ECE 329 - Fields and Waves I

Spring 2026

Announcements

Welcome to ECE 329 Spring 2026!

Instructors

Instructor	Prof. Xu Chen	Prof. Victoria Shao (Coordinator) Shared notes	Prof. Lara Waldrop
Section	F	X	E
Lecture	MWF 10:00-10:50am ECEB 2015	MWF 12:00-12:50pm ECEB 3017	MWF 1:00-1:50pm ECEB 2017
Netid	xuchen1	yangshao	lwaldrop
Office Hours	Thursday 10am-11am 5040 ECEB	Thursday 11am-12pm 2036 ECEB	Tuesday 10am-11am 5052 ECEB

Teaching Assistants

TA	Andrew Morrison	Yushi Zhou	Niousha Mousavi	Ethan Thieme
Office Hour	MW 2pm-4pm	MW 4pm-6pm	Tr 12pm-4pm	Tr 4-6pm
Netid	mousavi3	yushiz2	alm16	ethieme2

Contact

Please send all the course-related questions to this email ece-329-spring26-group@office365.illinois.edu rather than individual instructors or TAs

Homework Policy

There will be 13 sets of homework. No homework will be dropped.
Homeorks will be posted on Canvas and on Gradescope. Due Friday 9:00am, one week after posting.
You will write homework on blank sheets of paper, put name and netid on top of every sheet.
Start new problems on new sheets of paper.
When done, you will scan and submit.
You MUST tag problems on Gradescope.
Homework must be handed in to Gradescope by the deadline. No late homework is accepted for any reason.
You can work together on homework to discuss solution techniques, but you cannot copy solutions and must write your own independent solutions.
Failure to follow ANY directions result in -5 points on homework.
An average homework score of 80% or higher contributes 15% to the final grade.

Homework

Homework is posted every Friday at 9:00am on Gradescope.
Solutions to the previous homework will be posted on Canvas by 9:00am on Fridays.

Gradescope Enrollment

You should be automatically enrolled in Gradescope already. If you registered late and need entry code, please email Prof. Shao.

Office Hours

Office hours will start from January 26, 2026.

Start Time	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thurs	Fri
10am		Prof. Waldrop 5052 ECEB		Prof. Chen 5040 ECEB
11am				Prof. Shao 2036 ECEB
12pm				TA Office Hour 2036 ECEB
1pm				TA Office Hour 5034 ECEB
2pm	TA Office Hour 5034 ECEB		TA Office Hour 5034 ECEB	TA Office Hour 5034 ECEB
3pm	TA Office Hour 5034 ECEB		TA Office Hour 5034 ECEB	TA Office Hour 5034 ECEB
4pm	TA Office Hour 5034 ECEB		TA Office Hour 5034 ECEB	TA Office Hour 5034 ECEB
5pm	TA Office Hour 5034 ECEB		TA Office Hour 5034 ECEB	TA Office Hour 5034 ECEB

Prerequisites

MATH 241: Vector calculus basics (Vector Calculus Primer)
PHYS 212: Electric and magnetic field basics
ECE 210: Linear circuit and system analysis tools

Lecture Notes (Textbook)

You can find the lecture notes here: ECE 329 Lecture Notes on Fields and Waves, Erhan Kudeki, 2021.

Supplement Text (Not Required)

N. N. Rao, Fundamentals of Electromagnetics for Electrical and Computer Engineering, Prentice-Hall, 2009.

Grading Policy

Grade Breakdown

Homework	15%
Midterm exam(3)	20%
Final Exam	25%

Letter Grade Percentage Score

A+	97-100
A	93-96
A-	90-92
B+	87-89
B	83-86
B-	80-82
C+	77-79
C	73-76
C-	70-72
D+	67-69
D	63-66
D-	60-62
F	below 60

Discussion Forum

All homework- and lecture-related questions should be posted in Piazza Discussion page. A TA or Instructor will answer within 24 hours.
You are not allowed to post any homework solutions (right or wrong) on the forum.
You should not discuss exams in the forum until 48 hours after exams.

DRES Accomodations

To obtain disability-related academic adjustments and/or auxiliary aids, students with disabilities must contact the Prof. Shao and the Disability Resources and Educational Services (DRES) before Feburary 10, 2026. To contact DRES, you may visit 1207 S. Oak St., Champaign, call 217-333-1970, e-mail disability@illinois.edu, or go to the DRES website at go.illinois.edu/DRES.

Academic Integrity

Students are expected to abide by the University of Illinois Student Code. Students should pay particular attention to Article 1, Part 4: Academic Integrity. 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.
Any academic integrity violations will result in a FAIR report. Furthermore, the penalty will be as follows:

A score of 0 (zero) on the assignment or exam where the first academic integrity violation occurred.
A grade of F for the course when the second offense occured.
Note that the standard of proof for a finding of infraction is “more likely than not”. This means I only need to show with 51% certainty that you committed the offense for the allegations to go on your record. The following is a partial list of academic integrity violations for this course:
Copying homework from other students (working together and discussing is acceptable)
Copying homework from past solutions
Using websites such as Chegg or Course Hero while completing any course assignments or exams
Using unauthorized materials during exams
Communicating with any person during exams
Discussing the exam publicly within 24 hours, or discussing with anyone who has not yet taken the exam
Not an academic integrity violation: Distributing any course material without authorization. This includes uploading homeworks/solutions and exam solutions to web sites, or sharing these documents with people not enrolled in the course.
- Although not an academic integrity violation, it is a violation of the law and Professor will refer you to U.S. Attorney's Office for prosecution under The Digital Millennium Copyright Act.