A Guide to MATLAB for ME 160

Reviewed by Xiumin Diao, Associate Professor, Purdue University on 12/15/23

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

This book covers the fundamentals of Matlab from background introduction to basic commands, matrix operations, script writing, graphing, and how to use functions in Matlab. It is a good tutorial for beginners.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

The content of the book is accurate. Commands and scripts are presented and the corresponding outputs are given.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

Matlab has not changed much over the years/versions. So there is no need to update the book regularly.

Clarity rating: 5

This book is concise but clear. There are enough examples to illustrate a concept.

Consistency rating: 5

The text used in the book is consistent in terms of terminologies.

Modularity rating: 5

The book is modular with many chapters. Students can go through the book chapter by chapter, which makes it easy to read.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

The book is well organized. The book gradually increases the difficulty level.

Interface rating: 4

Most of the figures are not clear/legible enough. It would be great if high-quality figures were used.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

The book is well-written.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

The text is not culturally insensitive or offensive in any way.

Comments

This a great tutorial for introducing the fundamentals of Matlab.

Reviewed by Caroline Baker, Assistant Professor, Anderson University on 2/17/23

Comprehensiveness rating: 2 see less

This book is directly related to a specific course, so it only introduces concepts that are necessary for that class. It would be minimally useful for a general MATLAB class.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

It seems pretty accurate regarding MATLAB's capabilities and the appropriate syntax.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 3

Updates will be difficult because of the typesetting of the MATLAB commands. In addition, some of the functionality taught (building a GUI, etc) is not particularly relevant to a more general teaching of MATLAB.

Clarity rating: 4

The images are pretty fuzzy, which makes it difficult to read the MATLAB code. In addition, more examples would really clarify some of the explanations.

Consistency rating: 5

The formatting seemed pretty consistent.

Modularity rating: 5

The book is divided into manageable chapters and sections within those chapters.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 4

The flow and organization of the book appears fine. There are some large sections of provided code that seem like they exist without enough build up to them.

Interface rating: 4

The images from the computer program itself are really fuzzy and could be formatted better.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

The grammar of the book appears fine.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

The book is a programming book and doesn't really touch on cultural topics.