ENGG1801

Engineering Computing

Lecture 1-1
Introduction
Semester 1, 2017
School of Information Technologies
The University of Sydney, Australia
sydney.edu.au/engineering/it/courses/engg1801
Jason Chan
j.chan@sydney.edu.au
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Most important thing in ENGG1801
• You, the students!
• This course is really designed to make
you as happy as possible! 

• ENGG1801 Engineering Computing

is by far the most popular unit of study
of the Faculty of Engineering and IT:
1000+ students!
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 Students in ENGG1801
Australia, incl. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Austria Indonesia Pakistan
Bangladesh Kuwait Singapore
Botswana Macau Samoa
Burma Malaysia South Africa
China Mauritius South Korea
Czech Republic Mongolia Sri Lanka
Equador Mozambique Taiwan
France Nepal United Arab Emirates
Germany New Zealand United States
Hong Kong Norway Venezuela
India Oman Vietnam
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 Students in ENGG1801
• Students doing different degrees:
B Engineering (Electrical) B Engineering B Information Technology &
B Design Computing
(Mechatronic (Space)) B Arts
B Engineering B Information Technology &
B Design in Architecture B Engineering (Software)
(Electrical (Bioelectronics)) B Medical Science
B Engineering B Information Technology &
B Engineering (Aeronautical) B Engineering & B Science
(Electrical (Computer)) B Science
B Engineering B Engineering
B Engineering & B Arts B Engineering & B Commerce
(Aeronautical (Space)) (Electrical (Power))
B Engineering B Engineering B Information Technology &
B Engineering & B Laws
(Chemical & Biomolecular) (Electrical (Telecommunications)) B Commerce
B Engineering B Engineering & B Project Management
B Engineering (Civil)
(Flexible First Year) B Medical Science (Built Environment)
B Engineering B Project Management
B Engineering (Mechanical) B Information Technology
(Civil (Construction)) (Civil Engineering Science)
B Engineering B Engineering B Computer Science & B Project Management
(Civil (Geotechnical)) (Mechanical (Biomedical)) Technology (Software Engineering Science)
B Engineering B Engineering B Computer Science & B Engineering &
(Civil (Environmental)) (Mechanical (Space)) Technology (Advanced) B Project Management
B Engineering &
B Engineering &
B Engineering (Civil (Structures)) B Engineering (Mechatronic) B Project Management
B Design Architecture (Civil)
(Electrical(Telecommunications))
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 Students in ENGG1801
• Students with different experiences:
– 1st year students, just out of high school
– Postgraduate students in ENGG9801
• Students with different computing
experience:
– Complete beginners
– Programming enthusiasts
• We design and run this course to make
everyone as happy as possible!
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 Let me introduce myself…
• Dr Jason Chan (please call me “Jason”)
• I completed all my tertiary studies at
The University of Sydney:
– B Science (1st class Honours)
– PhD Computer Science (Machine Learning)

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 Let me introduce myself…
• Studied undergraduate courses:
– 5 yrs of Computer Science (IT)
– 3 yrs of Electrical / Computer Engineering
– 2 yrs of Physics
– 2 yrs of Mathematics

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 Let me introduce myself…
• Selected to be a tutor for 1st year
programming courses for 9 semesters
• Then I became a lecturer
– Mostly in 1st year programming courses

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 Why students ♥ ENGG1801
• Creativity / new thinking / fun /
different to other courses
• Problem solving and understanding,
not memorization
• Practical benefit after just 1 semester
• Helps you in your future uni courses
• Skills are useful in any career
• Great value: only 4 hours of classes per
week for 6 credit points
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 What previous students said
• “The course was different to anything that I ever did
before and it was fun”
• “Realistic examples shows relevance of unit of study
to my degree and career”
• “Favourite subject due to large amount of practical
applications of problem solving”
• “Very engaging and interesting activities”

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What previous students said (2)
• “The unit of study is very well run and at first I wasn’t
sure whether I would like it, but now it is probably
my favourite subject”
• “I really enjoyed how the focus of the unit is not on
remembering the material, but being able to
understand and use the material creatively to solve
problems”
• “I really enjoyed the unit of study, it was much more
immediately applicable than my other courses”

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What previous students said (3)
• “Computer programming has always [been] on my
list of things I’d like to learn in my life”
• “The ability of Matlab and Excel to perform
numerical analysis I can imagine being invaluable to
engineering”
• “Would do it again for sure”

