Most of you are probably aware that
EE 433 has traditionally been a capstone course for students on the
analog track. However, our most recent ABET review revealed that too
much lecture material was being crammed into a class which should be
dominated by a “major design experience.” Also, as the students, and
faculty, can attest this class was a painful amount of work. As such,
the old EE 433 is now being split into two separate classes, one 5-unit
lecture-based course, followed by a true analog capstone class which
will be dominated by lab projects which indeed constitute a “major
design experience.” This change will be implemented this year in the
fall and winter quarters. The lecture based class is being offered this
fall with the same name, EE 433, with the lab-based course offered in
the winter quarter, EE 400.
Since the lab portion of EE 433 is being pushed to the winter quarter,
the 5-unit class offered this coming fall will have an additional
lecture every week (totaling 5 hours of lecture), and some additional
course material. The intention is to prepare students in the fall 433
course, for the winter quarter analog capstone class (EE 400). Lastly,
EE 433 will be required to take the lab-based capstone class (EE 400) in
the winter quarter.
The material covered in EE 433 this fall will all apply to both the
winter quarter capstone course (EE 400) and those continuing on to take
EE 473, EE 536, and EE 538. Topics planned for this fall’s lecture
include:
- Resistive Feedback Circuits
- Static and dynamic op amp limitations
- Active filter design
- Designing closed-loop electronics for stability
- Op amp circuit noise analysis
- Non-linear circuits
- Phased-Locked Loop (PLL) basic design and analysis : Time permitting
Again,
the fall class (433) is lecture based and will consist of robust weekly
homework, quizzes, a midterm, final exam, and a small design project
(not in the lab) toward the end of the quarter. If you have questions
about this class, please feel free to fire questions in my direction.
