Mechanical Engineering for the Green Transition

General Objectives This course provides the basic concepts of programming with Python and basic knowledge of some numerical methods that are employed for the solution of common problems in mechanical engineering (non-linear equations, differential equation, data approximation and representation, machine learning). Particular attention will be devoted to the development of algorithms and their Python implementation. Results This course will provide skills of problem solving. The student will be able to implement, compile and run some simple programs written in Python; to implement specific numerical procedures for solving some test problems; to present and analyse the results. SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES Knowledge and understanding: the student will know the basic properties of some numerical methods commonly used to solve problems that arise in engineering. The student will learn the basic concepts of programming with Python that are required for implementing and using the proposed numerical methods. Applying knowledge and understanding: the student will be able to project and to provide an algorithmic solution of a problem and to implement simple algorithms in the Python programming language. The student will learn to translate the numerical methods learned into a computational algorithm written in Python programming language, use these algorithms (or predefined libraries) to solve simple application problems, and interpret and analyze the results. Making judgments: the student will learn to analyze the correctness of a Python program; to analyze the performance of numerical method for solving some test problems, through numerical experiments, with special reference to the analysis of different sources of error, verification of results, comparison of results obtained using different methods. To this aim, several exercises will be proposed during both theoretical and lab lessons; some of them will be solved by the teacher, some others will be proposed as guided lab exercises, while the remaining ones will be given as homework and solutions will be made available. Communication skills: the student will learn to rigorously describe the rationale for selecting a particular numerical procedure for solving a specific problem, the code developed to implement the selected numerical method, and the results of numerical experimentation. Learning skills: the student will be provided with the necessary tools to plan the steps to be performed to solve a problem and formulate them in algorithmic form; to identify the main characteristics of a numerical method, to use basic numerical methods, to implement them in the Python programming language, to evaluate the results critically based on the different types and sources of error expected, to solve some application problems.