ECE 3620 - Circuits and Signals



Syllabus - Fall 2008

Course Title:

Circuits and Signals

Instructor:

Scott E. Budge

Office:

EL 113

Phone:

797-3433 (Office), 753-5931 (Home)

E-mail Address:

scott.budge@ece.usu.edu

Office Hours:

W 2:00-4:00 pm
M TH 3:00-5:00 pm
Other hours by appointment.

Lecture Time:

M W F 10:30-11:20 am

Lecture Place:

ENGR 203

Help Session:

W 1:00 pm, EL 109.

The help sessions are designed to deepen and broaden the students' understanding. Attendance is not required. Among other things, student questions on homework and programs will be addressed, usually by the student working through the problem themselves with help from the teacher and other students. However, it is strongly hoped that the help sessions can accomplish more than that.

Prerequisite:

ECE 2250, CS 1410, Math 2250, (Co-requisite) Physics 2220.

Textbook:

B. P. Lathi, Signal Processing and Linear Systems, Oxford University Press, New York, NY, 1998.

Reference:

(The following may be helpful.)

1. J. W. Nilsson and S. A. Riedel, Electric Circuits, Addison Wesley, eighth edition, 2008.
2. C. L. Phillips and J. M. Parr, and E. A. Riskin, Signals, Systems, and Transforms, Pearson Prentice Hall, fourth edition, 2008.
3. S. Haykin and B. Van Veen, Signals and Systems, Wiley, second edition, 2003.

Late Policy:

Assignments will not be accepted late under any circumstance. All homework is due at the beginning of class on the date due.

TA:

Nagendra Bage Jayaraj, El 107, desk #1, Wed. 3:00 - 5:00 pm, nagendra.bage.jayaraj@aggiemail.usu.edu

Cheating:

Don't do it! The instructor reserves the right to fail any student who can be justifiably accused of cheating.

Final Exam:

9:30-11:20 am on Monday, December 8.

Course Accessibility:

In cooperation with the Disability Resource Center, reasonable accommodation will be provided for qualified students with disabilities. Please meet with the instructor during the first week of class to make arrangements. Alternate format print materials (large print, audio, diskette or Braille) will be available through the Disability Resource Center.

Course Fee:

This course requires a $30 fee. This fee money is used primarily to pay for the TA used to grade papers and answer questions from the student. Some of the money may also be used to maintain tools such as Matlab, compilers, etc. which are used in the course.

Course Summary

This course is a transition from the circuit analysis principles taught in ECE 2250 to the concepts of signals and systems, which can be created or realized (implemented) using electrical and electronic circuits. The signals and systems sequence of classes is designed to provide the student with the mathematical tools to be able to model and design a variety of systems, including linear circuits. The concepts provide the foundation for many electrical engineering disciplines, such as circuit theory, signal processing, communications, and controls, and help build the technical maturity of students in preparation for a variety of other topics. There appears to be a strong feeling among the faculty (at least) that this sequence of classes (3620/3640) is what distinguishes between an engineer and a technician.

In this course I will attempt to emphasize computer usage. There are several reasons for this:

1. You will be using computers extensively on any job you do.
2. Having computers to reduce the computational drudgery should (I hope) free up more time to allow you to focus on what things really mean and how they work.
3. There is a common tendency among students to forget how to program between the time they take programming early in the curriculum and the time they use it again as seniors. Assignments given in this class should bridge this gap somewhat.

Experience has shown that most students learn better when working in a team. This observation has been applied in industry, where most professional engineers are put in multidisciplinary teams to solve problems and develop new products. In this class, students are encouraged to work on the homework as teams outside of class.

Course Outcomes

At the completion of the course, students will be able to do the following:

1. Demonstrate understanding of system concepts such as linearity, time-invariance, stability, etc. Demonstrate understanding of basic signals used for analysis such as unit impulse, unit step, complex exponential, etc.
2. Demonstrate ability to model electrical circuits using differential equations.
3. Be able to determine system response using convolution.
4. Demonstrate ability to convert differential equations to Laplace transform representations.
5. Demonstrate understanding of properties of transforms and their use in solving systems problems.
6. Demonstrate ability to synthesize systems from transfer functions using basic op amp building blocks.
7. Demonstrate understanding of transfer functions, including frequency response and effect of pole/zero placement. Demonstrate ability to use Bode plots for frequency response.
8. Understand filtering from a spectral point of view.

Quizzes

Quizzes will be given approximately every week to assess the learning of the students. These will be given during the last half of the class, and will be taken individually. Material will emphasize reading and material covered in class. The lowest quiz score will be dropped.

Homework

It is department pedagogical philosophy that students are responsible for their own learning. The instructor may not cover all of the material in each reading assignment in the lecture period. The student is therefore responsible for asking questions about reading material not covered in the lecture. Questions on exams and quizzes may come from lectures, computer assignments, reading assignments, or supplementary materials given in class.

Homework is due at the beginning of class on the due date. No late homework will be graded.