Mathematical Modeling and Simulation with MATLAB

Reviewed by Yang Zhao, Assistant Professor, Taylor University on 12/13/22

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

The book introduces some common mathematical modeling methods such as iterative modeling, matrices modeling, discrete modeling, continuous modeling, and stochastic modeling. The modeling methods could be beneficial to readers in mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, economics, engineering, and computer science. MATLAB programming is popular in both academia and industry for modeling, analyzing, and simulating.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

The book describes the mathematical concepts and the modeling methods in text and equations accurately. It introduces MATLAB commands and programming techniques correctly. The example MATLAB codes work well to produce identical results in the book.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 4

The mathematical concepts, modeling methods, and example problems meet a variety of modeling needs, which will be beneficial to the readers in the long run. However, the MATLAB example codes might be invalid in the future, because MathWorks produces new MATLAB versions annually and they might change the MATLAB programming syntax.

It would be better to specify the MATLAB version in the textbook and update the example codes in the future.

Clarity rating: 5

This book explains the terminologies and concepts using text, tables, and mathematical equations. It demonstrates example problems using description, mathematical derivation, and graphs.

Consistency rating: 5

The terminologies, definitions, and concepts are consistent. They match the standards in the bibliography.

Modularity rating: 5

This book contains seven chapters and six appendices. Each chapter discusses a relatively independent topic. A one- or two-credit-hour course may use this book to introduce modeling methods and programming skills.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

The book introduces the overall organization of the contents in Chapter 1. It elaborates on MATLAB programming in Chapter 2, which is the foundation of the rest of the book. It talks about the specific modeling methods in Chapters 4-7.

Interface rating: 5

Most of the graphs are sharp with captions and descriptions. The curves in the same plot have different line styles or colors. The MATLAB commands and codes are highlighted in the text. The important equations have equation numbers. The links help the reader to locate the content quickly.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

Grammatical errors are not found.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

The cultural relevance issue is not found.

There are exercise problems in each chapter and selected solutions in the appendix for the readers to practice.

The book prefers the prerequisites in calculus, differential equations, linear systems, nonlinear systems and linearization, probability, and stochastics, even though with a brief introduction to these topics.

I would recommend adopting this book in a Junior- or Senior-level course.