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 Unit of Study Survey
• “Q10: Overall, I was satisfied with the
quality of this unit of study”
• 87% agree or strongly agree*
• Only 3.3% disagree or strongly disagree

* Results from s1, 2016; 85% (in 2015), 85% (2014), 88% (2013), 87% (2012)
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 What will I learn?
• How to organize data to present and
understand it better using a spreadsheet
(Excel)
• How to tell the computer exactly what to
do (programming) to solve a problem
using a programming language (Matlab)
• Think creatively and solve problems
• General understanding of how to use
computers to solve problems
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 Am I good enough to do this?
• Congratulations – You have already
qualified into your degree at this university!
• So you are definitely good enough to get
good results in this course
• Virtually no previous computing
experience is necessary

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 You can do it!
• “It is really interesting! I started out being completely
afraid of programming and now I love it”
• “I found the programming part really enjoyable, I’ve
never actually programmed anything before so I was
worried, but it is really fun and interesting. It’s also a
challenge, involving a lot of thinking which I liked”
• “Despite dreading this unit before I came to uni,
learning to program has been very rewarding,
entertaining and fun. I learnt something that will stay
with me for years to come.”

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 You can do it!
• “Learning to solve problems using a computer, using
logic to solve problems, coding for a computer – I
found all of these things very enjoyable as I had not
learned anything like this before”
• “I knew nothing about coding when I started, and
now I am sitting in the top 20 [out of 800+] students”
• “I find computing to be very interesting now, even
though I did struggle at first”

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 You can do it!
• “Made me understand how to us a computer
because I really did not like computers at the
beginning of the course”
• “I strongly believe that programming does not
require you to be a genius to learn. I was lucky to
have great tutors and strong interest in the area,
which made it easy to want to learn”
[Student who came equal 1st out of 800+ students;
had no previous programming experience]

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 Lectures
• Attend one lecture on
Tuesday AND one
lecture on Wednesday
• We go through material
so that you understand
what to do in the labs
• I’m happy to answer
any of your questions immediately after
each lecture (please, not during or before)
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 Lectures
• You cannot learn just by watching,
you must also do
• So lectures cover easier material,
labs cover harder material
• You must use lectures and labs together
to do well in this course; cannot use just
lectures or just labs
– You will have to do some work in your own
time
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 Lectures
• “Jason was very clear in his explanations so that
there was almost no chance of misunderstanding or
going away having no idea what the lecture was
about. Overall the Computer Engineering lectures
were some of the best that I’ve been to in regards to
helping me to learn effectively”
• “Great subject, explained in a perfect way so to be
almost impossible to fail if you had followed the
lectures; if all courses would have been like this
one!”

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 Lectures
• “I never felt that a concept was skipped over or only
touched upon then was examined, everything
important was gone over many times”
• “His explanations were very clear and he was an
inspiration to want to do well in the course. What I
really appreciated was how he went to great lengths
to understand what students find difficult. He would
then teach by exposing these difficulties and
misconceptions”
• “The lecture notes have to be some of the most
comprehensive I’ve see in my 3 years of university
study” ENGG1801 Engineering Computing 22
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 Lectures
• “Thanks to the inspiring and energetic way that you
conducted each and every lecture, I was motivated
to actually come to every lecture despite the fact
that you posted the lecture notes and audio
recordings on the website. I think this definitely had
a positive impact on my result in this subject, but it
also helped me developed a keen interest in
programming – something I really did not expect to
come from this UoS [Unit of Study]”
(A student who scored a High Distinction)

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 Labs (Tutorials)
• 2 hours of labs each week (weeks 1-13)
• Lab exercises are similar in difficulty and
style to the Lab Exams and Final Exam
• Many Q’s are given to you in the lab,
but your tutor will not cover all of them
– They’re for you to do in your own time

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 Labs (Tutorials)
• “Most productive tutorials out of any of my subjects”
• “Diverse variety of examples without repetition kept
the tutorials interesting and worthwhile”
• “The tutorials actually help you to learn rather than
being a waste of two hours”
• “After each tutorial, I always felt as if I had learnt
something valuable and really understood the
material, thanks to the excellent tutors (I attended a
couple of different classes, and found that the
quality of tutors was excellent across the board)

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 Labs (Tutorials)
• You are guaranteed a computer in the lab
that you are enrolled in
• You may attend extra labs if you need to
(but no computer is guaranteed for you)
• If you use your own laptop with Excel /
Matlab, then you can attend any lab

