Authors
This handbook provides a comprehensive introduction to the finite element method, including isogeometric analysis methods.
The chapters are supplemented with sample MATLAB codes (which can be run in the free version of Octave). The author of the text is prof. dr hab. Maciej Paszyński.
The authors of the MATLAB codes are doctor engineer Marcin Łoś, PhD, as well as doctor engineer Maciej Woźniak, PhD, from the Department of Computer Science and a member of my team of Algorithms and Adaptive Systems.

Marcin Łoś and Maciej Woźniak are the authors of the codes in MATLAB in the chapters:

• MATLAB implementation of the bitmap projection problem,
• MATLAB implementation of the generation of basis functions based on the knot vector,
• MATLAB implementation of the heat transfer problem,
• MATLAB implementation of the advection-diffusion with Galerkin method,
• MATLAB implementation of the alternating-direction solver for the bitmap projection problem,
• MATLAB implementation of the advection-diffusion problem with SUPG,
• MATLAB implementation of the advection-diffusion problem with residual minimization method,
• MATLAB implementation of the adaptive algorithm for the bitmap projection problem,
• MATLAB implementation of the alpha scheme for the heat transfer problem.

Acknowledgments
I would like to thank Maciek and Marcin for the advanced implementations in MATLAB.
I would also like to thank my wife, habilitated doctor Anna Paszyńska, PhD, DSc from Jagiellonian University for helping to prepare many drawings for the textbook.
I would like to thank the reviewers, prof. Maciej Pietrzyk and prof. Krzysztof Banas for their very thorough reading of the book and detailed reviews, the inclusion of which significantly increased the quality of the textbook.

Audience
My textbook is addressed to students of technical and IT studies, and therefore focuses on the practical and implementational aspects of individual issues related to the finite element method. However, my textbook does not deal with the mathematical theory of the convergence of the finite element method. Readers interested in the mathematical foundations of the finite element method should read the chapter "Mathematical foundations of the finite element method". For readers who are more interested in the implementational aspects and a general introduction to the finite element method, I encourage you to skip this chapter at the first reading and start reading from the chapter "Exemplary problem of two-dimensional bitmap projection".