Math for engineering students

At the Technical University of Denmark all the Bachelor of Engineering programmes have the same courses in Mathematics given by the Department of Mathematics. In this paper, two exceptions to this are discussed: A successful course and one cancelled after a pilot run. At the Arctic Engineering programme math is combined with physics in a course, where the students learn math in a CDIO way by translating a physical model for an engineering case into a solvable mathematical model.

Most students think they get a good understanding of math and the way the math works behind the physics. In 2014 a math course modelled on the Arctic Engineering course, but with the Math Department giving the math classes, was developed for the Civil Engineering programme. However, the math teacher did not use the cases for motivation but required the students to do traditional math exercises.

The students were unhappy with the course, even though the failure rate was lower and the average grade higher than for the standard Math course. The good experience from the Arctic Engineering programme shows that it is possible to use engineering cases as motivation for math without losing focus on the math theory.

But math teachers must be convinced that engineering students have better ways to learn math than with the traditional theoretical approach.