Introduction

The seminar is entitled "Learning Programming using Matlab" is organized by the specialized high-tech company Digital Academy created by the Group of Lecturers of the NTUA Multimedia Technology Laboratory. It is an intensive seminar carried out exclusively by the Distance Learning method, allowing the learner to follow a high-level scientific training program from his home or office or from the place of his choice and the time of his choice, via the Internet.

The program has been designed in such a way by the laboratory that it combines:

1. Introduction and deepening into the programming mindset.
2. Familiarity with a very important, powerful programming and mathematical tool, such as Matlab.
3. At the same time, the ability to understand and apply the general programming methodology for any sequential language, such as C, C++, Fortran, Java, etc.
4. The introduction of basic concepts of object-oriented programming.
5. High-level theoretical knowledge given concisely but clearly of basic mathematical concepts and corresponding algorithmic procedures.
6. The development of corresponding fundamental algorithmic procedures.

The seminar consists of 10 modules that are completed over a period of approximately 4 weeks and corresponds to 140-160 hours of lessons.

Topics

The seminar is structured in 10 main thematic sections:

• Introductory programming and MATLAB concepts.
• Basic commands, variables and files.
• Basic functions and recursive loops.
• Introduction to using and managing tables.
• Curves and their display.
• Calculation of integrals by numerical methods.
• Solving equations with numerical methods.
• Introduction to symbolic languages, elementary operations (derivation, integrals).
• Introduction to surfaces and their representation.
• Introduction to simple Statistical Methods using MATLAB.

Methodology

According to our educational program, the material is divided into 10 educational units corresponding to 15 teaching weeks. Each unit is accompanied by the corresponding exercise in order to assimilate the teaching material. The program concludes with a final exam. The distance learning program is based on the latest version of the free software (open source) Moodle, which is implemented on the PHP & MySQL programming platform. Online courses are hosted on proprietary servers incorporating cutting-edge technologies.

After the seminar

The MATLAB programming environment is widely used in the world of science, computing, and work. It offers program development capabilities in many areas using simple programming techniques.

In addition, programming in the MATLAB language is very close to the human mentality, since MATLAB itself undertakes not to concern the user with matters related to the computing engine.

Understanding and learning MATLAB is an integral part of both the researcher and the worker who uses programming as a tool to solve issues of his work.

A good MATLAB connoisseur can engage professionally, scientifically, or research in the following:

• Scientific programming.
• Signal and systems analysis.
• Digital image processing.
• Automation.
• Solving complex math problems.
• Special data processing and organization and more.

Purpose of the seminar

The purpose of the educational program is to provide the necessary resources and scientific qualifications to programmers and other interested parties with little previous knowledge in programming through a Windows-based environment.

The seminar is primarily intended for people who have no prior experience in programming both in the Matlab environment and in general, or who have very limited experience and would like to go deeper and significantly improve their relevant knowledge level.