such course is designed for the second year
mechanical engineering students.
As powerful programming tools, C# and
MATLAB have been taught and used in
engineering courses at different universities [1].
Bernhart et al [2] and Christensen [3] discussed
the explicit demand and benefits of adding a
course in the Microsoft.NET platform and the C#
in mechanical engineering department. Nolan et al
[4] developed a program in C# to measure the
surface texture using fractal dimension. This
program was then revised as a case study and used
for a civil engineering course. Conventionally, C#
was considered too professional and only taught in
computer science and computer engineering
department. Recently, other engineering
departments have added C# as an educational
programming language in their curricula because
of its simplicity, safety, and high performances in
engineering applications.
Compared to C#, MATLAB is a much more
popular software package that has long been used
in engineering courses. Kim et al [5] showed
advantages of using MATLAB in teaching linear
algebra to engineering students. The authors
developed web-based engineering numerical
software using MATLAB and its web server tool
box in order to provide basic solution tools in
linear algebra, including eigenvalue problems. It
was proved that the developed software is very
helpful for applied mathematics education. Wirth
and Kovesi [6] explored the use of MATLAB for
teaching the fundamental constructs of
programming languages to engineering and
science students. It was found by the authors that
the time taken for students to learn programming
can be reduced by up to 50% because of
MATLAB’s simpler syntax. Vondrich and
Thondel [7] illustrated the use of MATLAB in
engineering education through practical example
and concluded that MATLAB appeared to be the

COMPUTERS IN EDUCATION JOURNAL 107
most successful for teaching compared to other
possible software products. Yaz and Azemi [8],
and Cao and Wu [9] described the benefits of
using MATLAB in electrical engineering courses
in enhancing students’ understanding of materials
and reducing their amount of time spent in
performing computational homework assignments.
Also, the methodology of integrating MATLAB
into mechanical engineering curricula to improve
the quality of mechanical engineering education is
presented and discussed by Habib [10].
Because of their strengths, a programming
course was designed, which aims to teach the
second year mechanical engineering students how
to use C# and MATLAB in one semester.
Meanwhile, the students can obtain critical
programming skills and general computational
knowledge through this course, which is not well
covered in traditional curricula. Compared to
similar courses taught in other universities, this
course is more efficient and focused: it removes
all the materials which are too profound for non-
computer science students and only focuses on
using both languages to solve real world
mechanical engineering problems.
C# and MATLAB
Both C# and MATLAB are object-oriented
language. Since 1990’s, object-oriented
programming (OOP) has become the prevalent
technique used for developing software tools and
interfaces. OOP is based on the notion that
software packages can be viewed as consisting of
distinct objects with properties that can be
manipulated by methods [11]. Compared to
traditional programming techniques, OOP offers
unique virtues such as encapsulation and
inheritance, which make the software easy to
maintenance and make the programming language
easy to learn. Because of these advantages, many
modern programming languages now support
OOP. A paradigm of OOP is shown in Figure 1.
C# is a simple, general-purpose, OOP language
developed by Microsoft and supported by
the .NET Framework’s Common Language
Runtime (CLR) [12]. As stated by
Microsoft, .NET will replace COM as a software
Figure 1. Object-oriented program structure.
component architecture and it provides an easy
and efficient way to create window applications.
Therefore, it is important for mechanical
engineering faculties to teach C# and .NET to the
students to prepare them well for this challenging
era and allow them to become successful
mechanical engineers.
MATLAB is a special-purpose computer
program optimized to perform engineering and
scientific calculations. As another object-oriented
programming language, MATLAB is different
from C# because it is an interpreted language.
There are two major ways to implement a
programming language: interpretation and
compilation. C# is a compiled language, whose
implementation is typically compliers (translators
which generate machine code from source code).
However, the implementation of an interpreted
language often takes the form of an interpreter,
which is a step-by-step executor of source code,
where no translation takes place. Because of that
reason, MATLAB execute more slowly than C#
and is more expensive. Despite its defects,
MATLAB offers a lot of advantages: it is easy to
use and is supported on many different computer
systems; it has an extensive library of more than
1000 predefined functions plus many special-
purpose toolboxes; the plots and images generated
from MATLAB can be displayed on any graphical
output device supported by computer. These
advantages make MATLAB very suitable for
mechanical engineering applications. We teach
both C# and MATLAB in Structured
Programming course so that our students can have
experiences in using and dealing with two typical
languages that represent different implementation
schemes.

