HELM Past, Present & Future

HELM - Helping Engineers Learn Mathematics - was a major curriculum development project undertaken by a consortium of five English universities - Loughborough, Hull, Reading, Sunderland and Manchester - led by Loughborough, and funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) for the period October 2002 - September 2006.

HELM aims to enhance the mathematical education of engineering undergraduates by the provision of flexible learning resources.

HELM learning resources were extensively trialled at Loughborough University and at twenty other institutions over a four year period. This involved teaching mathematics to many thousands of engineering students and to significant numbers of students in other numerate disciplines.

HELM conducted an extensive survey in 2013-14 which revealed that 55 UK higher education and further education establishments were using the materials, involving an estimated 12,000 students annually.

HELM continues to provide all 50 Workbooks in electronic form. However, the CAL and CAA resources have now been withdrawn in recognition of their datedness given the substantial advances made in the past decade.

HELM Workbooks, which vary in length from 25 pages to 75 pages (average 50 pages), contain the following:

  • Mathematics (and Statistics) for engineering simply explained.
  • Worked Examples.
  • Mathematics Tasks with spaces for working and answers.
  • Mathematics Exercises with Answers.
  • Engineering Examples.
  • Engineering Case Studies.

Loughborough University’s Mathematics Education Centre will continue to make available the latest (2015) version of the 50 Workbooks, published March 2016.