Where do we go from here? 2 Ideas and Open to Suggestions on More...Let me know in the comments.
We've almost completed the NPTEL Course (we have roughly 4 more weeks) of material left and I consider the NPTEL Course roughly a Junior Engineering Level Course since it tops out at some PDE work.
Thoughts on the next series:
- Go into control system and XCOS material. I'd use a common textbook, tweak the examples to keep out of copyright issues and apply SciLab/XCOS versus MATLAB/Simulink. I'm confident in the control system items since I've done that for years but would need to prepare the XCOS stuff. The XCOS material would start from the basics (which there are plenty of videos on), continue into file management and getting simulations to take data and put data back to the main console. It wouldn't be every nook and cranny of XCOS and I might need some help but it would be more complete examples of working with it.
--I'm leaning toward this route and this would still be Junior Engineering Level material.
- I have material from a couple of Graduate Courses (ME564 and ME565 by Steve Brunton) that I could create another posting series once the NPTEL Course is complete. It would have some overlap with the NPTEL course but does move around subject wise a little more (complex variables, eigenvalues, eigenvectors, control systems, FFT, data compression and such).
--My concern is that the audience might find some of the material difficult since it's Senior and Graduate level stuff (FFT, SVD, data-compression using SVD are really long-haired). Here is a subject list of what's covered in ME564 and ME565 to give one a flavor of the overlap and subjects. I'd hate jumping around just to cover the "non-redundant" subjects since you'll probably need the continuity to understand later sessions.
//ME564 TOC
//ME564Lecture1 - How to multiply a matrix -really basic
//ME564Lecture2 - Population growth // Solving a Linear ODE x(t) = x(0) * exp(a*t)
//ME564Lecture3 - Calculating a Taylors Series (MacLaurin Series)
//ME564Lecture4 - Solving a Linear Second Order ODE using ODE function, plotting two items on a graph
//ME564Lecture5 - Solving a Linear Second Order ODE using ODE function and inline function, plotting two items on a graph
// changing plot line colors and weights, labels, titles, legends, and grid
// eigenvalues and eigenvectors of a matrix, polynomials and roots of polynomial
//ME564Lecture6 - Eigenvalues and eigenvectors of a matrix, how to create the eigenvalue matrix
//ME564Lecture7 - None
//ME564Lecture8 - Matrix Systems of First Order Equations using eigenvalues and Eigenvectors.
// Arrow Plots of the Derivatives (fchamp and champ) and Mesh Grid
// Changing label font size, axis colors
//ME564Lecture9 - ME564 Linearization of Non-linear ODES, more fchamp and inline function use
//ME564Lecture10 - Example of Non-linear ODES: Particle in a potential well. Simple program
//ME564Lecture11 - Matrix Systems of First Order Equations using eigenvalues - Sim to Lecture 8
//ME564Lecture12 - Matrix Systems of First Order Equations using eigenvalues - Sim to Lecture 8
//ME564Lecture13 - Matrix Systems of First Order Equations with forcing functions -
// control systems solution using syslin (state space) and csim (step and impulse)
//ME564Lecture14 - Numerical Differentiation (forward, backward and central methods), Fancy Plot Titles
//ME564Lecture15 - None
//ME564Lecture16 - Numerical Integration (Left Rectangle, Right Rectangle, Trapezoidal by basic functions).
//ME564Lecture17 - Numerical Integration of Vector Space of Second Order System (Backward Euler and by ODE and inline functions)
//ME564Lecture18 - Numerical Integration of Lorenz Equations via Runge-Kutta(4,5) by basic functions.
