Teaching approach & original examples
Engineering ideas, worked and checked.
Two interactive examples illustrate numerical verification and the design of independent model evaluation.
Portfolio revision: 17 October 2026
My teaching approach connects a stated engineering question with assumptions, a worked method, an independent check, and an interpretation. These two original portfolio exercises illustrate that approach. They are teaching demonstrations prepared for this site.
Computer Applications in Civil Engineering · Numerical methods
A number needs a verification step.
Solve f(x) = x² − 2 = 0. Compare bisection on [1, 2] with Newton’s method starting from 1.5. The residual |f(x)| measures how closely the computed value satisfies the equation.
Root: 1.421875000
Residual: 2.173e-2
Final bracket width: 1.563e-2
Root: 1.414213562
Residual: 4.441e-16
Ask the student
How does doubling the bisection iteration count change the bracket width? Why should a calculated root be substituted back into the original equation?
An iteration count is a procedure setting. Residual and bracket width provide checks on the result for this equation.
Artificial Intelligence for Civil Engineers · Validation
Define what the test set represents.
This synthetic teaching dataset contains four concrete mixture identifiers, each observed at ages 7, 28, and 56 days. Compare holding out individual age records with holding out mixture D.
8 training records
4 test records
4 overlapping mixtures
Mixtures A, B, C and D appear in both sets. This split evaluates held-out ages from familiar mixtures.
Ask the student
Which split addresses prediction for an unseen mixture? Which grouping variable would be required to test transfer to an unseen experimental study?
Choose the independence unit from the intended application. For the held-out-mixture question, the training and test sets require zero overlapping mixture identifiers.