Includes bibliographical references and index.

From compartmentalized disciplines to trans-discipline -- Engineering problems and partial differential equations -- Where do differential equations come from? -- Approximate solutions to differential equations -- Discretization of physical domains -- Solving differential equations computationally -- Scalar field problems in higher dimensions -- Vector field problems in higher dimensions -- Axisymmetric scalar and vector field problems -- Isoparametric elements -- Gauss quadrature and numerical integration -- Dealing with generalized PDEs -- Errors in FEM results -- A quick tour of the COMSOL modeling environment -- A glimpse of the ABAQUS and ANSYS user interfaces -- Dealing with problems of biomedical and regulatory interest.