ECE 210 is the first mathematically oriented course in the electrical and computer engineering curricula. The course begins by building on the circuit analysis concepts you learned in ECE 110 and then progresses into the more abstract world of Fourier and Laplace transforms. Much of what we will do will rely on your background in calculus. Our goal will be to apply mathematical tools to the analysis and design of signal processing systems, culminating in a thorough understanding of an AM radio receiver and the ability to design simple filters. ECE 210 deals with the processing of continuous-time, or analog signals. The follow-on course, ECE 310, covers the processing of sampled, or digital signals. Full description, including course goals and instructional objectives, can be found here.

ECE 211 is the first half of ECE 210. Students in ECE 211 should attend lectures approximately through Friday, March 11 (Chapters 1 through 6 in the course textbook). Full description, including course goals and instructional objectives, can be found here.

Course information in course explorer: ECE 210, ECE 211,

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IMPORTANT: please note that ONLY the first week of classes was fully online, now the course is fully in-person.

Students MUST properly wear a face mask in order to attend the in-person lectures. Visit the University's COVID-19 website here for detailed information on COVID related procedures.

You can access all lecture streaming and recordings via Echo360 directly, or via the Echo360 link in Canvas.

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COURSE MATERIALS

Textbook: Kudeki & Munson, Analog Signals and Systems Prentice Hall, 2009. Daily reading assignments are shown in the Course Calendar .

Corrections to the text book (errata)

Useful tables (Fourier series, Fourier transform, convolution, delta function, and Laplace transform)

Slides: each instructor might provide lecture slides and can be found in the lectures section of this website.

Additional references/notes:

• Linear Systems and Signals, by B.P. Lathi & R.A. Green, 3rd edition, ISBN-13: 978-0190200176, ISBN-10: 0190200170.
• Signals and Systems 2nd Edition, by A. Oppenheim & A. Willsky, 2nd edition, ISBN-13: 978-0138147570, ISBN-10: 0138147574.
• Output Termination
• Historical paper on Thevenin eqv.
• Historical paper on Norton eqv.
• Getting the angle of a complex number analytically, using matlab and python.

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COURSE STAFF

Instructors:

• Juan Alvarez
• Olga Mironenko
• Andrey Mironov
• Christopher Schmitz

TA's:

• Stephen Messing
• Haofeng Sun
• Binghui Wang, lab coordinator.
• Yulun Wu
• Shiyi Yang, homework coordinator.

Communication: It is the student's responsibility to attend lectures and check their email daily, in case there are announcements from course staff. Missing a lecture and/or not checking your email will not excuse complying with course deadlines and policies.
Please post your questions on the discussion board, Campuswire, instead of emailing the instructors or TAs directly because it is very likely that you're not the only one of enrolled in the course that has that same question. This way, others can take advantage of the responses to your questions, and other students might be able to assist you sooner.

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DISCUSSION

Active participation in your learning environment is vital to your success in this course.

Campuswire: For discussions and questions regarding course material. Code to join: 5467

Student online behavior: In any social interaction, certain rules of etiquette are expected and contribute to more enjoyable and productive communication. The following are tips for interacting online via e-mail or discussion board messages, adapted from guidelines originally compiled by Chuq Von Rospach and Gene Spafford (1995):

• Remember that the person receiving your message is someone like you, deserving and appreciating courtesy and respect.
• Be brief; succinct, thoughtful messages have the greatest effect.
• Your messages reflect on you personally; take time to make sure that you are proud of their form and content.
• Use descriptive subject headings in your e-mails.
• Think about your audience and the relevance of your messages.
• Be careful when you use humor and sarcasm; absent the voice inflections and body language that aid face-to-face communication, Internet messages are easy to misinterpret.
• When making follow-up comments, summarize the parts of the message to which you are responding.
• Avoid repeating what has already been said; needless repetition is ineffective communication.

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HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENTS

Homework assignment policy:

1. Assignments will be posted every Wednesday in Gradescope at 6.30pm CDT and will be due the following Wednesday by 6.30pm CDT. The first homework will be posted on Wednesday, January 19 and will be due the following Wednesday, January 26 by 6.30pm.
    
