University of Massachusetts Amherst

Dept. of Civil & Environmental Engineering

CEE 244 Computational Methods for Civil & Environmental Engineers

Course Description:
Do you want to become a better engineer? Then join me in learning how to get computers to
help you solve problems from across the civil engineering domain. At the end of this class you’ll
be a competent MATLAB user, but you’ll also have learned to think systematically and
analytically about engineering problems in ways that will help you in all your CEE courses, from
analysis to design.

Course Context:
This course is required for all CEE majors and similar courses are required at most of the highly
regarded CEE departments in the country. When you are done with this class, your other CEE
professors will expect you to be able to complete engineering analysis and problem solving using
MATLAB. You’ll be expected to write code that runs correctly and provides correct solutions,
but there may be a wide range of code designs and implementations that can get you there.
Being efficient and ‘coding with style’ are good habits to develop and become more important
the more complicated the problem.

Instructor and assistants:

Prof. Sanjay Arwade Ms Fiona O’Donnell Mr. Panos Pantidis

223 Marston Hall
arwade@umass.edu fodonnell@umass.edu ppantidis@umass.edu

Course objectives and outcomes:

At the end of this course students are expected to be competent intermediate level users of
MATLAB and students of engineering who can use MATLAB to solve problems presented in
other CEE courses. Students should also be able to identify engineering problems and situations
in which computational methods will be useful, and design code and solutions for such problems.
Students should also feel confident in their programming abilities and able to further advance
their competency through self-guided study.

Course Performance Indicators: By the end of the course students will be able to (ABET):
1. Recall a basic suite of MATLAB commands and properly use them for basic computation
and code development and know where and how to find commands that are not
remembered or are new (a, k)
2. Understand the elements of structured programming: control structures, input/output,
functions, memory (c,e,k)
3. Design, write, and debug code for solution of engineering problems (c,e,k)
4. Design and execute graphical representations of engineering data (c,e,k)
5. Identify and solve engineering problems that are amenable to solution using
computational methods (e, k)
Sample topics covered:
1. Doing math by computer: basic scalar and vector/matrix arithmetic; random numbers;
logical variables
2. Graphical representations of data: 2D and 3D plot types; histograms; annotating graphics;
MATLAB handle graphics
3. Structured programming: functions, input, output; algorithms and pseudocode; debugging
4. Numerical methods: symbolic math; differentiation and integration; systems of equations;
statistical analysis; differential equations; linear algebra

Assessment methods:
Students assessed by lab/hw assignments, two exams, and participation in class/lab.

Labs/HWs: 35%
Midterm: 25%
Final: 35%
Participation: 5%

Homework policies:
All lab homeworks are to be submitted through the course moodle site. Each assignment will
have very specific instructions for naming and submitting files. These instructions must be
followed exactly, or no credit will be awarded for the assignment. The deadline for submission
of each assignment is the start of the lab period one week after the assignment is distributed and
introduced in lab. No late assignments are accepted.

As in most engineering classes, you are encouraged to discuss assignments with your classmates
and help each other learn the material. The files you submit, however, must represent your own
work. Software will be used to compare files and detect cases of possible copying of code, and
such cases will be scrutinized thoroughly. Should a piece of code be determined to be copied,
both the copier and the person copied will be penalized with a score of -20 (negative 20) on the
assignment. Since each assignment is worth 20 points, it is therefore strategically better to
submit nothing than to submit copied code. Since the person copied is also, and equally,
penalized, it is also your responsibility to make sure that no one is copying your work. A second
instance of code copying will result in a grade of F in the class for the copier and the person
copied.

You must submit code that runs successfully without errors or warnings. If your code fails to run
without errors or warnings the maximum score on the assignment will be 5/20 points. It is
therefore critical that you pay very close attention to the input and output format and variable
names provided in the assignments. On each assignment points will be awarded as follows:

Correct output: 10
Commenting and documentation: 5
Quality of code structure and organization: 5
Class schedule:
Lecture: T Th 1000-1100
Labs: Th 230-430 or Th 530-730 or F 900-1100

Office hours:
TBD, check Moodle
Also by appointment

Online course resources:

Course moodle page available to registered students

Catalog description:
Structured computer programming for problem solving, modeling and analysis. Algorithms and
numerical methods. Graphical representation of engineering data.