Approach and Methodology
It is important to understand that this course was
designed for students who want to learn
computational knowledge and programming
techniques, and pursue a career in mechanical
engineering. This course was designed to be taken
by students at the sophomore level or above and
provides them with (1) an introduction to
engineering software development using an
object-oriented programming language (C#)
within a modern develop environment
(Microsoft.NET), and (2) instruction in the use of
high-level numerical computing environment and
programming language (MATLAB) for
engineering applications.
This course has a well defined schedule and
syllabus so that the instructor would cover the
various sections of the class, which was required
by the breadth of material and subject matter.
Visual and hands on learning techniques were
used wherever possible by the instructor of this
course. In many regards, the mechanical
engineering students who took this course have
different background in computational and
software knowledge. To help in this regards,
instructor was available for one-on-one office time
with students. Students were able to use class time
and available office hours to discuss on special
topics with the instructor. Descriptions of a course
syllabus are presented.
Course Syllabus
Structured Programming
Course Learning Objectives
The Mechanical Engineering Department has a
set of five primary program objectives and 11
educational outcomes associated with the
B.Sc./M.Eng. curriculum. Structured
programming supports the program objectives by
developing:
• An ability to apply knowledge of mathematics,
science, and engineering in the field of
mechanical engineering.
• An ability to identify, formulate and solve
problems in the field of mechanical
engineering.
• A recognition of the need for, and an ability to
engage in, life-long learning in the field of
• An ability to use the techniques, skills, and
modern tools necessary for the practice of
Text Book
• J. Liberty, B. MacDonald, Learning C# 2005:
Get Started with C# 2.0 and .NET
programming, 2nd
edition, O’Reilly.
• S. Chapman, MATLAB Programming for
Engineers, 3rd
edition, Thomson.
Organization
Three 50 minute sessions per week devoted to
lecture/discussion and problem solving. The
difficulty of this course is such that a minimum
weekly commitment of 8-10 outside study hours
will be required.
Grading
Homework 20%
Quiz 10%
Midterm Exam 10%
Final Exam 10%
C# Project 20%
MATLAB Project 20%
Professionalism 10%
Total 100%
Final grades will be calculated according to an
absolute scale:
≤ 59 F
60-62 D- 63-67 = D 68-69 D+
70-72 C- 73-77 = C 78-79 C+
80-82 B- 83-87 = B 88-89 B+
90-92 A- 93-97 = A 98-100 A+
Topic/Activity
Week 1: Introduction (computer programming
languages, C# and .NET software
development platform); C#
fundamentals (types, constants).

Week 2: C# fundamentals (variables,
expressions); variable types and arrays.
Week 3: Flow control (Boolean logic,
branching, looping).
Week 4: Functions, OOP fundamentals (classes,
objects).
Week 5: OOP fundamentals (properties, fields,
methods, inheritance).
Week 6: OOP fundamentals (polymorphism,
events); Window application (window
forms collection).
Week 7: Window applications (input and
output).
Week 8: Window applications (graphics with
GDI+).
Week 9: Window applications (C# .NET
project).
Week 10: Introduction to MATLAB.
Week 11: Arrays.
Week 12: Modular program (functions and script
files).
Week 13: Input and output; Control structures
(decisions, loops, and vectorization).
Week 14: Data types (cell arrays and structures);
MATLAB project.
Week 15: MATLAB graphical user interface
(GUI).
Design Projects
Two exams were given in this course, one for C#
and one for MATLAB. However, both exams only
included problem solving and answering,
computer operations and programming were not
covered in the exams. In compensation, two
course projects were assigned to each student,
which were major components in this class. The
two projects mirrored typical design projects
found in industry. It is believed that students will
not be able to develop their engineering software
development techniques and a complete
understanding of computational application in
mechanical engineering without two projects that
focus on C# and MATLAB, respectively. Two
examples of the course design projects are
presented below, where the C# project focuses on
engineering software development and the
MATLAB project focuses on mechanical
engineering problem formulation and solution.
Project 1 – C#
Assignment:
Using C# to design an online checking account.
After log into this account, user can perform
following operations: add deposit, withdraw cash,
transfer balance, view current balance, and view
the history statement. The final program should be
able to handle all kinds of exceptions; an account
number and password have to be set for this
account.
Deliverables:
1. Project report – briefly describe the project
problem and explain how the program is
designed; list all the classes and forms used in
the C# program. (15 pts).
2. Help documents – show users how to use the
online checking account; use screen shots of
different interfaces to explain the functions of
different buttons and controls. (15 pts).
3. An oral presentation needs to be given to show
that the final program meets all the design
requirements and is safe enough to handle
wrong operations. (70 pts).
Figure 2. A vehicle-suspension-wheel system.
Project 2 – MATLAB
Assignments:
Fig. 2 shows a vehicle system that will be used
for rigid body analysis. Neglecting the damping
effects, the governing equation of such system is
[ ] 0
]
[ =
+ X
K
X
M V
V

