Case Study: Clarkson University achieves a unified, cost-saving engineering curriculum by standardizing on MATLAB and Simulink with MathWorks

Clarkson University Brings Consistency to Engineering Curriculum by Standardizing on MATLAB and Simulink

Clarkson University faced inconsistent software use across its freshman engineering courses, which complicated teaching, increased maintenance and training costs, and forced students to buy multiple licenses. To unify the curriculum and give students a consistent introduction to engineering concepts, the school standardized on MathWorks tools—primarily MATLAB and Simulink along with related toolboxes and the Data Acquisition Toolbox—for its multidisciplinary ES100 labs and follow-on courses.

MathWorks provided a common software environment that let Clarkson create consistent lectures and integrated labs where students model, test, and implement systems (including embedded code generation with Simulink Coder and Embedded Coder). As a result, Clarkson reduced software expenses by more than $10,000 per year, gave students a seamless pathway between disciplines, and lowered student software costs while improving readiness for upper-level classes and industry.

Clarkson University

Jim Carroll

Associate Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering