Carnegie Mellon University Professors Use Online MATLAB Tutorials to Teach Computational Methods for Biomedical Engineering

Solution

Adopt a flipped classroom strategy in which students complete MATLAB online tutorials to learn the basics of MATLAB before class sessions

Results

启用了翻转教室
激发了积极的参与
Programming efficiency increased

“When teaching with a flipped classroom, you cannot expect students to study on their own without proper tutorial materials and come to class prepared. The interactive MATLAB tutorials were perfect for engaging students and getting them up to speed quickly.”
Dr. Yu-li Wang, CMU

Using K-means clustering to identify clusters in electrical impedance measurements of normal and malignant breast tissue samples. The scatter plots show the relationships of pairs of these principal components, with different colors depicting the distribution of different clusters.

For students who have relatively little experience with programming, a graduate-level course on computational or numerical methods can be daunting. To engage these students, and to enable them to reach a functional level for engineering tasks within a semester, instructors must provide meaningful exercises tailored to the students’ specific engineering interests while ensuring that students advance at a rapid pace without being overwhelmed by low-level coding details.

卡内基·梅隆大学生物医学工程教授Yu-li Wang博士通过将翻转的课堂策略与MATLAB结合在一起，应对这一挑战^®基于作业。学生在上课之前完成互动MATLAB教程。在课堂上，他们将他们在教程中获得的基本技能应用于与生物医学工程更高级或相关的问题。Wang博士发现，这种方法可以增加参与度，并帮助学生为将作为执业专业人员解决的工程问题做好准备。

Wang博士说：“以传统的，基于教科书的方法教授数值方法可能是干燥的，对于学生来说并不是特别有趣，因此在我的课程中，我们可以使用MATLAB进入任务。”“在课程结束时，与接受更常规的数字方法课程培训的学生相比，学生们准备好成为有效的工程师。”

Challenge

Dr. Wang’s new course,Fundamentals of Computational Biomedical Engineering,is the first graduate-level biomedical engineering course at CMU to be based entirely on MATLAB and Simulink^®。Wang博士进行的一项早期的课堂调查显示，尽管他们的编程背景有限，但大多数学生还是想成为MATLAB的“权力用户”，并将其用于其生物医学工程课程和未来职业。

尽管他在其他语言中拥有数十年的编程经验，从汇编语言到C ++，但王博士不是MATLAB专家。为了为每个课程做准备，他需要发展自己的熟练程度并确定学生将使用的资源。

Solution

Dr. Wang used MathWorks online training courses to learn MATLAB and implement a flipped classroom approach to the new computational methods course. Before assigning a tutorial to students, Dr. Wang would complete it himself, for both pacing the progress and identifying areas where students might need assistance.

Wang博士发现，他可以通过要求学生完成他在上课前指定的教程来最大程度地减少在课堂上教基本语法的时间。在课堂上，他简要审查了教程中提出的主要概念，然后向学生展示了如何在生物医学工程环境中应用它们。例如，在他们的第一批作业中，学生使用MATLAB分析患者数据以发现血压，胆固醇和整体健康之间的相关性。有关图像分析的课程，学生从Matlab Central上的文件交换下载的算法开始，该算法在稻米的照片上执行了图像分割，并将其修改为计算和测量细胞核。

By adopting a similar pedagogical approach, Dr. Wang extended several important topic areas after completing a tutorial. For example, for linear algebra, Dr. Wang introduced additional problem-solving materials to cover the applications of eigenvectors, singular value decomposition, and principal component analysis. The foundation the students had built using the MATLAB tutorials made it easy for them to grasp otherwise abstract and complex concepts.

当Wang博士涵盖了普通的微分方程（ODE）时，他要求学生完成有关使用MATLAB求解器解决ODE的教程。然后，要求学生使用Symbolic Math Toolbox™象征性地求解相同的ODES，并使用Simulink图形地求解。万博1manbetx

该课程以MATLAB教程的机器学习结束。然后，许多学生选择使用传统的机器学习或基于神经网络的深度学习，以进行最终项目。主题包括用于检测肺炎的胸部X射线图像的分类，用于检测痴呆症的脑电图记录，用于检测心律失常的ECG记录以及用于自动血数的白色血细胞图像。许多项目涉及比较从简单回归到深度学习的分类方法。

对于将来的学期，Wang博士计划将更多时间用于机器学习和深入学习，以应对学生的反馈以及学生在最终项目中广泛使用分类器。

Results

启用了翻转教室。“The MATLAB tutorials made a day-and-night difference in my ability to teach computational methods, with a flipped classroom to maximize the outcome,” says Dr. Wang. “If I were teaching the class with Python, for example, I would likely have to take time out of lectures to teach the basics or spend my own time creating similar tutorials.”
激发了积极的参与。“MATLAB Fundamentals replaced what would have been a series of boring and time-consuming lectures,” says Dr. Wang. “As their skills built up, the students became more active and involved, and they responded with better and more interesting answers to the challenges I gave them.”
Programming efficiency increased.Wang博士说：“ MATLAB是一种非常有效的工程工具，使学生和像我这样的专业人士都可以轻松，快速地解决问题。”“如果我要使用C或C ++来制作类似的问题（即使我有一个好的库，也可能会花费我更多的时间和精力来查看结果，而不是使用MATLAB。”

Products Used

了解更多关于卡内基梅隆大学

展示您的成功

Join the Customer Reference Program

开始