Case Study: University of Sydney achieves 10–15% improvement in flight-dynamics understanding with MathWorks

University of Sydney Students Experience Flight Dynamics in the Variable Stability Flight Simulator

The University of Sydney’s School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering needed a way to give students an intuitive, hands‑on grasp of flight dynamics beyond classroom theory. To replace an analog trainer and provide campus‑wide access for more than 200 students, the school turned to MathWorks tools — including MATLAB, Simulink, Simulink Coder, and Simulink Real‑Time — because traditional C development was too slow and not student‑friendly.

Using a Campus‑Wide License from MathWorks, faculty and students built the Variable Stability Flight Simulator (VSFS) by modeling aircraft and environmental dynamics in Simulink, generating real‑time code with Simulink Coder, and running it with Simulink Real‑Time. The VSFS improved learning outcomes (pre/post testing showed a 10–15% increase in understanding), accelerated development cycles compared with hand coding, and helped place graduates in organizations such as CAE and Australia’s Defence Science and Technology Organisation — demonstrating measurable educational and career impact from MathWorks’ solutions.

University of Sydney

Peter Gibbens

Senior Lecturer