 (1)

In Eqn. (1), X is the displacement vector of the
vehicle system; MV is the mass matrix, which is
defined by:
where KV is the stiffness matrix defined as:
Select proper values (with units) for all the
parameters and construct matrices [Mv] and [Kv];
based on the matrices, find natural frequencies for
this vehicle system (the number of natural
frequencies should equal to the rank of the
matrices); list natural frequencies in a table from
low to high; plot these frequencies in a 2-D plot
(vs. mode index); each natural frequency is
accompanied with an eigenvector, which is an
animation mode of the vehicle system, resort these
eigenvectors according to the resorted natural
frequencies; create a function to normalize an
eigenvector based on a input mode index number
and plot at least one normalized eigenvector with
a specified mode; save all functions into M-files.
Deliverables:
1. Project report (briefly describe the project
problem, include the figure of vehicle
assembly, list all selected values and write out
the matrices, list all the M-files and functions
generated for this project, attach all the natural
frequencies and eigenvectors found using
MATLAB). (40 pts).
2. A table to list the sorted natural frequencies.
(15 pts).
3. A plot for the natural frequencies. (15 pts).
4. Solve the eigen problem to find all normalized
eigenvectors. (15 pts).
5. A plot for a normalized eigenvector with a
specified mode. (15 pts).
Student Assessment
This course was taught by the author to the
mechanical engineering sophomore at University
of Louisville in Fall of 2007. As an entry-level
programming course, Structured Programming
effectively developed the students the
programming skills and capabilities of solving
complex engineering problems using popular
engineering and mathematics software package.
24 students enrolled in this class and by the end of
that semester, favorable outcomes were received
from the student feedback as well as from the
course evaluation. From the evaluation results

(Table 1), it was reflected that this course was
well designed that the students had learned
fundamental knowledge of computer language and
programming, developed basic skills to develop
engineering-oriented software and graphic user
interfaces using the principles of software
engineering, and matured in the use of a suitable
programming language such as MATLAB.
Student feedback was also exciting, from which
it showed that the students had benefited from this
class. Selected comments from the students
include:
“Amount of knowledge gained was tremendous.
This class will be very helpful in my career.”
“This is one of the toughest classes, but Dr. Liu
is extremely effective at communicating difficult
concepts in the classroom.”
“The class was well organized as always. Dr. Liu
presents a caring, considerate and open attitude
toward the students.”
“I have learned a lot from this class and the
instructor has earned my respect!”
With the success of offering Structured
Programming in University of Louisville, the
same class is planned be implemented into
Mechanical Engineering curriculum at University
of Louisiana at Lafayette in the near future.
Results and Conclusions
Because of the increasing significance of
software knowledge and programming techniques
in mechanical engineering, a Structured
Programming course was designed for the second
year mechanical engineering students. The course
syllabus which includes the learning objectives
required course textbooks, grading breakdown of
the course, and covered topics are presented in
this paper.
This course includes hands on and visual lessons
to better help students to learn the two different
programming languages, C# and MATLAB.
Different evaluation tools such as homework, quiz,
exams, and design projects are used to help
students to grasp the concepts being taught. It is
believed that the best way to solidify the main
ideas of this course is the design projects which
develop students’ ability to use C# to develop
engineering software and use MATLAB to
formulate and solve a mechanical engineering
problem. Oral and written communication skills
are also required in both exams. A project
overview and description can also be found in text.
This cause has been taught by the author in
Mechanical Engineering Department at University
of Louisville. The course objectives were well met
according to the student learning outcomes and an
assessment from students also ascertained their
interests in this course. Such course is thereby
ready to be added into current curricula of
Mechanical Engineering Department at University
of Louisiana at Lafayette after small modifications.
Table 1. Selected course evaluation reports.
Query Strongly
agree
Agree Undecided Disagree Strongly
disagree
I learned a lot in this course 20 (84%) 4 (16%) 0 0 0
This course challenged me to think 16 (67%) 8 (33%) 0 0 0
Summary Excellent Good Average Fair Poor
Overall, I would rate this course as 20 (84%) 4 (16%) 0 0 0
Overall, I would rate the effective-
ness of this instructor as
20 (84%) 4 (16%) 0 0 0