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 Labs (Tutorials)
• To change your enrolled lab:
– During week 1:
You can change your timetable online at
Sydney Student; alternatively, go to Student
Center (Level 3, Jane Foss Russell Building)

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 Labs (Tutorials)
• To change your enrolled lab:
– Week 2 and onwards:
• Specific instructions on how to do this will be on
the course website from Monday week 2 onwards
• Requests to ENGG1801 staff in week 1
will be ignored;
we do not have control of timetable in week 1;
see previous slide
• Only one change of enrolled lab allowed
• Cannot change enrolled lab for lab exam
once previous weekend has begun
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 Labs (Tutorials)
• Students who are late to many labs, or
miss many labs, may be automatically
moved to another lab
– When this occurs, an email will be sent to
your uni email

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 Labs (Tutorials)
• Full course timetable at course website:
sydney.edu.au/engineering/it/courses/engg1801

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 Tutors
• “Q1: Overall, I was satisfied with the
quality of teaching by the teacher(s)”
• 92% agree or strongly agree*
• Only 2% disagree or strongly disagree

* Results from s1, 2016; 91% (in 2015), 92% (2014), 91% (2013), 90% (2012)
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 Tutors
• We have selected the very best tutors!
• Tutors are responsible for:
– Helping develop your practical skills by
demonstrating how they solve some of the lab
exercises
– Helping guide you through the lab work and
let you finish off the exercises
– Answering some of your Q’s
• Their main job is to help you learn on your
own to become independent
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 Assessment

Marks Overall Value

Lab Participation 10 marks 5%
Lab Exam 1 10 marks 5%
Lab Exam 2 40 marks 20%
Lab Exam 3 40 marks 20%
Final Exam 100 marks 50%

• “The lab exercises, project and lab exam were just

the right level of difficulty – difficult, but easy to solve
once you got your head around the problem”
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 Assessment

• To pass ENGG1801, you need all 3:

– At least 50% (100 marks out of 200) overall1
– At least 40% (40 marks out of 100) in all assessments
(excluding final exam) when added together
– At least 40% (40 marks out of 100) in final exam2

• 1 A requirement of all University of Sydney units of study

• 2 A requirement of all School of IT units of study

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 Lab Participation (5% in total)
• Each lab worth 1 mark (0.5%) each
– Except weeks with a Lab Exam
(weeks 3, 8 and 13)

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 Lab Participation (5% in total)
• Your mark is only awarded if:
– You write sufficient comments in your code
– You either:
• Make a decent effort at the exercises OR
• Complete all exercises in the lab
(then you can leave early)
– If you do some exercises beforehand,
then you cannot leave early and get the mark
– You arrive on time and don’t leave early
– You sign the roll next to your name
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 Lab Participation (5% in total)
• You can attend any lab during the week
(at any time, with any tutor) to score your
participation mark
– Please do *not* ask or interrupt the tutor,
just take a seat

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 Lab Participation (5% in total)
• However, a computer is only guaranteed for
you in the lab that you are enrolled in
– You must arrive within the first 5 mins of the lab,
otherwise you forfeit your seat
– Reserving of seats is not allowed;
you must sit on your seat
• You can guarantee your own seat if you
bring your own laptop with Excel / Matlab

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 Lab Participation (5% in total)
• Lab participation marks are not awarded
after the week is over; e.g. Lab participation
marks for Lab 1 is only given in week 1
– If you don’t attend the lab that you’re enrolled in,
and you can’t find a computer in another lab,
then you don’t get the participation mark

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 Lab Exams (45% in total)
• Open-book lab exams
– Handwritten and printed notes, and your own
files (created by you this semester) allowed
– Access to course website allowed
– Tablets, laptops, etc. not allowed
• “Lab exam directly allowed me to use what I had
learnt this semester in this course”
• “Was a very direct and relevant way of assessing
programming ability”
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 Lab Exams (45% in total)
Duration Material
Value Week
(mins) covered
Lab Exam 1 5% 60 3 weeks 1-2
Lab Exam 2 20% 90 8 weeks 4-7*
Lab Exam 3 20% 90 13 weeks 8-13*

