COMPUTER BASED MODELING FOR ENGINEERS USING EXCEL AND VBA
Many engineering curriculum around the country are re-evaluating their introductory computer programming requirement. At our university, several departments have been changing from the traditional Java or C++ course to something more applicable to their discipline. This paper will address the development of a joint course that was taught separately in both Industrial and Textile Engineering. Students from both departments were not using their programming knowledge in remaining courses or when they graduated. Furthermore, the introductory Java (C++) class was being taught as a service course to masses of students at one time in our university’s theater. The students were not enthusiastic about the course and certainly not developing the computer modeling skills that we felt were necessary (i.e., given a problem can they develop a method for solving the problem). Therefore, we decided drop the introductory course and develop a new course in Excel and Visual Basic for Applications to better address the needs of our industry and faculty colleagues. This new course was not intended to duplicate the traditional computer science method of presenting programming. Our goal was to educate students to model problems relevant to our disciplines, solve these problems using modeling tools, and then analyze these solutions through decision support (i.e., become “power users” and not programmers). This paper will address the critical development of a series of “InClassLabs” and their impact on student learning and our two curricula. Many of our homework and cases studies come from industrial sponsor data and represent real cases. The paper will discuss the fundamental issues that lead the two faculty members to develop this computer-intensive course. Of special interest is the classroom environment bolstered by the use of in-class teaching assistants and the use of Tablet PCs. Student evaluations are used to provide insight into the teaching strategies employed.
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An Excel/Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) Programming Primer
In the past, even mildly complicated engineering calculations have not mixed well with spreadsheets because of the very strong tendency to wind up with nearly-impossible-to-debug “spaghetti” code. While most students seem to enjoy using spreadsheets, instructors recognize that other than by finding the “correct” answer printed somewhere, it is next to impossible to grade assignments or to help the occasional student debug them. However, by using Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) in conjunction with the Excel spreadsheet, the user has the convenience of a spreadsheet for input/output and graphics, i.e., to function as a graphical user interface (GUI), while using well-structured, readable, line-oriented code for the more complicated calculations. This appendix will review a few general aspects of spreadsheets, while providing a brief introduction to the use of functions and subroutines written in VBA. Many books about Excel do not address VBA at all, and if they do, the coverage is limited to a few pages [1-3]. However, several recent books, including Walkenbach [4], Orvis [5] and Halberg, et al. [6], Chapra [7], Albright [8] and Bullen, et al. [9] do cover VBA extensively. References 7 - 9 books are almost entirely devoted to VBA, with the Chapra book aimed at beginning engineering students, including those learning to program for the first time.
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