Integrating Applications of Linear Algebra Across the Curriculum
Raf Vanderbril
Linear Algebra in its abstract setting is a powerful tool with many applications at hand. To make our mathematics tangible to the students we need to take their interests into account when selecting demonstrations. In this lecture we illustrate how we were able to make the course attractive and reveal that it is an essential part in the educational program for students civil engineering. We illustrate how we redesigned the course with hands-on sessions to enhance the interactions and we focus especially on the practicum. Here we link the courses mechanics, analysis, informatics, and linear algebra by executing a vibration analysis of a shear building. From the mechanical interactions, differential equations are deduced leading to an eigenvalue problem, solved with a python toolbox. Students will then see how the computed eigenvectors and eigenvalues link back to the physical scale model of the shear building that will be excited.