2. Submissions will be made via Gradescope. You can join the course there with the entry code 743VJ8, use your UIN as your Student ID #.
   1. Instructions for uploading your solutions to Gradescope can be found here.
   2. Instructions on how to scan the pdf of the solutions in Android are here.
   3. Instructions on how to scan the pdf of the solutions in MacOS are here.
3. Late assignments will be deducted 1% per late minute, so after 100 minutes, you will get zero, so please mark your calendar with the deadlines to avoid losing points.
   No exceptions, so don't wait until the last minute to submit it and then run into internet issues.
    
4. In order to account for sickness, travel or internet issues, your two lowest assignment grades will be dropped (only one for ECE 211).
    
5. Make sure you box your final answers and match problem parts accurately in Gradescope, or you will be deducted 5% of the corresponding problem part.
    
6. Make sure that your assignments are neat enough to read. Graders has the flexibility to deduct points for lack of neatness.
    
7. Assignments constitute an essential component of your learning experience in the course and prepare you for your exams in effective ways. Investing time to do your assignments with care will pay off when you are taking your exams.
   You will be expected to provide detailed explanations of your solutions in order to obtain full credit in your assignments. Conversely, solutions lacking full explanations will receive zero credit even when the answer provided may be correct and further incorrect answers without any work shown may lead to 'academic integrity violation' cases being opened against you.
   You are encouraged to collaborate to understand the problems in the assignment, but each student should solve the problems individually for submission even if they work together initially to understand how to solve the problems. Copying a joint solution is not acceptable.
   The same applies to using external resources: each student should solve the problems individually for submission even if you use external resources to understand how to solve the problems. Copying or "following" the solutions from an external resource is not acceptable.
   Please keep these cautionary remarks in mind as you are working out your assignments and avoid submitting unsubstantiated solutions to avoid any misinterpretations as explained above.
   Any of these academic integrity violations will result in at least a letter grade reduction, and possibly stronger sanctions. It is not worth the risk for what each problem in 14 HWs is worth, and it will not help you learn the course material.
    
8. Solutions will be posted in Canvas 2 hours after the corresponding deadline.
    
9. Regrades: You will receive an email from Gradescope so you can log in and see your graded assignment. If after looking at the posted solutions, you feel there was an inaccuracy in the grading of your assignment, you can request a regrade within Gradescope itself.
   Make sure you submit regrade requests before 6.30pm CDT the Wednesday after your graded assignment is made available via Gradescope. Regrades will not be accepted after that date.

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GRADING POLICIES

It is the student's responsibility to check that the correct grades are entered in CANVAS.

The final grade will be calculated as follows:

In order to account for sickness, travel or internet issues, your two lowest homework grades and your two lowest quiz grades will be dropped (only one for ECE 211).

As a rough guideline, we intend to award letter grades as indicated below, where 'm' is the mean and 's' is the standard deviation.

• some type of A if
  • m+s < grade
• some type of B or better if
  • m < grade < m+s
• some type of C or better if
  • m-s < grade < m
• some type of D or better if
  • max(45,m-2s) < grade < m-s
• F
  • grade < max(45,m-2s)

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EXAMS

• Exams will be combined for all sections of ECE 210 and 211.
• ECE 210 students will take three evening exams and a final exam.
• ECE 211 students will take just the first two exams. The second exam will serve as the final exam for ECE 211 students.
• To compensate for the evening exams, lectures will be canceled on Friday immediately after each exam.
• Exams are closed notes. However, we will provide the following tables from the textbook: 6.1, 6.3, 7.1, 7.2, 9.1, 9.3, 11.1 and 11.2 (or 1-8 from the online table handout) as needed.
• Calculators and other electronics are not allowed
• DRES: Students with documented disabilities must notify the instructor within the first 7 days of classes.

The exams dates/times are as follows:

