Provide Electrical
Engineering students with consistent computer software that can be used at all
levels of study
Installing MATLAB
on the Faculty network for access by teachers and students
-
Access by all students from first to final
year
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The development by students of ‘proof of
concept’ systems
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The continued attraction of international
students to the course
The University of Queensland (UQ) is currently one
of Australia’s largest and most reputable suppliers of electrical engineering
graduates to the local and overseas workforces.
Currently, almost 800 students are studying the
four-year course with 50% of this year’s graduating class being attracted to
the course from high-tech Asian countries.
Also attracted to UQ are an increasing number of European exchange students.
The course attendance has grown 100% in the last
five years and the
Electrical Engineering at the
A key element of the UQ teaching process for the
students is the ability to learn and develop systems in key areas such as real-time
image processing and computational electromagnetics,
with full time access to sophisticated technical computer software.
The University of Queensland installed MATLAB
software from The MathWorks on the faculty network in 1995, making it
accessible to all lecturers and students.
Associate Professor Brian Lovell, who Heads the
Electrical and Communications Division of the IT and Electrical Engineering
School, believes MATLAB is a wonderful teaching tool because it provides
options for the students at all levels of ability.
“MATLAB is like a clay modelling language that
students and lecturers can mould to demonstrate and eventually develop
practical applications,” he said.
Just some of those applications include computation
programming, robotics, mathematics matrix work, biomedical imaging, digital
communications, studying electrical fields and waves, magnetic resonance
technology and developing whole imaging systems.
Students are using MATLAB at all levels of their
electrical engineering studies with final year students using the software with
great sophistication. Students are using MATLAB to design and test proof of
concept systems that illustrate possible applications that could be
commercially developed with venture capital support.
Just some of the systems developed by students
include working concepts of recognition systems able to track faces in a crowd,
computer direction systems using hands but no mouse, and predicting object
movement such as a ball for sporting applications or pedestrian movements for
vehicle computer systems. Other applications being developed using MATLAB
include active shape modelling and 3D reconstruction.
Professor Lovell believes all student projects
developed are at a demonstration stage and could easily be developed to
high-speed commercial use with investor funding.
“The advantage of MATLAB is it offers us a
consistent package that the students can learn from at early stages through to
their advanced work in developing and testing real time applications.”
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