AEN 302

Analytical and Numerical Methods in Biosystems Engineering

 

Steve Workman, Ph.D., P.E.

Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Rm 105

Email: sworkman@bae.uky.edu

Phone: 257-3000 ext. 105

Office hours: Monday 9:00 - 10:00

 

 Course Description:

An introduction to engineering problems encountered in biological and agricultural engineering systems.  Introduction to psychrometrics, emphasis is on the solution of case studies using computer simulation and analysis, statistical methods, and numerical techniques.  Topics of current relevance used.  Prereq. Junior standing, CS221, and MA214.

 

LEARNING OUTCOMES:

Upon successful completion of AEN302, a student will have:

·       Developed the ability to formulate an algorithm to solve an engineering problem, program the solution using a structured programming language, and present the results graphically and in written form,

·        developed an ability to apply math, physics, biology, and the engineering sciences to solve practical problems in biosystems and agricultural engineering,

·        developed an understanding of numerical methods to find roots of equations, integrate a function, solve an ordinary differential equation, and optimize a solution.

·        and developed an appreciation for the mixture of engineering and biology in biosystems and agricultural engineering, and for the profession’s relevance to issues of food production, modified environments, environmental quality, water resources, and energy usage.

 

 

Course Materials

Class text

Numerical Methods for Engineers with programming and software applications, by Chapra and Canale  McGraw-Hill Publishers, 1998.

Principles of Process Engineering 4^th Edition by Henderson, Perry, and Young, ASAE 1997.

 

REFERENCE MATERIALS AND LOCATIONS:

The computer lab (room 136) in Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering contains a fairly comprehensive set of reference texts.  They are available for you at your convenience.  Please do not remove them from the room!  If you do so, you inconvenience everyone else (including me!).  Another excellent source for reference and help is your peers, both classmates and other engineering students.  Use these; and pass along helpful information too.

  

GRADING:

Exam 1	15%
Exam 2	15%
Quizzes	5%
Final Exam    (12-18-03 @1:00)	20%
Homework/Laboratory Assignments	45%
	100%

EXAMS

Exams are open book (not open notes).  Questions will be posed to assure me that you can identify/formulate a problem, determine the appropriate solution procedure, locate appropriate material in the text, and solve the problem.  There will generally be 5 questions on the exam worth 3 points each.

 

QUIZZES

Quizzes are open book (not open notes).  Quizzes will generally occur at the end of class but may occur at the start of class depending on the material.  These will be graded on a 2-point scale ranging from 2 points for “knowledgeable of the material” to 0 points for “no clue”.

 

LABORATORY/HOMEWORK PROJECTS

Homework will be assigned periodically for students to do on their own or in groups.  Homework will generally not be collected unless it is a portion of the laboratory project.  There will be weekly or biweekly projects completed individually, using departmental and college computer facilities that demonstrate material being discussed in class.  Formal reports are required for each project.  The reports represent a major amount of engineering work that you have performed.  In addition, the projects are “real world” problems that are similar to those you will encounter as a practicing engineer.  Assume the audience for your report is not just your instructor.  We engineers have a tough job: we must be analytical problem-solvers and we must be able to communicate our solutions to fellow engineers, to managerial colleagues (and bosses) who ma not be technically competent in the details of the analysis, and occasionally to the general public.  As a student your job is more straightforward: you are writing primarily to another engineer.  But remember, this engineer is not telepathic and sometimes is a bit thick–you must write thoroughly, yet concisely.

 

Your course grade depends substantially on these reports.  One element of your grade will depend on how well you write the report.  Your writing is important.  It can only be improved by practice and by careful revisions.  You should never give me the 1^st draft of a report.  The report should certainly have been passed through a spell-checker.

 You will usually find that as you write your reports you may gain new insights into the problem, and you may even find erroneous reasoning in your earlier draft conclusions.  That’s good!  Good writing requires clear thinking.  Follow this format!

 Problem Statement

Concise description of the problem, generally one to three paragraphs.

 Introduction

Description of the physical problem, its importance, and a summary of what follows.

 Methods

The methods section gives a description of your approach to solving the problem.  This may include a description of the derivation and development of your solution, use of mathematical analyses, types of numerical techniques tried, etc.

 Results and Discussion

Address the main questions posed in your description of the problem.  What happened when you changed variables?  Was the solution sensitive to a method or parameter?  Use your analysis to support your discussion.  Include difficulties encountered.  Generally, there will be figures and tables summarizing the results.

 Pseudocode and Program

Most projects will require a computer program to be formulated and written.  The programs can/should be written to solve a general class of problem.  I would like to see both the pseudocode and the final program.  In most cases, I will ask that the program be submitted so I can run it for my conditions.  Generally, programs will have the form of a section containing the pseudocode followed by a well-commented source code.  All scripts associated with the program (ie graphics) should also be presented. 

Every program that you write must be designed so that it is relatively transparent.  An outside person (or yourself, many months after you wrote the program) should be able to understand what your code does.  The approach in this course will be that you will use comments everywhere to describe what is happening.  Short summary statement of the problem and how the program is used to solve the problem should always be included at the start of a program.  While every programmer’s style is different, a rule of thumb, which I use when grading, is that each line of code should create about three lines of comments.  Obviously there are exceptions, but it works very well on entire source files.  So start out right...use comments in your programs!

Evaluation Criteria

Writing Style and Implementation	20%
Organization is clear  (15%)
Format is appropriate (55%)
Writing style, grammar & spelling (30%)
Understanding of physical problems	20%
Use of problem-solving approach	20%
Mastery of new materials covered	20%
Expressed what you have learned	20%
	100%

 

POLICY ON LATE PROJECTS/MISSED EXAMS

The projects constitute 45% of the final grade for this course.  There will always be a due date for the project.  Late projects will be scored with the following function:

             Grade = Ge^{-kt                                                                                                                                  (1)}

 where G is the grade your report would have attained, t is the number of calendar days late, and k is the time constant (0.693 t^-1).  It is your responsibility to finish your work on time.

 If you contact me BEFORE an exam with a university approved excuse, a make-up exam will be prepared for you.  A missed exam for any other reason (dog died, overslept, car was out of gas, etc.) will be made up by the student with equation 1 applying to the grade.