• Exam 1:
  • Wednesday, February 23, 8.45-10pm CDT.
  • Conflict requests: complete and submit this form by 9am on Tuesday, February 22.
  • Review: Tuesday, February 15, 7-9 p.m. CDT, ECEB 1015.
  • HKN Review: Saturday (2/12), from 3-5pm, in ECEB 1015.
  • Coverage: Exam 1 will cover up to the end of Section 3.4.2 and homeworks 1-4.
• Exam 2:
  • Thursday, March 24, 8.45-10pm CDT.
  • Conflict requests: complete and submit this form by the end of the day on Tuesday, March 15.
  • Review: Tuesday, March 22, 7-9 p.m. CDT, ECEB 1015.
  • HKN review: Monday March 21st, 7-9pm, in ECEB 1015, slides..
  • Coverage: Exam 2 will cover up to the end of Chapter 6 and homeworks 1-8, with emphasis on material after exam 1. We will provide the Fourier series tables (6.1 and 6.3 from the textbook, or 1-2 from the online online table handout).
• Exam 3:
  • Thursday, April 21 8.45-10pm CDT. CDT, location TBA.
  • Students with last names starting with:
    • Aa - Ci will go to room ECEB 1013
    • Cj - Iz will go to room ECEB 1015
    • Ja - Zz will go to room ECEB 1002
  • Review: Tuesday, April 19, 7-9 p.m. CDT, ECEB 1015, slides.
  • HKN review: Saturday April 16th, 3-5pm, in ECEB 1015, slides, conceptual questions, recordings
  • Conflict requests: complete and submit this form by the end of the day on Thursday, April 14.
  • Coverage: Exam will cover up to and including all of chapter 9 and homeworks 1-12, with emphasis on material after exam 2. We will provide the following tables: Fourier series, Fourier transform, convolution and impulse (6.1, 6.3, 7.1, 7.2, 9.1 and 9.3 from the textbook, or 1-6 from the online online table handout).
• Final Exam:
  • Monday, May 9, 8-11am CDT.
  • Conflict: Tuesday, May 10, 8-11am CDT.
  • Conflict requests: complete and submit this form by the end of the day on Wednesday, May 4.
  • Review: Wednesday, May 4, 7-9 p.m. CDT, ECEB 1015, slides.
  • Coverage: Exam will cover up to the end of Section 11.5 and homeworks 1-14. We will provide the following tables: Fourier series, Fourier transform, convolution, impulse and Laplace transform (6.1, 6.3, 7.1, 7.2, 9.1, 9.3, 11.1 and 11.2 from the textbook, or 1-8 from the online online table handout).

Conflict exam requests: Some of you might have an overlapping activity that warrants a conflict exam, as indicated in the Article 3 part 202(e) of the student code. We will offer a conflict exam in those cases but you need to get the approval of the course coordinator, Prof. Alvarez, in order to be able to take the conflict exam. All students will receive an email with a link to request a conflict two weeks before each exam. If you have a conflict with the exam you must complete the form at least 9 days before the exam, which includes information about the class/lab/exam/activity that conflicts with the exam (include contact information for the corresponding instructor for that course).

Absences from exams:

If you miss an exam due to illness, injury, family emergency or other reasons beyond your control, you will be asked to provide your professor with an absence letter from the Student Assistance Center in the Office of the Dean of Students. Documentation which validates the absence is required by the Dean's Office to provide the absence letter. The absence letter will serve to verify the reason for your absence from the exam. Prof. Alvarez will then take an appropriate action that may include offering an oral examination or written examination.


Regrades:

• We will use Gradescope to grade the exams, so you will receive an email from Gradescope to log in and see your graded exam. If after looking at the posted solutions, you feel there was an inaccuracy in the grading of your exam, you can request a regrade within Gradescope itself.
• Do not submit a regrade asking for more partial credit because you did so much work nor because you think something should be worth more/less that it does. Only regrades regarding inaccurate grading will be addressed.
• Regrades could be subjected a regrading of the entire exam, no just those parts you indicate. Therefore, your grade could go up or down as appropriate.
• You will get an email from the instructors after the exams are graded indicating when you can start submitting regrades and when the deadline to submit the regrades is.
• Make sure you submit regrade requests by the deadline indicated in that email, so do not wait until the last minute to submit it and then run into internet issues.

Old exams

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OFFICE HOURS

Small study session handouts

Faculty and TA Office Hours (January 24 - May 4, except March 14-20):

Open office hours

Office hours on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday are open hours where all types of questions are allowed, and we have found that students mostly use them to ask about the upcoming homework.
Course staff will not give you the answers nor check if your answer is correct. Course staff will help you see if your approach is correct/incorrect, and guide you accordingly.

Small study session office hours

We also have additional office hours each week of support for you by having small study sessions with course staff members to answer conceptual questions, provide additional examples, etc. but nothing related to that week's HW.

These sessions will be available on Thursdays and Fridays by signing up via this online form before 8am each Thursday.

The signup is voluntary but we do expect your attendance and participation regularly if you do sign up for a slot.
You can add/remove yourself from the timeslot at any time before 8am on Thursday of the corresponding week.
Once you sign up for a slot, it will be assumed that you will attend that slot from then on, so please remember to unregister if you will no longer attend.
If you do not have specific questions, but you want to get some practice and help at the same time, you can use the handouts we will post every week here.

