Introduction to MATLAB

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Introduction to MATLAB

• Northeastern University College of Computer and
  Information Science
• Co-op Preparation University (CPU)

10/20/2003
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Overview for 10/20/2003

• Contact Information
• Course Overview
• MATLAB Overview
• Handouts

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Contact Information

• Bill Mason
• wmason_at_ccs.neu.edu
• Office Hours
• Wednesday after class
• 7pm - ?

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Contact Information, cont 2

• Additional Office Hours
• By appointment
• E-mail
• Speak to me in class
• May be requested in a handout to be passed out
  later
• Information also available on handout

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Contact Information, cont 3

• Course website
• http//www.ccs.neu.edu/home/wmason
• Information also will be contained on website
• (Not currently up, expect mostly finalized this
  weekend)

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Course Overview

• Course Structure
• Meeting Times and Locations
• Coursework

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Course Structure

• Spread over 3 weeks
• 3 classes per week
• 1 hour per class

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Course Structure, cont 2

• Week 1 Overview of MATLAB
• History of MATLAB
• Overview of MATLAB environment
• Discussion of MATLAB in co-op
• Week 2 Basic MATLAB
• Simple MATLAB functionality
• Syntax, Commands
• Exercises involving basic MATLAB functionality

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Course Structure, cont 3

• Week 3 Advanced MATLAB Functionality
• Beyond MATLAB as a calculator
• The MATLAB programming language
• Project showcasing MATLABs advanced functionality

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Meeting Times and Locations

• Week 1
• Class 1
• Monday, Oct. 20, 6 - 7 p.m., 257 CN
• Class 2
• Wednesday, Oct. 22, 6 - 7 p.m., 257 CN
• Class 3
• Thursday, Oct. 23, 6 - 7 p.m., 247 CN

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Meeting Times and Locations, cont 2

• Week 2
• Class 1
• Monday, Oct. 27, 6 - 7 p.m., 257 CN
• Class 2
• Wednesday, Oct. 29, 6 - 7 p.m., 257 CN
• Class 3
• Thursday, Oct. 30, 6 - 7 p.m., 247 CN

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Meeting Times and Locations, cont 3

• Week 3
• Class 1
• Monday, Nov. 3, 6 - 7 p.m., 257 CN
• Class 2
• Wednesday, Nov. 5, 6 - 7 p.m., 257 CN
• Class 3
• Thursday, Nov. 6, 6 - 7 p.m., 247 CN

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Meeting Times and Locations, cont 4

• Miscellaneous
• Thursday classes listed as 247 CN
• Meet there, then go to the labs (257 CN)
• Attendance
• Attend as many sessions as possible
• Let me know if you have any conflicts
• Lecture slides will be posted on the website

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Coursework

• Most important part of the course
• Will take place mostly during class sessions
• 2 major assignments, a collection of several
  exercises and a larger project

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Coursework, cont 2

• Collection of exercises
• Will occur during the second week
• Will involve MATLABs basic functionality
• Final project
• Will occur during the final two sessions
• Will cover MATLABs basic and advanced
  functionality

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MATLAB Overview

• What is MATLAB?
• History of MATLAB
• Who developed MATLAB
• Why MATLAB was developed
• Who currently maintains MATLAB
• Strengths of MATLAB
• Weaknesses of MATLAB

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What is MATLAB?

• MATLAB
• MATrix LABoratory
• Interactive system
• Will be covered during week 2
• Programming language
• Will be covered during week 3

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What is MATLAB cont 2

• Considering MATLAB at home
• Standard edition
• Available for roughly 2 thousand dollars
• Student edition
• Available for roughly 1 hundred dollars.
• Some limitations, such as the allowable size of a
  matrix

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History of MATLAB

• Ancestral software to MATLAB
• Fortran subroutines for solving linear (LINPACK)
  and eigenvalue (EISPACK) problems
• Developed primarily by Cleve Moler in the 1970s

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History of MATLAB, cont 2

• Later, when teaching courses in mathematics,
  Moler wanted his students to be able to use
  LINPACK and EISPACK without requiring knowledge
  of Fortran
• MATLAB developed as an interactive system to
  access LINPACK and EISPACK

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History of MATLAB, cont 3

• MATLAB gained popularity primarily through word
  of mouth because it was not officially
  distributed
• In the 1980s, MATLAB was rewritten in C with
  more functionality (such as plotting routines)

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History of MATLAB, cont 4

• The Mathworks, Inc. was created in 1984
• The Mathworks is now responsible for development,
  sale, and support for MATLAB
• The Mathworks is located in Natick, MA
• The Mathworks is an employer that hires co-ops
  through our co-op program

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Strengths of MATLAB

• MATLAB is relatively easy to learn
• MATLAB code is optimized to be relatively quick
  when performing matrix operations
• MATLAB may behave like a calculator or as a
  programming language
• MATLAB is interpreted, errors are easier to fix
• Although primarily procedural, MATLAB does have
  some object-oriented elements

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Weaknesses of MATLAB

• MATLAB is NOT a general purpose programming
  language
• MATLAB is an interpreted language (making it for
  the most part slower than a compiled language
  such as C)
• MATLAB is designed for scientific computation and
  is not suitable for some things (such as parsing
  text)

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End