Computer simulation for undergraduate engineering education

Computer simulation has been popularly used in education for a few decades while its effects on engineering curriculum do not achieve so much success as on other curriculum. In this paper, firstly, we explore some issues associated with the use of computer simulation teaching methods in engineering undergraduate education. Then some reformed approaches on computer simulation design are given in detail, in which apparatus are shown up by three-dimensional pictures, the processes of engineering projects are built up by KingACT software; and algorithms are compared by MATLAB programs. In these approaches there are two questions mostly being considered: what the characteristics of engineering curricula are and how to increase the students' interesting to curriculum. Micro-computer control technology, which is one of the automation engineering professional subjects, is experimented. The results show that these new proposed methods is feasible and effective in real classes since they could increase both the learning interest in specialized course and the performance in hands-on ability of undergraduate students after one term teaching reformation.