Abstract:
The relatively new Wavelet transform and Wavelet-based algorithms have found applications in virtually all engineering and many scientific disciplines. In this paper we point out their applications in enhancing education both from a teaching point of view and in carrying out laboratory-based experiments and projects. We take advantage of Excel's wide availability and familiarity to students in using it as a medium to bring the power of Wavelet analysis to the classroom and the lab. We give an overview of the implementation the Wavelet transform, inverse transform, and denoising algorithms into Excel, which was realized through a Dynamic Link Library (DLL) and Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) code. We present four examples that relate to education and research. We highlight the advantages of wavelets in detecting trends and events, removing noise, and achieving data compression.