ece 101 exploring electricAl engineering psu
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Handout 1 (1/21/2016)
Course Title: Exploring Electrical Engineering ECE 101, Winter 2016
CRN: 41062, 001
Time and Place: Mondays + Wednesdays 16:40 – 18:30, UTS 304
Start and end: first: Monday 1/4/2016, last: Wednesday 3/9/2016
Instructor: Dr. Herbert G. Mayer, 503 750-5038,
Office hour: Mondays, Wednesdays, office FAB 20-06, 18:30 – 19:30
TA: Arjun Sridhar, (note new office hour as of 1/21/2016)
TA office hour: Tuesdays 14:00 – 16:00 on the 3rd floor of the library (lounge too busy)
Lab location: Tektronix Lab, AKA FAB 60-01, needs badge access, or wait for TA, Herb
Tektronix lab also used by other PSU classes, ECE 101 uses middle benches
Grader: Scott Lawson, , send your HW to Scott via email, cc Herb
Use subject line: “ECE 101 HW xx . . .“
Recommended textbooks and required on-line reading:
1. “Engineering Your Future, A Brief Introduction to Engineering”, Oakes, Leone and Gunn; Great Lakes Press, © 2012, 4th edition. No homework or exam questions are taken from the recommended textbook. All exam questions are solvable by using common sense, public information, or lectures notes of the instructor.
2. Required on-line lecture notes at: http://web.cecs.pdx.edu/~herb/ → click on ECE 101
Course Description: This is a freshman sequence introducing electrical and computer engineering tools, design, and programming. It emphasizes major threads of the design process, problem solving, teamwork, and effective communication. You create and document a very simple EE-based design, practice teamwork and presentation skills through lectures, homeworks, and a simple hands-on EE project. Lab activities familiarize you with basic equipment and components.
Grading and Homework (HW): You can accumulate a total of 1,000 points. Homework counts for 400 of these points, each worth 100 points; the last homework is an EE design project to be presented in class. Email your homework to the grader before the start of class on the due date; and cc Herb. You write a Midterm in class worth 200 points during week 6, and a Final worth 300 points in class Wednesday March 9. Your graded lab projects count for 100 points. Extra credit up to 50 points is possible for active participation, helpful contributions via email, or live in the lab or class.
Topics covered, reviewed:
· Definitions, goals, means, extent of technology
· Engineering progress, break-throughs, disasters of technology
· Number systems, computing, number representation, numbers in computing
· Technology development, Karnaugh Maps
· Elementary laws of physics and electrical engineering
· Introduction to simple electric circuits
· Circuit Laws
· Solving a system of many equations of electric circuits: Cramer Rule
· And a few other as time permits
Extra Credit: is a way to improve your grade by up to a half level. Extra Credit is granted for good ideas emailed to the instructor, or expressed in class; also for constructive questions and contributions in class, identification of errors in lecture notes, hand-outs, homework assignments; even the slightest typo –but only pointed out the first time– is worth some extra credit.
Lab Project and Teams: ECE 101 students form lab teams of max 4 participants to conduct and document 4 very simple EE labs. In all 4 lab projects, the team write reports, to be submitted to the TA. Each of the 4 labs receives some credit, but the amount of credit for any lab is identical for all team members. Please read the handout for ECE 101 labs.
Turning in Homework: Homework and project documents must be emailed on time by the due date. Include source files, output files, and if applicable input files, all in MS word .doc form or raw ASCII text form. Send all in original file, not processed; i.e. do not send ZIP files, no tar files, do not use any other file processing. Late work will be accepted up to 3 calendar days, but for each day late you lose 10% of the total points for that work. Homework or project milestones handed in more than 3 days late will not be accepted. Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays count as calendar days.
Silver Bullet: each student is allowed to hand in one single homework up to 3 calendar days late without deduction; but one single time only! This exception is called the Silver Bullet; it cannot be split, cannot be sold on the black market, and cannot be traded. Students must express pro-actively in email when submitting the late work, whether they wish to consume their silver bullet on this late submission.
Scenario 1: Handing in two homeworks late, one a day late, a second also a day late, will still result in a late deduction, even though together the delays add up to only 2 days. The silver bullet works on one single late homework only.
Scenario 2: If you hand in one homework 4 days late, it is possible to cash-in your silver bullet for 3 days of the 4, and get points deducted only for 1 late day; but this works only one single time.
Scenario 3: Consumption of the silver bullet is tracked; so manage it wisely! If at the end of the term you did not consume your silver bullet, you will not get extra credit for non-consumption.
Table 1: Grade schedule
A / B / C / D / F>= 90% / >= 80% / >= 70% / >= 60% / 60%
Top & bottom 15% in of the above rubrics create + and – grade variations, yet there is no A+.
Table 2: Reading assignments, homework dates, Midterm date etc.
HW due date means: email time stamp by or before start of class
Week #, date / Deadlines, Reading Material, Key DatesWeek 1: Mo 1/4/16 / Instructor and student intro, class organization, review major class milestones, homeworks, presentations about EE term at end of term
Wed 1/6/16 / Technology, history
Week 2: Mo 1/11/16 / Terms, standards, ANSI; students need to form lab teams, deadline to email names: end of week 3
Wed 1/13/16 / Personal introduction of TA in class; Physical units, electric units, number systems, conversion, basic units
Week 3: Mo 1/18/16 / PSU closed for MLK, no class
Wed 1/20/16 / HW1 due. Technology disasters and break-throughs, EE milestones; EE laws; by now students have formed lab teams, email TA and instructor the names of all team members, up to 4
Week 4: Mo 1/25/16 / Simple circuits, circuit laws
Wed 1/27/16 / Data acquisition, serial resistors
Week 5: Mo 2/1/16 / HW2 due. What is programming? How related to EE?
Wed 2/3/16 / Explain LabJack, Resistive circuits, serial, parallel
Week 6: Mo 2/8/16 / Instead of lecture, the first set of teams meets the TA at regular class time 4:40 PM in the Tektronix lab; if time is not sufficient to complete all 4 experiments, we roll over to Wednesday 2/10/2016 after the Midterm, starting at 6:45 PM, also in the Tektronix lab
Wed 2/10/16 / In class Midterm, supervised by TA, open book, open notes, no internet access, no phone use, no communication with fellow students
Week 7: Mo 2/15/16 / HW3 due. Instead of lecture, the second set of teams meets at regular class time 4:40 PM in the Tektronix lab; if time is not sufficient for all 4 experiments, then we roll over to Wednesday 2/17/2016 starting at 6:45 PM, also in the Tektronix lab
Wed 2/17/16 / Students email proposed HW4 topic to instructor. More complex circuits, with parallel resistors, serial, constant power sources etc.
Week 8: Mo 2/22/16 / Simplifying electric circuits
Wed 2/24/16 / Agree about HW4 topic. Delta and Y transformations
Week 9: Mo 2/29/16 / HW4 due. Cramer Rule of matrix manipulation
Wed 3/2/16 / volunteers present HW4 in class 5-10 min each; deadline for Lab report
Week 10: Mo 3/7/16 / volunteers present HW4 in class 5-10 min, PowerPoint presentation
Wed 3/9/16 / In class Final Exam, open book, open notes, no internet access, no phones, no communication with fellow students
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