• Lab exams will take place in the lab that

you are enrolled in
* Theory from earlier weeks is assumed knowledge, but the lab exam Q’s will
be focusing on the material in the listed weeks
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 Final Exam (50%)
• During the exam period (19-30 June)
• 2 hour, “pen and paper” exam
– A double-sided A4 page of notes handwritten
by you (no photocopy; no computer print out;
only handwritten original) allowed
– Non-electronic dictionary allowed
• Q’s will be similar in style and difficulty
as Q’s in the labs
• Sample exam + solutions will be available
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 Wow, can I really do this?
• Virtually no previous computing
experience necessary
• Just need to understand and solve
problems in practice, not memorize
– You can write your own notes
• Concepts in this course can be understood
by everyone
• Yes, you can definitely do this course
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 What you get
• Lecture notes on up-to-date website
• Recorded lectures
• The ability to change labs (if available)
• Can attend more than 1 lab if necessary
• Labs open 8am – 9pm weekdays
• Sample solutions with full explanations for
all exercises at end of each week
• Sample exams with sample solutions
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 What is allowed
• Relaxed labs with no pressure,
and good quality demo’s from tutors
• Talking and explaining with other students
about lab exercises and solutions
• Bringing a double-sided A4 page of
handwritten notes in the exam
• Using lecture notes, your own notes,
your own code that you’ve prepared
beforehand, sample solutions
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NOT allowed: Distractions in Labs
• No distractions in labs
(includes mobile phones, other course
work, unrelated websites)
– Previously, students who check their phones
or Facebook, etc. during labs are very likely
to fail the course
– Also distracts many other students
– Phones must be on silent, no vibrate
– If you must use the phone,
you can go outside of the room to use it
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What is NOT allowed: Plagiarism
• No plagiarism / academic dishonesty
Do NOT give to anyone
or accept from anyone
for any reason
any Excel or Matlab files
• If another student has your Excel or Matlab
file, even if they don’t use it or they modify
it, this is still academic dishonesty
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What is NOT allowed: Plagiarism
• Also:
Do NOT use code
from previous semesters,
even if you wrote it
• Even if you modify it in this semester,
it still counts as academic dishonesty
• http://sydney.edu.au/elearning/student/EI/index.shtml

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What is NOT allowed: Plagiarism
• Plagiarism will absolutely NOT be tolerated

Students who plagiarize

will be caught and dealt with
– Forfeit all marks in assessment or entire subject
– Permanent official record
– Expulsion from university
– Cancellation of student visa
• http://sydney.edu.au/elearning/student/EI/index.shtml
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 Why students ♥ Excel
• The Excel spreadsheet program is virtually
everywhere
• Excellent for learning spreadsheets
– Intuitive to use
– Can do very useful and powerful things very
quickly and easily
– Similar to other spreadsheet programs
– Lots of help available (internet, books, etc.)
• Disadvantages are not felt by students
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 Why students ♥ Matlab
• The Matlab programming language is very
popular in industry, research, education
• Excellent for learning programming
– Avoids ugly and confusing features
– Saves a lot of work and very easy to deal with
matrices, complex mathematical operations,
plotting of graphs
– Syntax similar to other important languages
– Lots of help available (internet, books, etc.)
• Disadvantages are not felt by students
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 Matlab in other units of study
AERO2703 Aerospace Technology 1 ELEC3204 Power Electronics & Applications
AERO2705 Space Engineering 1 ELEC3304 Control
AERO3260 Aerodynamics 1 ELEC3802 Fundamentals of Biomedical Engineering
AERO3460 Aerospace Design 1 ENGG1802 Engineering Mechanics
AERO3560 Flight Mechanics 1 MECH3361 Mechanics of Solids 2
AERO3760 Space Engineering 2 MECH4601 Professional Engineering 2
AERO4360 Aerospace Structures 2 MECH4720 Sensors & Signals
AERO4560 Flight Mechanics 2 MATH2063 Mathematical Computing & Nonlinear Systems
AERO4591 Advanced Flight Mechanics MATH3063 Differential Equations & Biomathematics
AERO4701 Space Engineering 3 MTRX1701 Mechatronics Engineering Introductory
AMME1550 Dynamics 1 MTRX1702 Mechatronics 1
AMME3500 System Dynamics & Control PHYS1901 Physics 1A (Advanced)
AMME4210 Computational Fluid Dynamics PHYS1902 Physics 1B (Advanced)
AMME4500 Guidance & Control PHYS2011 Physics 2A
CHNG5002 Environment Decision Making PHYS2012 Physics 2B
COSC1001 Computational Science in Matlab Honours Projects
COSC3011 Scientific Computing PhD Theses
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 Matlab in other units of study
• “Matlab has infiltrated every subject I am doing –
I’ve even used it in maths!”
• “I’ve already had to write a massive program in
Mechanical engineering… without these skills I’d be
screwed”
• “Almost all of my subjects used Matlab in some form
or another, so it was very useful”
• “By using Matlab and Excel during this unit of study,
I became able to solve different problems I came
across in different units of studies I’m taking such as
math and physics”
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 Other IT units of study
• There are other units of study at the 1st
year level run by the School of IT
– INFO1003 Foundations of IT
– INFO1103 Introduction to Programming
– INFO1903 Informatics (Advanced)
• Some students do 2 or more at the same
time – that is fine
• Each unit teaches different things
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 INFO1003 Foundations of IT
• Teaches the basic but important and
practical uses of computers to solve a
variety of common problems
• Concentrates on what typical computer
users need to know
• Some topics:
– Organizing data with spreadsheets,
databases
– Using internet search engines
– Building webpages using HTML, Javascript
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INFO1103 Introduction to Programming

