Case Study: Gonzaga University enhances heat transfer learning with Maple from Maplesoft

Gonzaga University teaches heat transfer with Maple and boosts homework grading speed

The customer is Gonzaga University, where Professor Abdul Aziz faced the challenge of teaching mechanical engineering students about the complex nonlinear equations governing natural convection heat transfer. The traditional focus on numerical methods left students understanding what happened but not why, as they became bogged down in computational details. The vendor Maplesoft provided its Maple software to address this pedagogical gap.

Maplesoft's solution enabled students to use Maple's symbolic computation capabilities to directly manipulate and simplify the governing differential equations before generating numerical results. This allowed students to focus on understanding the underlying principles. The results were a deeper comprehension that enabled more advanced coursework and research projects, and it raised the bar for homework assignments while making grading easier for the professor.

Gonzaga University