Work-in-Progress: Preliminary Work Introducing Automated Code Critiques in First-Year Engineering MATLAB Programming

This Work-in-Progress paper presents WebTA, a code critiquer developed using Java, currently being expanded to MATLAB for first-year engineering students. It outlines the modification process of the existing WebTA software for MATLAB and shares the results of three beta tests conducted with 52 students. The paper highlights the significance of providing an automated tool that helps students identify and improve coding errors is highlighted (addressing the gap between computer science and engineering education). WebTA's feedback-on-demand feature addresses the challenge of providing timely and personalized feedback to a large number of students, contributing to the enhancement of first-year engineering education.