• Teaches you how to program in a more

powerful, object-oriented programming
language
• Concentrates on what a full-time software
developer needs to know
• Some topics:
– Object-oriented programming with Java
– Software development techniques
(e.g. unit testing, using API’s, more complex
data structures)
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INFO1903 Informatics (Advanced)
• Concentrates on how to handle very large
amounts of data, and solving typical
research problems dealing with that data
• This course is for advanced students –
very high workload and very fast pace
• Students without programming experience
must be committed and learn quickly
• Some topics:
– Programming with Python
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ENGG1801 Engineering Computing
• We assume you:
– Know nothing about computers,
except how a keyboard and mouse works
– Have basic common-sense logic
– Can do basic engineering maths
• By the end of this semester, you should be
able to use computers to solve common
but substantial engineering and scientific
problems on your own
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 Course Website
sydney.edu.au/engineering/it/courses/engg1801
– Important announcements
– Weekly timetable of all lectures and labs
– Lecture notes
– Lab exercises
– Sample solutions
– Sample exams
• “Having all the resources I need online made
studying this subject a much more pleasant
experience than I’ve had in my other subjects”
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 Course Email
j.chan@sydney.edu.au
– Ask any Q about ENGG1801
– I guarantee to respond to every email
(that asks a Q) within 24 hrs
– Please use appropriate subject headers
– The more specific you can be,
the better I can help you
– Don’t write many lines of code in emails;
instead, attach your code (.m files) to email
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 Course Email
• “All my questions were answered quickly and in a
detailed fashion!”
• “Response by email was quick and helpful”
• “Every email I sent out, I got a reply. A first for all my
classes”

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 Textbook
• Lecture notes are totally sufficient on their
own
• If you really want a reference book, then
we suggest:
– Engineering Computation with Matlab
(David M. Smith)

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 Matlab Availability
• Matlab can be installed on your computer
for free:
http://staff.ask.sydney.edu.au/app/answers/detail/a_id/304/~/how-do-i-get-a-copy-of-matlab%3F

• If problems with installation: see Help

Point at Carslaw Learning Hub – West
• Do this immediately – your time will be
more valuable from week 4 onwards
• Matlab will be used throughout your
undergraduate and postgraduate studies
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 Matlab Availability
• >6GB download
• To download, you either need to be on
campus, or use VPN to connect to the
uni’s network with your unikey
– Go to course website, click on Resources,
and download VPN
• After download, you need a program to
open the .iso file, such as Daemon Tools:
http://www.daemon-tools.cc/downloads

– There is a free version; scroll down the page

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 Matlab Availability
• School of IT, Rooms 114-118
(only postgrad logins work in big room,
so use the smaller rooms)
• Link Building,
Rooms 122,
222 North and
222 South
• Madsen B’ding,
LG31-32
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 Matlab Availability
• Matlab is also available on the machines
run by your school:
– School of Aerospace, Mechanical & Mechatronic Engineering
– School of Chemical & Biomedical Engineering
– School of Civil Engineering
– School of Electrical & Information Engineering

