{"data":{"id":1203,"title":"A Guide to MATLAB for ME 160","edition_statement":null,"volume":null,"copyright_year":2022,"isbn10":null,"isbn13":null,"license":"Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike","language":"eng","accessibility_statement":null,"accessibility_features":["unknown"],"description":"This textbook provides an introduction to the MATLAB programming language for first-year mechanical engineering students enrolled in ME 160, Mechanical Engineering Problem Solving with Computer Applications. Designed to follow the content taught in class, this book provides a supplement to in-class learning that is presented at a level that is understandable to a student with no experience coding before coming to Iowa State University.","contributors":[{"id":5866,"contribution":"Author","primary":false,"corporate":false,"title":null,"first_name":"Austin","middle_name":null,"last_name":"Bray","location":null,"background_text":""},{"id":5867,"contribution":"Author","primary":false,"corporate":false,"title":"Dr.","first_name":"Reza","middle_name":null,"last_name":"Montazami","location":null,"background_text":""}],"subjects":[{"id":13,"name":"Engineering \u0026 Technology","parent_subject_id":null,"call_number":"TA145","visible_textbooks_count":119,"url":"https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/engineering"},{"id":56,"name":"Mechanical Engineering","parent_subject_id":13,"call_number":"TJ1-1570","visible_textbooks_count":20,"url":"https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/mechanical"}],"publishers":[{"id":1182,"url":null,"year":null,"created_at":"2022-07-19T08:37:08.000-05:00","updated_at":"2022-07-19T08:45:19.000-05:00","name":"Iowa State University"}],"formats":[{"id":3069,"type":"Online","url":"https://iastate.pressbooks.pub/matlabguide/","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null},{"id":3070,"type":"PDF","url":"https://iastate.pressbooks.pub/matlabguide/open/download?type=pdf","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null},{"id":3071,"type":"eBook","url":"https://iastate.pressbooks.pub/matlabguide/open/download?type=epub","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null}],"rating":"4.5","textbook_reviews_count":3,"reviews":[{"id":34413,"first_name":"Caroline","last_name":"Baker","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"Anderson University","comprehensiveness_rating":2,"comprehensiveness_review":"This book is directly related to a specific course, so it only introduces concepts that are necessary for that class. It would be minimally useful for a general MATLAB class.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"It seems pretty accurate regarding MATLAB's capabilities and the appropriate syntax.","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"Updates will be difficult because of the typesetting of the MATLAB commands. In addition, some of the functionality taught (building a GUI, etc) is not particularly relevant to a more general teaching of MATLAB.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The images are pretty fuzzy, which makes it difficult to read the MATLAB code. In addition, more examples would really clarify some of the explanations.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The formatting seemed pretty consistent.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The book is divided into manageable chapters and sections within those chapters.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The flow and organization of the book appears fine. There are some large sections of provided code that seem like they exist without enough build up to them.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The images from the computer program itself are really fuzzy and could be formatted better.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The grammar of the book appears fine.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The book is a programming book and doesn't really touch on cultural topics.","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2023-02-17T20:38:06.000-06:00","updated_at":"2023-02-17T20:38:06.000-06:00"},{"id":34801,"first_name":"Xiumin","last_name":"Diao","position":"Associate Professor","institution_name":"Purdue University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This book covers the fundamentals of Matlab from background introduction to basic commands, matrix operations, script writing, graphing, and how to use functions in Matlab. It is a good tutorial for beginners.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The content of the book is accurate. Commands and scripts are presented and the corresponding outputs are given.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Matlab has not changed much over the years/versions. So there is no need to update the book regularly.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"This book is concise but clear. There are enough examples to illustrate a concept.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text used in the book is consistent in terms of terminologies.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The book is modular with many chapters. Students can go through the book chapter by chapter, which makes it easy to read.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The book is well organized. The book gradually increases the difficulty level.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"Most of the figures are not clear/legible enough. It would be great if high-quality figures were used.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The book is well-written.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The text is not culturally insensitive or offensive in any way.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"This a great tutorial for introducing the fundamentals of Matlab.","created_at":"2023-12-15T07:54:51.000-06:00","updated_at":"2023-12-15T07:54:51.000-06:00"},{"id":34980,"first_name":"Jeffrey","last_name":"Phillips","position":"Associate Professor","institution_name":"Hanover College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"This book is not meant to be a comprehensive guide to MATLAB.  Instead, it is meant to be a guide to the basic functions of MATLAB that an undergraduate Mechanical Engineering student would need in order to complete assignments that require the use of MATLAB.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"My review of the material did not uncover any errors.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"I think this book is an excellent resource for students who need an introduction to or refresher on MATLAB.  Anyone who has used MATLAB knows that is has extensive on-line help and also very good on-line training modules.  This book will not replace those.  I still require my first-year engineering students to complete the MATLAB \"On-Ramp\" training as their first step to learning how to use MATLAB, but I offer a link to this textbook as an easy to use reference once they have completed the on-ramp.   I also find it a nice reference as I don't use MATLAB all the time and frequently forget some of the basics such as the format of the code you should use when asking for an input value.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"I found the text easy to follow, however, I am not a beginner at using MATLAB, so perhaps not the ideal judge of clarity.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"At the end of most chapters there is a Problems sections.  However, not every section has a problems, and at the end of chapter 5 are not numbered as they are in other chapters.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"I think it is ideal for going to a specific topic to get a refresher rather than having to plow through an entire book or on-line training course.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The layout is quite logical with an introduction to basic MATLAB commands at the beginning followed by more details subjects such as the use of matrix algebra and graphing capabilities.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The book is available as both a PDF and as an on-line textbook.  The latter is very easy to navigate.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I found no issues.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"I found no issues but am part of the social majority in the USA engineering community, so may not be the best judge of this.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"I intend to list this as a supplemental textbook for any of my courses in which I have assignments that require the use of MATLAB.  Since the textbook is available at no charge, I see no down side in having it as a supplement to the primary textbook.","created_at":"2024-04-03T13:37:11.000-05:00","updated_at":"2024-04-03T13:37:11.000-05:00"}],"url":"https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/textbooks/a-guide-to-matlab-for-me-160","updated_at":"2026-05-18T02:08:56.000-05:00"}}