The Impact of Using Computer Models on Academic Performance of Engineering Students

M. Habibnezhad [1], J. Puckett [1], E. Musavi [1],
[1] Durham School of Architectural Engineering & Construction, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, USA

Published in 2016

Encouraging students to take on a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) major has recently been a top priority in the nation’s policy-making debates. STEM-related majors often time are deemed very difficult and demanding. Specifically, students tend to face difficulties to conceptualize engineering problems which can eventually impede otherwise successful individuals from pursuing a career in engineering. Conceptualizing a problem help students see the ‘big picture’ of a system and its components. The COMSOL Multiphysics® software can be used to help students gain an intuition for spatial models, present various post-processing plots, and visualize engineering phenomena.