HKN has started to organize student-led office hours! They will be held over Discord (invite link: https://discord.gg/8jCZ56XSkv).

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LABS (only ECE 210 students)

Lab syllabus.

Pre-labs and labs are available in Gradescope and Canvas. They are to be submitted via Gradescope.

Here are the dates for the first lab of each section:

• ABA: Monday, Feb. 7
• ABB: Monday, Feb. 14
• ABC: Monday, Feb. 7
• ABD: Monday, Feb. 14
• ABE: Monday, Feb. 7
• ABF: Monday, Feb. 14
• ABG: Monday, Feb. 7
• ABH: Monday, Feb. 14
• ABI: Monday, Feb. 7
• ABJ: Monday, Feb. 14
• ABK: Wednesday, Feb. 9
• ABL: Wednesday, Feb. 16
• ABM: Wednesday, Feb. 9
• ABN: Wednesday, Feb. 16
• ABO: Wednesday, Feb. 9
• ABP: Thursday, Feb 10
• ABQ: Thursday, Feb 17

You will need an ECE 210 lab kit, which you should request starting on January 17 and before January 21. There will be no extensions to deadlines if you order/pick up your kit late. You can request it here. Only students registered in ECE 210 can request it, and there is no charge for it. However, if you drop the course, you will have to return it or you will be charged for it.

If you already have an ADALM2000 because you took ECE 110 last semester, you will still need to order the 210 kit but you will not receive an additional ADALM, only the component kit and a larger breadboard.
All students should bring their last semester's kit with you to campus so components like ADALM, breadboard, and wirekit can be reused.

There is more information regarding the lab kits here.

An introductory Lab 0 plus five laboratory assignments will be given, beginning on February 7.

• Lab # 0 - Week of February 7.
• Lab # 1 - Weeks of February 14/February 21
• Lab #2 - Weeks of February 28/March 7
• Lab #3 - Weeks of March 21/March 28
• Lab #4 - Weeks of April 4/April 11 - Complementary files are in Canvas.
• Lab #5 - Weeks of April 18/April 25

Lab Times (February 7 - April 29):
(4072 ECEB)

Code Guide Resistors are color coded in ohms, inductors in microH, and capacitors (with digits) in picoF.

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HONORS

ECE 210 Honors will introduce students to Python programming with 7 weekly lab sessions.

You do not have to be a James Scholar to sign up but you will only get the 'H' in your transcript if you are.

If you are a James Scholar, you must complete the corresponding HCLA form from the College and submit it within the first 15 days of the semester, so before February 4.

Programming will be done in Jupyter Notebook. In this course, students will apply concepts they learned in ECE 210 into Python programs.

Topics to be covered include: Intro to Python and Jupyter Notebook, Libraries (Numpy, Scipy), Fourier series, Array Operations, Fourier transform, Convolution, and Pole-Zero plots. Prior programming experience in any language can be helpful but is not required.

The sessions will start the week after the first midterm, and you will receive more information on how to sign up before then. James scholars must still submit their HCLA forms before February 4.

There is more information and a signup form here. Please complete by February 14 if you want to participate.

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TOPIC SCHEDULE

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QUIZZES

Each week, there will be a short in-class quiz testing a concept from the topics covered during the previous week's lectures.

The day of the week and the time during lecture at which the quiz will take place will be randomly chosen each week, but it will not occur within the first 10 minutes of the lecture.

You must take the quiz in the section in which you are registered.

If you are not in the lecture room at the time of the quiz, you will receive a zero.

In order to account for sickness or emergencies, your lowest two quiz grades will be dropped.

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ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

• Registration deadlines, add/drop course deadlines, advising schedules, and finals
• Academic integrity
• Inclusivity
• Disability Resources and Educational Services (DRES)
• FERPA
• Sexual misconduct
• Support Resources and Supporting Fellow Students in Distress
• Run, hide, fight
• Other campus resources

Academic integrity

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Student Code should is very important for you to know.

Students should pay particular attention to Article 1, Part 4: Academic Integrity. Academic dishonesty may result in a failing grade. Every student is expected to review and abide by the Academic Integrity Policy. Ignorance is not an excuse for any academic dishonesty. It is your responsibility to read this policy to avoid any misunderstanding. Do not hesitate to ask the instructor(s) if you are ever in doubt about what constitutes plagiarism, cheating, or any other breach of academic integrity.