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 Matlab Availability
• If you don’t have Matlab installed
(e.g. Learning Hubs):
– Go to https://byod.sydney.edu.au
(use Internet Explorer or Firefox; this will not
work with Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge)
– Login using your unikey and password
– If you have to install a small program on your
computer, then click on Connect
Continued next slide →
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 Matlab Availability
– Click on
– Click on (if asked)
– When asked where to save, click ,
click (if asked), then click on your
computer on the right of the window, and
select a location on your computer
• This is important, otherwise your work will not be
saved on your computer (even though it says
“This PC”), and you will lose your work when you
lose internet connection
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 Install VPN
• If you install Matlab on your computer, or
you want to use Matlab – Citrix, you will
need VPN to connect to uni network
(unless already connected to the uni
network, such as on any uni computer):
– Go to course website, click on Resources,
then download VPN and follow instructions
– Each time you start your computer and want
to connect, you need to open VPN
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 Special Consideration
• If a student cannot finish an assessment
(illness, misadventure), they can apply for
special consideration
http://sydney.edu.au/special-consideration
–You must submit the application within 3 days
–Submit as early as possible, or well before
effected dates; many applications are rejected
–You will need proof (certificate, etc.)
–See above link for all details
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 Special Consideration
• If you are ill, or some other serious
inconvenience has occurred, and you want
to apply for special consideration, then
don’t sit the lab exam / final exam
– Once you have sat the exam, there’s very little
that can be done, even if you apply for special
consideration

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 Special Consideration
• If approved, an alternative assessment or
mark will be given to you
• The history of performance of students
applying for special consideration is not
very good…
• It is your responsibility to check your uni
email regularly; this is where info about
special considerations results are sent to
– May contain alternate assessment details
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 Semester 1, 2017 Schedule
Week Date Lecture topics Notice
1 6 – 10 Mar Introduction, Excel basics
Part 1 –
Excel

2 13 – 17 Mar Functions, Plots, Solving equations, File I/O

3 20 – 24 Mar Matrix algebra Lab Exam 1 (5%), No Wednesday lecture
4 27 – 31 Mar Matlab basics, If statements, Arrays
5 3 – 7 Apr Loops
Matlab Basics
Part 2 –

6 No Friday labs (Good Friday holiday),

10 – 14 Apr Functions
Extra “Lab 6’s” on Tuesday - Wednesday
Mid-Semester Break
No Tuesday lecture (ANZAC Day holiday),
7 24 – 28 Apr Functions
Extra “Lab 6’s” on Monday - Wednesday
8 1 – 5 May Character strings, Text & File I/O Lab Exam 2 (20%)
Matlab Applications

9 8 – 12 May 2-D and 3-D plotting, Surface plots

Part 3 –

10 15 – 19 May Matrix algebra

11 22 – 26 May Images, Movies
12 29 May – 2 Jun Interpolation and curve fitting No Tuesday lecture
13 5 – 9 Jun Help for the Final Exam Lab Exam 3 (20%), No Tuesday lecture
Student vacation (stuvac)
Exam 19 – 30 Jun --- Final Exam (50%)

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Distribution of Marks, Sem 1, 2016

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 Will I pass or fail?
• The most accurate way to tell if a student
will pass or fail is:
Students who pass use thinking to
understand the material
Students who fail only copy the tutor
and sample solutions

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 Will I pass or fail?
• When you experience problems:
Do you just sit there and copy the tutor?
Or do you try to understand why you are
getting the error that you are getting?

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 Will I pass or fail?
• Sample solutions to all lab exercises, with
comments, will be up at end of each week
• You are going to get the sample
solutions anyway!
• So do not attend lab just to copy the tutor!
• You should understand how the tutor
thinks and use lecture notes and previous
exercises to get the solution
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 Will I pass or fail?
• Warning about sample solutions:
You cannot just look at sample solutions and
expect to do Q’s in lab exams
• You must try to do Q’s in labs first,
before seeing tutor’s demo or looking at
sample solutions
• Then you can compare and improve:
– How you thought vs how tutor thinks
– How you did it vs how sample solutions did it
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 How to Perform in ENGG1801
• No more excuses:
– “I have no programming / computing
experience”
– The following all had absolutely no
programming experience*:
• 82% of all students
• 81% of all students who at least passed
• 78% of HD students
• Top 7 students
* Surveyed in semester 1, 2016; previous 2 years surveyed and similar
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 How to Perform in ENGG1801
• No more excuses:
– “I’m an international student”
– The following were international students*:
• 45% of all students
• 44% of all students who at least passed
• 38% of HD & D students
– 81% of these students were from countries where
English is not a main language

* Surveyed in semester 1, 2016; previous 2 years surveyed and similar

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 How to Perform in ENGG1801
• No more excuses:
– “I’m from a different degree / major /
background”
• Almost every degree has been represented by
HD students

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 How to Perform in ENGG1801
• No more excuses:
– “I’m a girl / female”
• 29% of all students* were female
• 27% of HD students* were female

* Surveyed in semester 1, 2016; previous 2 years surveyed and similar

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 How to Perform in ENGG1801
• No more excuses:
– “I’m too young / old”
• All sorts of various ages have been represented by
HD students

• So what does performance depend on?

