Why Modeling?

Today's engineers routinely use computational modeling to tackle complex engineering problems and to search for optimal solutions in many engineering practices, ranging from designing computer chips to launching Mars rovers.

Computational modeling helps us

1. analyze and understand what is going on in a process;
2. confirm results observed from experiments;
3. solve a problem without resorting to expensive, time-consuming experiments;
4. test design ideas before actually building the real things.

Through using computational models, students will learn to

• explore what is inaccessible in the real world;
• identify all the variables that affect the performance of a system;
• reason the causal relationships among variables;
• apply related physical laws;
• use a computer to solve a problem;
• understand the limitations of a computational model.