Prerequisites:
Math 131 (Calculus 1)

Text:
No text required for purchase. Students must acquire MATLAB. It is available free to UMass
students via the following link:

http://www.umass.edu/it/support/software/mathworks-licenses-matlab-simulink-and-symbolic-
math-toolbox#MATLAB%20for%20Students%20-%20100%%20Discount
Week Day Date Topic Matlab academy onramp getstart.pdf Other pdf docs
Doing Math by computer
1 T 5-Sep Lecture 1 MATLAB Academy Onramp part I
1. Course overview; 2. Commands Matrices and arrays
(including functions at end of 2.3) (1-5:1-12); Calling
3. Vectors and matrices 4. functions (1-15:1-
Importing data 5. Indexing into 16); Language
and modifying arrays 12. Logical Fundamentals (2- math.pdf Matrices and Arrays (1-
Th 7-Sep Lecture 2 MATLAB Academy Onramp part II arrays 1:2-24) 1:1-44); command_line.pdf
Lab Intro to MATLAB
Programming and
Scripts (1-27:1-28);
2d plots (1-19:1-
Basic command line operations; working with files; 8. Getting help 11. MATLAB 23); Programming matlab_prog.pdf Scripts (17-1:17-
2 T 12-Sep Lecture 1 basic plotting; scripts; commenting; Scripts (5-10) 16)
Calling functions (1-
17:1-18);
6. Array calculations 7. Calling Mathematics (3-1:3- math.pdf Linear Algebra (2-1:2-8)
Th 14-Sep Lecture 2 Matrix algebra; random numbers; functions 9. Plotting data 8) Random Numbers (3-1:3-16)
Lab Matrices and random numbers
Programming and
scripts (1-28:1-30);
Programming (5-2:5-
3 T 19-Sep Lecture 1 if, for, while statements 13. Programming 8)
Th 21-Sep Lecture 2 if, for, while statements
Lab Intro structured programming
Graphical representation of data
import_export.pdf File Opening
Loading and Saving (1-1:1-8);
Text Files (2-1:2-12);
3D plots (1-23:1- Spreadsheets (3-1:3-11)
importing data; plot types; 2D 3D surface, 27); Graphics (4-1:4- graphg.pdf Basic plotting
4 T 26-Sep Lecture 1 histograms; mesh contour 24) commands (2-2:2-51)
Graphics (4-28:4- graphg.pdf Annotating Graphs (4-
Th 28-Sep Lecture 2 annotating plots; printing graphics 10. Review problems 30) 2:4-36)
Lab Basic graphics
graphg.pdf Working With
Graphics Objects (15-2:15-3) set
and get (18-1:18-7);
5 T 3-Sep Lecture 1 handle graphics; scripting graphics generation handle_graphics.pdf
Programming (5- matlab_prog.pdf Function Basics
Th 5-Sep Lecture 2 functions; input; output 11:5-12) (19-1:19-14)
Lab Advanced graphics
Structured programming
6 T 10-Oct No class Monday Schedule
functions; input; output; commenting and matlab_prog.pdf Presenting
Th 12-Oct Lecture 2 documentation Matlab Code (22-1:22-11)
Lab functions
7 T 17-Oct Lecture 1 algorithmic thinking; pseudocode; flow charts
Th 19-Oct Lecture 2 algorithmic thinking; pseudocode; flow charts
Lab Higher level functions
matlab_prog.pdf Debugging
8 T 24-Oct Lecture 1 debugging Matlab Code (21-1:21-18)
matlab_prog.pdf Structures (10-
Th 26-Oct Lecture 2 variable and datatypes; cells, structures 1:10-9); Cell Arrays (11-1:11-7)
Lab Real world data analysis
9 T 31-Oct Lecture 1 CEE 260: Probability/statistics exercise
Th 2-Nov Lecture 2 Midterm exam
Lab No lab meeting
Numerical methods
10 T 7-Nov Lecture 1 Symbolic math in matlab symbolic.pdf
Th 9-Nov Lecture 2 Symbolic math in matlab
Lab Symbolic math
11 T 14-Nov Lecture 1 Differentiation and integration
Th 16-Nov Lecture 2 Systems of equations
Lab Calculus and systems of equations
data_analysis.pdf Data
Processing (1-25:1-27)
12 T 29-Nov Lecture 1 Statistical analysis Regression Analysis (3-1:3-14)
Th 30-Nov Lecture 2 Differential equations
Lab Statistics and Diff. Eqs.
math.pdf Linear Algebra (2-11:2-
13 T 5-Dec Lecture 1 linear algebra 26; 2-39:2-41)
Th 7-Dec Lecture 2 Wrapup
Lab No Lab