Mark A. Yoder

Experiences in teaching DSP first in the ECE curriculum

In this paper we describe experiences gained from teaching an introductory electrical engineering course based on digital signal processing rather than the traditional first course in analog circuit theory. We discuss our motivation for teaching DSP first, before covering analog circuits and systems. We describe the style of the course and point out difficulties, as well as advantages, in the organization of basic material. At Georgia Tech and Rose-Hulman, this beginning course has been required of all computer engineering majors. Finally, we make some comments about extending this approach to encompass a wider range of students from other disciplines.

Dynamic time warping algorithms for SIMD machines and VLSI processor arrays

Synchronous, highly parallel algorithms to perform dynamic time warping are presented. Algorithms are developed for two classes of parallel systems: SIMD (single instruction stream-multiple data stream) machines and arrays of VLSI processors. The machine capabilities required for the SIMD and VLSI array approaches are compared, and algorithm complexities are given.

Multi-media and World Wide Web resources for teaching DSP

A new digital signal processing (DSP) course designed to build students intuition about signals and systems is presented. The course makes extensive use of multi-media demonstrations to relate real-world signals and discrete-time systems to their mathematical descriptions. In addition to the numerous in-class demonstrations, weekly laboratory exercises have been developed to further strengthen the ties between DSP theory and real-world signals and systems. Many of the in-class demonstrations have been captured on the World Wide Web (WWW), so the students can explore them outside of class. In the near future, the WWW-based demonstrations will be packaged on a CD-ROM as an integral part of a new text.

Teaching DSP First with LabVIEW

The proponents of graphical programming (that is using graphics to program a computer, not programming a computer to do graphics) claim graphical programming is better than text-based programming; however text-based programmers far out number graphics-based programmers. This paper describes the preliminary developments of comparing the use of LabVIEW (a graphical programming language) to MATLAB (a text-based language) in teaching discrete-time signal processing (DSP). This paper presents the results of using both methods in a junior-level introduction to DSP class. The students who enter this class have had a course in continuous-time signals and systems but no DSP theory background. Several quarters of concept inventory data have been collected on the MATLAB version of the class. The same inventory was used with the LabVIEW version of the class and the results compared

DSP in high schools: New technologies from the infinity project

The Infinity Project is a joint effort between university educators, high school teachers, administrators, and industrial leaders to establish an engineering curriculum that is taught within the regular high school day. The curriculum teaches students about the design of technology-driven systems and motivates them to learn fundamental concepts of mathematics, science, and engineering. The curriculum currently consists of (1) a course text [1], (2) integrated laboratory exercises with real-time signal processing hardware, (3) summer teacher training institutes, and (4) a web community portal for information sharing (www.infinity-project.org). In this paper, we briefly describe three real-time signal processing laboratory exercises—SketchWave, Coin Counter, and Video Steganography—that are used within the course to both teach and excite students about engineering design, fundamental scientific and mathematical concepts, and the power of problem solving. These representative exercises are drawn from over 200 laboratory worksheets developed for the course and available online for participating schools.

Sparking life in a circuits classroom

The author describes how he implemented open-ended design in a sophmore electrical engineering course at the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. The results were found to be successful. The author shows how the problem was presented and how real engineering design and evaluation was achieved.<<ETX>>

Extending the usefulness of the Signals and Systems Concept Inventory (SSCI)

The Signals and Systems Concept Inventory is an extremely useful assessment tool that has been widely used and analyzed. The authors have applied it in a variety of situations outside its typical usage. These situations include comparing international students to US students, introducing concept inventories to international faculty, supporting an ABET evaluation report, evaluating the effect of electives on conceptual understanding, analyzing the effect of time between courses on the conceptual understanding, and considering the effect of visual learning style on student performance on a largely graphical test. The SSCI has proven to be a flexible tool that makes student understanding visible and quantifiable in all these situations.

Learning and practicing fundamentals of electrical and computer engineering through building and programming a microcontroller with multiple peripherals

A required sophomore course on microcontrollers and computer architecture was designed and offered for the first time in 2009 to expose our electrical engineering (EE) sophomore students to microcontroller-based applications so that they could appreciate and be exposed to fundamentals of electrical and computer engineering (ECE) through hardware and software design and interfacing. The course also helps students to obtain a broad view of various subjects of ECE from circuits, signals, digital logic, microcontrollers, C and assembly language programming to system design, implementation and measurement so that they can make a well informed decision on whether to continue to major in EE. The course builds a foundation for future classes that may require instrumentation or microcontroller-based applications such as those on communications, control, power electronics as well as junior and senior design courses. In addition, the students are required to purchase most of the hardware components for the course so that they can use the components for future projects.

The INFINITY Project: expanding signal-processing-based engineering education to the high school classroom

This paper outlines the goals, structure, and technology elements of the INFINITY Project, a joint effort between university educators, industrial partners, and civic leaders to introduce a signal-processing-based engineering curriculum at the high school educational level. Implementation issues of the program are addressed, including class textbook and laboratory creation, teacher training, and online classroom support. Initial responses to the effort from teachers and students at fourteen different high schools are highly positive, and plans for further expansion of the program are given.

DSP first-a first course in ECE

This paper describes a new course that we have developed for computer engineering students. The course, which precedes a traditional course in circuit analysis and a more traditional signals and systems course, combines a traditional textbook and lectures with computer-based demonstrations and hands-on laboratory experience to show how mathematics and computers can be used to understand and solve problems in signal processing applications. An essential part of the course is a computer-based lab where students listen to sounds and see the results of image processing in order to develop intuition for frequency content and filtering. This intuitive connection is central to our approach; it is our attempt to have students relate the physical attributes of certain signals to the mathematical formulas manipulated in system theory. The course materials, including demos, labs, and homework problems and solutions are packaged in a form that can be accessed from the WWW using standard browsers. The same material is also available on a CD-ROM as an integral part of a new text for the course.