Application of Excel spreadsheet in engineering education

Excel spreadsheet not only provides useful opportunities to solve various computational engineering problems but also can help improving the curriculum of engineering courses. In this paper, first the reasons of popularity of spreadsheets among other numerical softwares along with their unique facilities are introduced. Afterwards, a literature review on the application of spreadsheets such as Excel in different engineering fields was presented. Furthermore, two new application of Excel in civil engineering were recommended. Finally, it is highly suggested that instructors encourage educators to utilize spreadsheets such as Excel in their educational tasks since it provides a better understanding of exact problem solving procedure in comparison to other softwares, especially the commercial ones