References
1. A. Pyster, R. Turner, D. Henry, K. Lasfer,
L. Bernstein, K. Baldwin, “Current state
of software engineering masters degree
programs”, Proceedings of the 21st
Conference on Software Engineering
Education and Training, Charleston, SC,
USA, April 14-17, 2008, pp. 103-109.
2. M. Bernhart, T. Grechenig, J. Hetzl, W.
Zuser, “Dimensions of software
engineering course design”, Proceedings
of the 28th
International Conference on
Software Engineering, Shanghai, China,
May 20-28, 2006, pp. 667-672.
3. J. E. Christensen, K. Ribu, “A method for
learning software tools in engineering
education”, Proceedings of the 9th
International Conference on Engineering
Education, San Juan, PR, July 23-28, 2006.
4. J. M. Nolan, F. N. Kremm, D. Budny,
“Advances in on demand programming
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the 9th
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5. A. S. Kim, C. Park, S.-H. Park,
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numerical software (WENS) using
MATLAB: applications to linear algebra”,
Computer Applications in Engineering
Education, 11(2), 2003, pp. 67-74.
6. M. A. Wirth, P. Kovesi, “MATLAB as an
introductory programming language”,
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7. J. Vondrich, E. Thondel, “The application
of MATLAB in engineering education”,
Proceedings of 2003 International
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in Engineering Education, Orlando, FL,
USA, January 19-23, 2003.
8. E. E. Yaz, A. Azemi, “Utilizing MATLAB
in two graduate electrical engineering
courses”, Proceedings of the Frontiers in
Education Conference on 1995, 1(1-4),
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9. Y.-J. Cao, Q.-H. Wu, “Teaching genetic
algorithm using MATLAB”, International
Journal of Electrical Engineering
Education, 36, pp. 139-153.
10. M. S. Habib, “Enhancing mechanical
engineering deep learning approach by
integrating MATLAB/Simulink”,
International Journal of Engineering
Education, 21(5), 2005, pp. 906-914.
11. J. Mackerle, “Object-oriented program-
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(1990-2003)”, Advances in Engineering
Software, 35, 2004, pp. 325-336.
12. J. Bishop, N. Horspool, “C# concisely”,
Pearson Education Ltd. 2004.
Biographical Information
Dr. Yucheng Liu is an Assistant Professor in the
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
University of Louisiana. He received his Ph.D. in
mechanical engineering from the University of
Louisville in 2005 and has research and teaching
experience in the areas of programming and
development of interactive software, mechanical
and machine design, computer modeling and
simulation, structural mechanics, finite element
analysis, crashworthiness analysis, vehicle system
design and analysis, applied mathematics, etc. To
date, he has authored more than 70 publications in
his research areas and has been the PI or Co-PI on
over $1.5 millions of research funds. He is an
editorial board member of an international journal
and also has served as reviewer for 18 refereed
journals and 5 international conferences. Dr. Liu
is a professional engineer registered in Ohio, and
holds memberships in ASME, SAE and ASEE.

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