ENGINEERING MATHEMATICS: BRIDGING BETWEEN MATHEMATICAL

THEORY AND ENGINEERING PRACTICE - EXPERIENCE IN UTHM

Phang Chang & Phang ~ i a u *
Centre of Science Studies, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia
ABSTRACT
The objective of reaching mu/hemu/ics lo engineering srudenls is to Jnd the right
balance between in-depth understanding and praclical applications of mathemarical
equations. There are inslances /ha/ srudents are unable to utilize the mathematical
knowledge they have learned in engineering fields. In /his paper, we discuss this
balance and some pracrical ways of achieving it based on our experience as a
themafician in the teaching of engineering mathenia~ics to engineering students at
University Tun Husssein Onn (UTHM). Here. our first ,focus is to discuss the
instruclional j?amework on how we inlegrate the modeling of elenlentary electrical
circuit systems into Engineering Malhemalics in the Faculty of Electrical and
Electronic since 20041'05 academic session. Students' response will be shown. On top
ofthat, our second focus is to present dtferent ways on how to handle engineering
mathema/icsproblen?s, for example in elementary circuit analysis, ngalhenzaticians will
derive the Ordinary Differen~ial Equations first, bul eleclrical engineers converl [he
RLC circuil to domain-s whereby bolh are "mathematically equivalenr ". Besides that,
hi s arlicle offers plenty of relevan1 examples including algebraic method and residue
n~elhod in partial fraction, dflerenl wuj~s to obtain Fourier series expansion and so on.
Through this, we hope to reduce the gap beiween mathematical iheory and engineering
pracrice among undergraduate engineering students.
Keywords: Engineering mathematics
1.0 INTRODUCTION
Undoubtedly, proficiency in mathematics is a fundamental necessity for any
successful engineer. The Board of Engineer, Malaysia (BEM) in its accreditation
manual, mentioned that mathematics subjects should be studied to a level necessary to
underpin the engineering subjects of the course and with a bias towards application in
teaching.
In undergraduate engineering courses, there are many attempts to make the
engineering students more proficient in mathematics. Implementation of problem-based
learning and usage of mathematical packages are few ways that receive an increasing
attention in many of the engineering colleges in Malaysia. Another approach which is
widely being used in other countries is integrating modelling skills to the future
engineers. Huang (2005) mentioned that mathematical modelling has always been an
important activity in science and engineering education. By doing this, hopefully,
students are able to transfer a problem in the real world to a mathematical problem and
solve it analytically or numerically. The process is so-called mathematical modelling.
Here, our first focus is discuss the instructional framework on how we integrating
modelling elementary electrical circuit systems into Engineering Mathematics in
The author now auached l o Dcpartrnent of Compul at~onal Sc~cnce and Mathematics, Faculty or Computer Sc~encc and
Informalion Technology, Unlversirl Malaysia Sarmrak 94300 Kota Samarahan. Sarawak
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