David Chen, PhD

Principal Application Engineer

David.chen@mathworks.cn

2010 The MathWorks, Inc.

Teaching with MATLAB Tips and Tricks

Agenda

Challenges of Teaching
Setup
Visualization
Interactive Coding
Publishing (Handing In Assignments)
Building Simple Models
Motivating with Complex Models
Conclusion

Challenges of Teaching

What We Mean by MATLAB for Teaching

Educators use MATLAB to

Illustrate lectures
Design homework problems
Set up laboratory exercises
Cleve Moler MATLAB inventor

Students use MATLAB to

Explore and understand principles

Practice exercises, projects
Acquire skills for the job market

Introduction to MATLAB

The leading environment for

technical computing
The de facto industry-standard,
high-level programming language
for algorithm development
Numeric computation
Data analysis and visualization
Toolboxes for control design, signal
and image processing, statistics,
optimization, symbolic math, and
other areas

Agenda

Challenges of Teaching
Setup
Visualization
Interactive Coding
Publishing (Handing In Assignments)
Building Simple Models
Motivating with Complex Models
Conclusion

Agenda

Challenges of Teaching
Setup
Visualization
Interactive Coding
Publishing (Handing In Assignments)
Building Simple Models
Motivating with Complex Models
Conclusion

Chalkboard Art

http://www.chemistryland.com/ChemEdArticle/PowerPoint.html

Projector Art

http://fourier.eng.hmc.edu/e101/lectures/Bode/node8.html

Interactive Visualization

Interactive Visualization

Agenda

Challenges of Teaching
Setup
Visualization
Interactive Coding
Publishing (Handing In Assignments)
Building Simple Models
Motivating with Complex Models
Conclusion

Modeling a Whale Call

Amplitude modulated: y (t ) A(t ) y 0 (t )
Decaying oscillation
A(t ) A0 e Bt sin( 2 f m t )

Sum of harmonics of a
fundamental frequency

y0 (t ) sin( 2 nf0t )
n

Agenda

Challenges of Teaching
Setup
Visualization
Interactive Coding
Publishing (Handing In Assignments)
Building Simple Models
Motivating with Complex Models
Conclusion

Agenda

Challenges of Teaching
Setup
Visualization
Interactive Coding
Publishing (Handing In Assignments)
Building Simple Models
Motivating with Complex Models
Conclusion

Mass Spring Damping System

Introduction to Symbolic Math Toolbox

From MATLAB:

From notebook interface:

Sharing

Perform symbolic computations using

familiar MATLAB syntax

Conveniently manage & document symbolic

computations
Math notation, embedded text & graphics
Access complete MuPAD language
15+ libraries of symbolic math functions

Introduction to Simulink
The leading environment for modeling,
simulating, and implementing dynamic
and embedded systems
Foundation for Model-Based Design,
including physical-domain modeling,
automatic code generation, and
verification and validation
Open architecture for integrating models
from other tools
Applications in controls, signal processing,
communications, and other system
engineering areas

Introduction to SimMechanics
Extension of Simscape for
acausal modeling of threedimensional mechanical systems
Eases process of modeling
mechanical systems
Does not require deriving and
programming the equations of
motion for the system

Used by mechanical engineers,

system engineers, and control
engineers to develop plant models
and test control systems

y
x

Agenda

Challenges of Teaching
Setup
Visualization
Interactive Coding
Publishing (Handing In Assignments)
Building Simple Models
Motivating with Complex Models
Conclusion

Wind Turbine Model

Operating
Point

Pitch
Wind
Blades

Lift, Drag

Nacelle
Generator
Hub Geartrain

Rotor
Speed

Generator
Speed

Primary Goal
Spin at or near
operating speed

Yaw
Tower

Grid
21

Key Tasks
Control

Mechanical
Hydraulic

Modeling the entire system at

the system level enables students
to produce optimized designs
The ability to easily adjust
the level of model fidelity
enables efficient development

Electrical

Supervisory
Logic
Aerodynamics

Park
Spin
Drag

Lift
Wind

Inputs

Actuator
(Ideal)

System
(Include)

Actuator
(Realistic)

System
(Ignore)

Automatically documenting
tests can speed up design
iterations and provide necessary
proof of system performance
22

Key Tools

Pitch Actuation and Control

(SimMechanics)
(SimHydraulics, Simscape)

Yaw Actuation and Control

Blades and pitch linkage

Pitch actuation and control
Yaw actuation

(SimDriveline, SimElectronics)

Power Generation

(SimPowerSystems)
Wind Loads
(Embedded MATLAB)
Supervisory Control
(Stateflow)
Code Generation
(Real Time Workshop)
Documenting Results
(Simulink Report Generator)

Generator

23

SimElectronics

Build models that reflect structure

of physical system
Leverage MATLAB to create
reusable models

SimHydraulics

SimDriveline

Extension of Simulink designed

for acausal modeling of multidomain physical systems
Eases process of modeling
physical systems

SimMechanics

SimPowerSystems

Introduction to Simscape

Simscape
MATLAB, Simulink
V+

V-

Used by system engineers and

control engineers to build a
model representing the physical
structure of the system
24

Agenda

Challenges of Teaching
Setup
Visualization
Interactive Coding
Publishing (Handing In Assignments)
Building Simple Models
Motivating with Complex Models
Conclusion

Solving Some Challenges of Teaching

Visualization
Interactivity
Publishing
Simulation
System Modeling
Project-Based Learning

Q&A: Teaching with MATLAB - Tips

and Tricks
David Chen
The MathWorks

27