Preliminary Engineering Mathematics Course in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Southern University

Abstract

A preliminary Engineering Mathematics course in the Electrical Engineering Department of Southern University is offered for engineering freshman. This course is taught in a way that emphasizes engineering problems in the real world and how math can be used to solve these problems. Fundamental mathematics tools such as linear algebra, matrices, Gauss method for linear equations, MATLAB, complex numbers and their applications, time-domain linear differential equations, and difference equations will be taught. This is one of the great strengths of the Electrical Engineering curriculum at Southern University - emphasis on applying fundamentals to solve real-world problems. In past years, it has been found that if freshmen students get involved with some mathematical tools to solve engineering problems, it greatly helps them to finish undergraduate study successfully. The main contribution in this paper is to demonstrate some of the fundamental mathematical materials at the same time, to emphasize some mathematical fundamentals in engineering applications for other Electrical Engineering classes at the early stage.