an interactive introduction to MATLAB

This course was developed in the School of Engineering to provide appropriate material for teaching MATLAB∗ in all engineering disciplines as well as to a wider audience. It is a self-study, self-paced course that emphasizes responsible learning. Course material consists of this document used in conjunction with extensive online content. If you are a second-year engineering undergraduate student, there are also scheduled laboratory sessions where you can practice exercises and ask questions.

Who should use this document?

This document is targeted at those with no prior knowledge of MATLAB, and no previous programming experience. The aim, upon completion of the course, is to be competent using the most common features in MATLAB and be able to apply them to solve engineering problems.

What is in this document?

This document forms part of a self-study course to help you get started with MATLAB. It should be used along with the supporting online materials available at the course website (http://www.eng.ed.ac.uk/teaching/courses/matlab). The main body of this document contains the fundamental topics for the course and there are also several more advanced topics given in appendices.

How to use this document?

This document contains different elements designed to make your learning experience as smooth as possible. To benefit the most from these elements you are encouraged to use the online PDF version of this document. One of the first things you’ll notice is that this document contains many links: those in red indicate a link to online material, and those in blue indicate a link to another section of this document.