Use of MATLAB in teaching the fundamentals of random variables

Abstract

The way engineering is being taught has changed in recent years with the introduction of commercial and educational software thus allowing a better understanding of the subject matter and increased teaching efficiency. This paper presents the educational software package designed to work in PCs and provides an attractive way to introduce the fundamentals of random variables. The software can be used as a complement to theoretical classes or alone as a self-study tool. The package was implemented in MATLAB and uses MATLAB™ tool "makeshow" which allows the students to create interactive slideshows without building their own graphic interface. The software is easy to use and is in accordance with the established standards, mouse operations, icon menus, etc. The demos include Probability Density Function (PDF), and Cumulative Distribution Function (CDF), normal, lognormal, exponential, Rayleigh and Rician random variables. The package also demonstrates how to generate the desired random sequence, how to examine its characteristics and how to estimate its PDF and CDF.