Welcome to ENFD 112 (Fundamentals of Programming). In this class you will learn how to model and solve problems in Matlab, the standard engineering modelling language and problem solving tool. For those not able to afford $100 for Matlab, we will also offer solutions in Octave, an open-source problem solving tool that is close to Matlab (but later in the curriculum Matlab will be required).

The midterm exam is scheduled for Wednesday, May 14, at 3:00PM. The exam will be taken in two rooms, Rec Center 3200 and Rec Center 3210. Students whose last initial is a letter between A to N, inclusive, will take the exam in room Rec Center 3210. All other students will use Rec Center 3200.

There will be no labs scheduled for the week of May 12. There will be no recitation on May 12.

mantissa

1. programming: The part of a floating point number which, when multiplied by its radix raised to the power of its exponent, gives its value. The mantissa may include the number's sign or this may be considered to be a separate part. For this definition, the mantissa of 0.314159×10¹ is .314159.

2. mathematics: The fractional part of a logarithm. For example, ln_e(23.1407)=3.14159 the mantissa of which is .14159. In this example, 23.1407=e^3.14159 = e^.14159×e³ = 1.1521×e³ which demonstrates the difference between the two definitions.

It appears about 25% of the class is doing well and about 15% are slightly fuzzed up. But about 40% has not progressed to become even slightly proficient at using a programming language. This is possibly due to a lack of serious practice. I realize that grades are of paramount importance to you but the usefulness of our students to future industrial and government employers is of paramount importance to me. Therefore, I need to do something drastic to reduce this rather high number of people that have shown little traction so far. Students receiving a grade below 50% will need to attend 2 special sessions of 2 hours each (attendance will be taken) in Baldwin 550. The two meetings will be Tuesday, May 27, and Tuesday, June 3 at 4:00PM. During those sessions students will be asked to solve certain problems on their own, without specific help from anybody - they may look at their notes, though. Students will receive a grade for what they are able to finish and that grade will replace the midterm grade. The grade will be determined after I ask questions to make sure the student knows what he/she is doing. For a student needing remediation who does not attend both sessions the midterm grade will stand and be averaged into the final grade according to the syllabus.