For the first time at USC, two of my classes require the use of the program Matlab. I had a little bit of programming experience in high school but for the most part, this is the first time I’m having to program on my own. And while it’s definitely been a challenge, I’m kind of enjoying the process. It’s actually much more of a creative process than I imagined because there are always multiple ways to solve a problem.
Matlab is a program specifically designed for science/engineering programming. One course I’m taking is actually an introduction to Matlab course specifically for Chemical Engineers, so we’re beginning to learn how to solve elementary Chemical Engineering problems with the use of the program. The other course is a Separations Processes course in which we need to apply Matlab to solve complicated separations problems. I like using Matlab because I feel like I’m beginning to understand the kinds of things that Chemical Engineers would actually do in the real world. As of now, all the programming we’ve done has been relatively simple, but I’m sure it’s about to get a lot harder, so I’m going to have to keep up if I want to keep doing well.
