Abstract—This paper presents an educational experience on
how best engineering students can utilize their computers to
tackle engineering problems. The study is matured from a long
teaching experience of the Introduction to Electrical and
Computer Engineering course required from all first year
students majoring either in Computer and Communications
Engineering (CCE) or in Electrical and Computer Engineering
(ECE) at the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department
of the American University of Beirut (AUB). In addition to
raising awareness of the engineering topics, the course focuses
on the innovative approach of using software tools in
considering real-life problem solutions in order to adopt them
to new educational technology. This has been achieved by
carefully designed experimental sessions where software tools
are introduced with an objective of illustrating the technical
and analytical computing environment such as Microsoft Office,
PSPICE, and MATLAB. These tools are integrated, in this
setting, for students to visualize programming environment in
solving and documenting engineering problems. In addition the
students are introduced to different information research tools
to better enhance and support their problem solving skills by
using proper referencing.
Index Terms—Electrical engineering, introduction to
engineering, LABVIEW, MATLAB, moodle, PSPICE,
undergraduate engineering studies.
S. I. Khaddaj, D. A. Fares, M. K. Joujou, K. Y. Kabalan, and A. I. Kayssi
are with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, American
University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon (e-mail: sk56@aub.edu.lb,
daf03@aub.edu.lb, mj07@aub.edu.lb, kabalan@aub.edu.lb, and
ayman@aub.edu.lb).
Cite: Sara I. Khaddaj, Dima A. Fares, M. Khaled Joujou, Karim Y. Kabalan, and Ayman Kayssi, "How Best You Can Utilize Your Computer to Tackle Engineering Problems," International Journal of Information and Education Technology vol. 4, no. 5, pp. 405-410, 2014.