The fact that the textbook is called DSP First should raise the question: whenever was it second? Indeed, signal processing, like the other two branches of systems engineering (controls and communications), has been around for well over sixty years, but, until recently, was often studied by juniors or seniors, and was rarely an area of research concentration until graduate school. Yet, like the more traditional first-year undergraduate courses in circuits and electronics, the fruits of systems engineering can now be found everywhere. From intelligent vehicles to satellite transmission to noninvasive medical imaging to MPEG to wireless, systems engineering designs offer powerful solutions to real-world problems. Correspondingly, the need to learn the concepts of systems engineering early in the curriculum has grown dramatically.

We are excited about the opportunity to introduce you to systems engineering during your first-semester course in EECS here at Michigan. This is a big step for our department and we believe it will provide a great jump start to your engineering careers. As you progress through the curriculum, we urge you to draw upon the complimentary nature of systems and devices as you improve your skills in solving engineering problems. - dln/ghw

Textbook

Topical coverage

Workload

• Homework (15%)
  Weekly homework assignments are an important part of the course. They will be posted on the class website and announced in class. On the assigned due date, your homework paper must be submitted at your lecture section, before the lecture begins. No homework will be accepted after the lecture begins, except for unforeseen emergencies, or for foreseeable situations for which you have made arrangements with the faculty member in charge of your lecture session by email 48 hours in advance of the due date. Please do not expect all such requests to be granted!
  Homework must be stapled with your name, lecture section number and recitation number written clearly at the top. Illegible homework will not be graded. Homework solutions will be posted on the class website after the due date. Graded homework will be returned to the GSI of your lab session approximately one week after the due date. (Hence, the need to identify your recitation section number.) You may collect it from him/herduring office hours, or at your next lab session.
• Labs (20%)
  In weekly laboratory assignments, students will gain hands-on experience with signals and systems, principally through Matlab programming experiments. Each lab session will be divided into groups of two students (one or three in exceptional cases), who will work together throughout the term. Each group will submit one report for each lab, for which all group members will share the same grade. You are free to choose your own lab partner. Alternatively, there will be a period of time set aside in the first lab to partner up. Please try to make sure your lab partner is someone you can work with, and try to avoid having to ask the faculty or the GSI's to step in to help out a bad-partner situation. This is something you should attempt to handle yourself.
  Lab reports are due at the start of the next lab session. Late lab reports are not accepted, except for unforeseen emergencies, or for foreseeable situations for which you have made arrangements with the GSI in charge of your lab session by email 48 hours in advance of the due date. Please do not expect all such requests to be granted! Graded labs will ordinarily be returned one week after submission. As with homework, labs should be stapled with your name, lecture section number and lab session number written clearly at the top. Illegible labs will not be graded.
• Exams (65%)
  There will be two midterm exams. Exams I and II will count 15% and 20% of your final grade, respectively. These exams will be given in the evening, at the days/times listed below. Rooms will be announced. Both sections of 206 will take the same midterm exams.

• Exam I: Monday, October 8, 6-8 PM
  
• Exam II: Monday, November 5, 6-8 PM

The Final Exam will count 30% of your final grade. As listed in the University time schedule, the Final Exams are

Section I: Tues, Dec. 18, 1:30-3:30 PM
Section II: Mon., Dec. 17, 1:30-3:30 PM

The exams must be taken at the regularly scheduled hours. As of the first day of class, the times of each exam are known. It is your responsibility to make sure you have those times available. Except for unforeseen emergencies, you must arrange with the professor in charge of your lecture section (Sec 1: Neuhoff, Sec 2: Wakefield) by email 48 hours in advance of the due date for permission to take the exam at a different time. Please do not expect all requests to be granted!