Inclusivity

The effectiveness of this course is dependent upon the creation of an encouraging and safe classroom environment. Exclusionary, offensive or harmful speech (such as racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, etc.) will not be tolerated and in some cases subject to University harassment procedures. We are all responsible for creating a positive and safe environment that allows all students equal respect and comfort. I expect each of you to help establish and maintain and environment where you and your peers can contribute without fear of ridicule or intolerant or offensive language.

Disability Resources and Educational Services (DRES)

Students with documented disabilities must notify the instructor within the first 7 days of classes.

To obtain disability-related academic adjustments and/or auxiliary aids, students with disabilities must contact the course instructor and the Disability Resources and Educational Services (DRES) as soon as possible.

To contact DRES, you may visit 1207 S. Oak St., Champaign, call 333-4603, e-mail disability@illinois.edu or go to the DRES website.

If you are concerned you have a disability-related condition that is impacting your academic progress, there are academic screening appointments available on campus that can help diagnosis a previously undiagnosed disability by visiting the DRES website and selecting “Sign-Up for an Academic Screening� at the bottom of the page.

FERPA

Any student who has suppressed their directory information pursuant to Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) should self-identify to the instructor to ensure protection of the privacy of their attendance in this course. Click here for more information on FERPA.

Sexual misconduct

The University of Illinois is committed to combating sexual misconduct. Faculty and staff members are required to report any instances of sexual misconduct to the University’s Title IX and Disability Office. In turn, an individual with the Title IX and Disability Office will provide information about rights and options, including accommodations, support services, the campus disciplinary process, and law enforcement options. A list of the designated University employees who, as counselors, confidential advisors, and medical professionals, do not have this reporting responsibility and can maintain confidentiality, can be found here. Other information about resources and reporting is available here.

Support Resources and Supporting Fellow Students in Distress

As members of the Illinois community, we each have a responsibility to express care and concern for one another. If you come across a classmate whose behavior concerns you, whether in regards to their well-being or yours, we encourage you to refer this behavior to the Student Assistance Center (1-217-333-0050) or online. Based upon your report, staff in the Student Assistance Center reaches out to students to make sure they have the support they need to be healthy and safe. Further, as a Community of Care, we want to support you in your overall wellness. We know that students sometimes face challenges that can impact academic performance (examples include mental health concerns, food insecurity, homelessness, personal emergencies). Should you find that you are managing such a challenge and that it is interfering with your coursework, you are encouraged to contact the Student Assistance Center (SAC)in the Office of the Dean of Students for support and referrals to campus and/or community resources. The SAC has a Dean on Duty available to see students who walk in, call, or email the office during business hours. For mental health emergencies, you can call 911 or contact the Counseling Center.

Run, hide, fight.

Emergencies can happen anywhere and at any time. It is important that we take a minute to prepare for a situation in which our safety or even our lives could depend on our ability to react quickly. When we’re faced with almost any kind of emergency – like severe weather or if someone is trying to hurt you – we have three options: Run, hide or fight.

Run, hide, fight video.

	Run Leaving the area quickly is the best option if it is safe to do so. Take time now to learn the different ways to leave your building. Leave personal items behind. Assist those who need help, but consider whether doing so puts yourself at risk. Alert authorities of the emergency when it is safe to do so.
	Hide When you can’t or don’t want to run, take shelter indoors. Take time now to learn different ways to seek shelter in your building. If severe weather is imminent, go to the nearest indoor storm refuge area. If someone is trying to hurt you and you can’t evacuate, get to a place where you can’t be seen, lock or barricade your area if possible, silence your phone, don’t make any noise and don’t come out until you receive an Illini-Alert indicating it is safe to do so.
	Fight As a last resort, you may need to fight to increase your chances of survival. Think about what kind of common items are in your area which you can use to defend yourself. Team up with others to fight if the situation allows. Mentally prepare yourself – you may be in a fight for your life

Please be aware of people with disabilities who may need additional assistance in emergency situations

Other resources

• police.illinois.edu/safe for more information on how to prepare for emergencies, including how to run, hide or fight and building floor plans that can show you safe areas.
• emergency.illinois.edu to sign up for Illini-Alert text messages.
• Follow the University of Illinois Police Department on Twitter and Facebook to get regular updates about campus safety.