The document provides an introduction to the Finite Element Method (FEM). It discusses the history and development of FEM from the 1950s to the present. It outlines the basic concepts of FEM including discretization of the domain into finite elements connected at nodes, and the approximation of displacements within each element. The document also discusses minimum potential energy theory, which is the variational principle that FEM is based on. Example problems and a tutorial are mentioned. Advantages of FEM include its ability to model complex geometries and loading, while disadvantages include increased computational time and memory requirements compared to other methods.