Thank you to guest blogger, Dr. Maqsood Ali Mughal from the Industrial Technology department at Fitchburg State for his contribution to the GCE Blog.

Would you like to add an engineering skill to your existing knowledge base? Are you interested in a career in research and development (R&D), aerospace, automobile, or the pharmaceutical industries? Does computational science or embedded systems interest you? Are you a data analyst or a statistician?

If you're scared of programming and find it difficult but want to learn, then this new course is for you. Software Applications for Engineers, offered through Graduate and Continuing Education at Fitchburg State University, will provide the skills you need.

This exciting new course (partly taught through Blackboard) is mainly based upon MATLAB (Matrix Laboratory), however LabVIEW (Laboratory Virtual Instrumentation Engineering Workbench) basics will also be covered.

Course content focuses on fundamental ideas in scientific computing, such as: 

• arithmetic logical expressions/equations
• MATLAB programming and vectorized operations
• data input/output
• plotting (2D/3D)
• structure arrays

Emphasis on applied issues, such as: 

• managing large data sets
• optimization
• simulation
• hardware (Arduino-based) interfacing (including wireless)
• graphic user interfacing (GUI) for creating applications

Students will be able to make their own applications using MATLAB by wirelessly taking data from devices and then analyzing that data.  For example, you can retrieve data from iOS/Android sensors in smart phones.

Who needs MATLAB or LabVIEW, and why? These are two of the most important software used in various industries. The principles you learn by working through applications created from MATLAB and LabVIEW follow standards that apply equally well to a diverse range of fields.

Here are a few topics that are covered:

• Engineering new solutions: Many ideas and concepts used in engineering rely on math as a starting point because math provides the means to express the idea in a form that others can understand.
• Performing numerical analysis: Interpolation, extrapolation, regression, differentiation, integration, linear system of equations, etc.
• Getting involved in science: Science is used in many different ways. For example, you might be involved in the health industry and use science to find a cure for cancer or the Ebola virus. A computer scientist might look for a new way to use computer technology to aid those with accessibility needs.
• Exploring research: Explore and express new ideas, solve difficult problems, and create tools, leveraging a robust and flexible computational foundation.
• Simulation: Using a simulation rather than a real-world counterpart is a low-cost approach to testing that is an essential part of any sort of scientific or engineering endeavor today.
• Image processing: Image processing is the act of managing the pixels in an image using math techniques to modify the matrix values. Techniques such as adding two matrices together are common when performing image processing.
• Embracing programming using computer science: Computer scientists rely heavily on math to perform tasks. MATLAB, with its rich toolbox, will be used to rapidly prototype an algorithm before committing the development resources to implementing the algorithm in another language, such as C++ or Java.
• Graphic user interface (GUI): Create apps with GUI in MATLAB. For example, scientific calculator, GPA calculator, temperature converter, etc.
• Hardware interfacing: Use single software environment to configure, control, acquire, and analyze data from instruments and other devices. Once data is in MATLAB, you can analyze and visualize that data for tasks such as signal processing, statistical analysis, digital filtering, and curve fitting. You can also create graphical interfaces for collecting and analyzing your data and automating tests.
• Visual block diagram: LabVIEW is used to design multiple projects for a wide variety of applications including those related to science, technology, engineering, and math.

Many employers expect their future employees to have knowledge of these programming language software. Although the course will use MATLAB and LabVIEW, the ideas and concepts covered are common to many computational environments, and will greatly benefit students outside the engineering domain as well. Both are very user friendly and easy to learn.

All students are welcome to participate, whether you're a freshman, senior or a researcher. Students from non-engineering backgrounds are especially encouraged to register. This is a great opportunity to learn basic programming languages with extreme user friendliness.  Students will leave with ideas, examples and plans that are realistic and attainable to implement in their majors.  Don’t miss this opportunity to learn, explore, and work with the latest program development environment.

SUMMER I & II 2017
ITEC 2001 Software Applications for Engineers
CRN 41340
05/30/2017 – 08/11/2017 | TR: 12:30 - 2:15 pm

About the Instructor
Maqsood Ali Mughal received a B.S. degree in Electronic Engineering in 2008 from Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology, Karachi, and M.S. degrees in Engineering Management and Environmental Sciences in 2010 and 2014 from Arkansas State University (A-State), Jonesboro. He then received his Ph.D. degree in Environmental Sciences at A-State Optoelectronic Materials Research Laboratory (OMRL)-College of Engineering with doctoral research focusing on semiconductor materials for photovoltaic applications. In January 2015, Dr. Mughal joined the Electrical Engineering Department at A-State as a faculty and worked for about a year before joining Fitchburg State University in 2016 as an Assistant Professor in the Electronics Engineering Technology program in the Industrial Technology Department.
Dr. Mughal was a recipient of Best Graduate Student Award for the A-State College of Engineering in 2010. Also in 2010, he received the LRCSI Ray Echols Scholarship, while also a Student Entertainment Chairman for the American Society for Quality (ASQ)-Northeast Arkansas, Section 1415NEA Student Branch (ASU). He has presented his work at 19 conferences, including prestigious conferences like IEEE PVSC, TechConnect, EMC, etc. throughout the U.S. He won two first prize awards for oral presentations, both at the Arkansas Academy of Science (AAS) in 2011 and 2012. He has several publications (both conference proceedings and journal) related to his research on electrodeposition of semiconductor materials for solar energy application. He is also a professional member of IEEE, NSPE, IAENG, etc. and reviews papers for SolarEnergy, The European Physical Journal Applied Physics (EDP Sciences), and IEEE Industrial Application Society.