//ME564Lecture19 - Numerical Integration of Lorenz Equations via Runge-Kutta(4,5) by basic functions and ODE "fix"
//Several Versions 3D Plotting
//ME564Lecture20 - Numerical Integration of Lorenz Equations via ODE "fix" using meshgrid, vectors, 3D Plots (scatter3d)
//ME564Lecture21 - Exists but nothing of consequence
//ME564Lecture22 - Linear Algebra in 2D and 3D: Inner Product, Norm of a Vector, and the Cross Product
//ME564Lecture23 - None
//ME564Lecture24 - None
//ME564Lecture25 - Stokes and Green's Theorems, plot2D and a bunch of plot axis manipulation, using intsplin (integration routine)
// versus inttrap (trapezoidal routine)
//ME564Lecture26 - None
//ME564Lecture27 - ME564 More Vector Calculus Potential Flow, Stream Functions and Examples, more arrow plots
//ME564PendulumProblem - Linearization of Non-linear ODES - the Pendulum Problem - see lecture 9.
//ME564RobotControlProblem - Taken from FRC Robot Control Book - work in progress...
//InvertedPendulumExample - Matt's version of the code that actually works...pole placement on linearized system used to stabilize
// nonlinear version of the system.
//ME565Lecture1 - Cauchy Integral and complex variables
//ME565Lecture2 - None
//ME565Lecture3 - None
//ME565Lecture4 - None
//ME565Lecture5 - ME565 Plotting Complex log function using Surf (ace) plot
//ME565Lecture6 - None
//ME565Lecture7 - None
//ME565Lecture8 - None
//ME565Lecture9 - None
//ME565Lecture10 - None
//ME565Lecture11- None
//ME565Lecture11Anal - Lecture 11A ME565 Solving PDE's in SciLab - Analytical Solve
// meshgrid, Sgrayplot(a 2D contour plot- actually in color)
// demonstrates a color bar on the side.
//ME565Lecture12 - //ME565 Lecture Twelve Fourier Series function mtlb_axis, bar charts,
// drawnow, sleep functions
//ME565Lecture13 - None
//ME565Lecture14 - None
//ME565Lecture15 - None
//ME565Lecture16 - //ME565 Lecture Sixteen Fourier Series - computing the DFT Matrix
// complex function
//ME565Lecture16a - //ME565 Lecture Sixteen Fourier Series - DFT Matrix Calculation
// Power Spectral Density
//ME565Lecture17 - //ME565 Lecture Seventeen Fourier Series - DFT Matrix Calculation
// More on Power Spectral Density and FFT. Plot2d and Legend
//ME565Lecture18 - None
//ME565Lecture19 - None
//ME565Lecture20 - //ME565 FFT Calculation from scratch, FFT, IFFT, FFTShift, plot2d
//ME565Lecture20b -//ME565 finding derivatives using FFT vs finite difference, FFT,
// IFFT, FFTShift, plot2d
//ME565Lecture21 - None
//ME565Lecture22 - None
//ME565Lecture23 - Solving Control Systems with SciLab, csim ('step',...), syslin('c',...),
// comparisons to analytical solution and csim(u) where u is a step matrix in time.
//ME565Lecture24 - //ME565 Lecture 24: Convolution Integrals, Impulse and Step Response
// ODE with IC investigation.
//ME565Lecture24a - //ME565 Lecture 24: Convolution Integrals, Impulse and Step Response
// Ton of stuff on plotting details - psuedoanimation.
//ME565Lecture25 - None
//ME565Lecture26 - //The Wave Equation Code - Solving PDE's by FFT
// complex variable ODE solver (regular ones do not handle complex variables)
// getting the rest of the variables to the derivative function list,contourf
// plots, surf plots
//ME565Lecture27 - //ME565 Lecture 27: Singular Value Decomposition SVD, Installing a package in
// Scilab, reading in an image file, imshow (and it's limitations see uint8), rgb2gray
// data compression example. Subplots
//ME565Lecture28 - // ME565 Lecture 28: SVD 2 - Curve Fitting using SVD methodology. Plot function
//ME565Lecture28a - // ME565 Lecture 28a: SVD 2 Ovarian Cancer Study - Scatter3d, subplots.
3) Other material thoughts...add in the comments.
Posted May 26, 2026, 12:56 AM UTC
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