ECE 401 Signal Processing, Fall 2026

Introduction to signal processing for advanced undergraduates or graduate students in the biological, physical, social, engineering and computer sciences. Representation and processing of continuous-time and discrete-time signals and images using phasors, Fourier series, sampling, FIR filters, discrete-time Fourier transform, Z transform, and IIR filters. Machine problems include processing of music, speech, photographic image, bioelectric, and biomedical image data.

4 undergraduate hours. 4 graduate hours. Prerequisite: MATH 220.

Credit is not given for both ECE 310 and ECE 401.

Recommended Text: DSPFirst by McClellan, Schafer and Yoder, 2nd edition, 2016.

Instructor: Mark Hasegawa-Johnson (jhasegaw).

Contents:

• Exams
• Lectures, Quizzes, and Machine Problems

On-line Tools

• CampusWire will be used for on-line question answering. If you need the code to enter this site, send an e-mail to the course instructors.

• Gradescope is used for machine problems and exams.

• PrairieLearn will be used for daily quizzes.

• Lectures can be viewed online in either of two ways:

  • Synchronously using zoom. The zoom link is on CampusWire.

  • Asynchronously using MediaSpace.

• DSPFirst Demos contains useful demos.

• Our logo this semester is a Nyquist sampling demo uploaded by Jacopo Bertolotti.

Grades

Grade cutoffs are approximately: 90% for A-, 75% for B-, 60% for C-. Your cumulative score for the semester is a weighted sum of component scores, with the following weights:

• 25.0%: Daily quizzes

• 30.0%: Machine problems

• 15.0%: Exam 1

• 15.0%: Exam 2

• 15.0%: Exam 3

Any machine problem or daily quiz may be turned in late, with a penalty of 5%.

Extra credit is available for correctly answering the questions of other students on CampusWire. This counts for up to 1% of your cumulative semester grade.