Let’s meet some students…

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 Student 1
• Was initially “scared” of computers,
only very basic computing experience
• No programming experience at all
• International student, from a country
where English is not a main language
• Very confused in the first few weeks,
asked a lot of “simple” Q’s

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 Student 1
• Worked hard, enjoyed learning and
attended every lab
• Made some stupid mistakes,
but learned from them by understanding
what was wrong
• By end of semester, was able to rely more
on their own logic and problem solving
skills, experience and lecture notes

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 Student 1

* Diffferent slides may have different distributions because different students took the course in
different years
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 Student 2
• Attended every lab, really wanted to pass
• Struggled, and had friends who were also
struggling, so thought they should be ok
• Used many excuses on previous slides
• Just waited for tutor to demo solution
before copying the tutor
• Did not try to think, understand, look in
lecture notes, or do exercises on their own
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 Student 2

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 Student 3
• No programming experience
• Did almost all lab work by themselves
during lab by using lecture notes
• Did all Q’s and only left when all finished
• Experimented with what they learned in
lectures by playing around with it
• Only asked Q’s after looking in lecture
notes and thinking on their own first
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 Student 3

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 How to Perform in ENGG1801
• Your success in this course really depends
on 1 thing:

Your Attitude

• Have fun, but take it seriously

• Show up on time
• Make mistakes, but learn from them
• Stop making excuses
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 How to Perform in ENGG1801
• You do not have to memorize the lecture
notes, but you must know what is there
– Lab Exams are open book, and Final Exam is
almost open book, but 25% of students failed!
– They failed because they didn’t know how to
use the lecture notes, lab sample solutions
– They failed because they copy instead of
understand

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 How to Perform in ENGG1801
• Master weeks 4-7 (Part 2: Matlab basics)
– This is where you pass or fail the course
– You must master it at that time, not later
– Students who wait until after week 7
almost always fail

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 Semester 1, 2017 Schedule
Week Date Lecture topics Notice
1 6 – 10 Mar Introduction, Excel basics
Part 1 –
Excel

2 13 – 17 Mar Functions, Plots, Solving equations, File I/O

3 20 – 24 Mar Matrix algebra Lab Exam 1 (5%), No Wednesday lecture
4 27 – 31 Mar Matlab basics, If statements, Arrays
5 3 – 7 Apr Loops
Matlab Basics
Part 2 –

6 No Friday labs (Good Friday holiday),

10 – 14 Apr Functions
Extra “Lab 6’s” on Tuesday - Wednesday
Mid-Semester Break
No Tuesday lecture (ANZAC Day holiday),
7 24 – 28 Apr Functions
Extra “Lab 6’s” on Monday - Wednesday
8 1 – 5 May Character strings, Text & File I/O Lab Exam 2 (20%)
Matlab Applications

9 8 – 12 May 2-D and 3-D plotting, Surface plots

Part 3 –

10 15 – 19 May Matrix algebra

11 22 – 26 May Images, Movies
12 29 May – 2 Jun Interpolation and curve fitting No Tuesday lecture
13 5 – 9 Jun Help for the Final Exam Lab Exam 3 (20%), No Tuesday lecture
Student vacation (stuvac)
Exam 19 – 30 Jun --- Final Exam (50%)

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 Summary
• Is this a hard or easy course?
That depends on you…
• Do you like to think, learn, have fun?
Then you will love ENGG1801!
• Or do you like to copy, cheat, be lazy?
Then this may not be for you

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 Summary

We will give you the best learning

experience in this course –
we will give you everything you need
Therefore, we will accept no excuses

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 To Do
• At the end of lectures, the “To Do” slide
tells you things that you need to do

• Read through and enjoy these slides again

– Especially slides 76 – 96
• See course website and print next lecture:
sydney.edu.au/engineering/it/courses/engg1801
• Install Matlab on your computer
– Slides 64 – 65
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