Peer Legacy for ECE202

All students who have previously taken ECE202 are welcome to use this page to leave comments/give advice to the students currently taking the class.

I've always thought that 202 renders what you learned in 201 almost completely useless, because 202 is basically an easier way to analyze 201 problems. HOWEVER, the thing about 202 is this: what you learn in 202, you will be using for the rest of your college career and even into the workforce. Understand convolution (applies to ECE301, ECE438, ECE440), bode plots (ECE382), and Laplace transforms (these roll into Fourier Transforms). The second year courses are the ones that count the MOST in your ECE career because they give you the foundations. 202 is no exception. --Kimberly

Be sure to get the full story on the dirac function, convolution, bode plot approximations, and linearity. Don't rely on memorization. -Mike

Don't accept all of the equations at face value. Make sure you understand where the equation comes from and make it intuitive, so that you have a good understanding of what the equation means in practical terms. Convolution is important and you'll use it a lot in ECE301 and ECE438. Get an intuitive understanding of what it means to convolve a signal with an impulse - "flip and shift". Go to the T.A. or professor if you are confused about an equation or theoretical concept! - Ryan

Be sure to fully understand exactly what convolution means in terms of an equation, not just what to do if you are given a graph (even though that is usually the easier, faster method) as you will rely on it later in your ECE life. Learn the stuff now so you don't have to later. This will save you a lot of grief... ~Peter

Be sure to understand every single concepts in this class if you're planning to take more advance ECE classes and it will save you a lot of time later. You'll see convolution, bode, linearity, etc quite often and be sure to fully understand them as they will be fundamental for ECE301, 311, 438, or even ECE 382. These are all basic and very important concepts in ECE. Go to the TA often if you find any trouble in solving the homework problems. -Hardi

202 is a very important class where study of ECE starts to get serious. If you screw up this class, you'll have a very very hard time in the following years because basically every class after this uses the materials taught in 202. Try to understand what they teach you in this class instead of memorizing before exams. I'm glad that I had Professor Decarlo because he made quizzes and hard homeworks which sort of forced you to go to the lectures and study. -lyang

ECE202 was strangely one of the toughest classes for me. The things we did in that class seem trivial to me now, but at the time they were daunting, mainly because of my lack of ability in performing math operations with complex numbers. Survive sophomore year and you should be good to go. Decarlo was tough, but I'm glad I didn't just take the easy road.--Kelton

ECE 202 is a very interesting, difficult, and important class. Here you will learn a lot of the fundamentals for a lot of different classes later on. DeCarlo was a very good professor even though he was very harsh on the homeworks, being on time, and exams. The TA's is a very good resource for help and I suggest you go to them as much as possible. --Le

ECE202 provides a wide spectrum of important circuit analysis techniques. Cutting corners in this class will only hurt your learning in the long run. The many ideas presented in this course are definitely going to come up in various ways in future courses. If applicable, be sure learn to use MATLAB well. MATLAB helps you to check your work, and it is extremely useful to be able to use it in future courses. It is very important that students gain a functioning knowledge of the material in this course such that they can apply these ideas to future courses. Professor Decarlo is a difficult teacher, but you should not try to avoid having him. I know it is hard to believe this, but taking courses with harder professors that teach well is more beneficial to your education. - Kirk

ECE202 started out easy just like any courses but as the topic moved on, it seemed to be a lot harder than ECE201. However, just like any courses you take in ECE department, this course turns out to have much information that will help you succeed on further courses. I took it from Professor Decarlo and although I always struggled to be in class on time (had to be on time to take in class quizzes), I was very thankful at the end because I felt I learned a lot from him. He did not teach just the course materials, but he also shared some of his good life experiences. --euijae

ECE202 is one of those rite of passage classes in getting your EE/ECE degree. Considering this isn’t a cakewalk, it was very helpful to be part of a study/homework group. Being in a group is vital because getting stuck on homework problems and concepts are common. Prof. Decarlo is a great teacher because he will always challenge your understanding of the material and you will learn a lot as a result. --Michael Shen

With 2, going on 3 controls classes on my transcript, I can tell you that ECE202 is probably the most important course in that field. This is also really important in communications. This would probably the first time you see laplace transforms, or transforms of any kind, and a good understanding of those concepts (why it is done, different methods of doing it etc) would make classes like ECE301, ECE308, ECE382, ECE483, ECE438 a lot easier. Also convolution is a very important point when it comes to systems you learn in ECE301. Also, if you get a chance take it from Decarlo, this is his area of specialty and as if that was not enought he wrote the book too. --Willie Haywood

In ECE201, there was a lot of grunt work done that was made minute by [[ECE202]. This course was a good introduction into the Fourier Transform and the frequency domain with the Laplace Transforms. The knowledge in this course will be used for the rest your college carriers. This is also an intense and engaging course. --Mike Wolfer

I took ECE202H. It is a little different from the regular session. It introduces the concept in ECE 301, which brings a lot of trouble for a sophomore. But student feel a lot of better when taking ECE 301. I would say it is a nice class. Excpet one thing: it seems we don't use laplace transforme a lot, why don't we spend a few more time on Fourier transform.--Tianhe Liu

I took this course over Summer 2010 and most of the concepts in this class, were condensed and that made it more focussed towards laying foundation for ECE 301. Transfer functions, Laplace domain analysis, Convolution etc. are concepts used in all junior and senior classes of electrical engineering and mastering those concepts in this course is crucial. ECE 382 (Feedback system analysis), ECE 438, 301 (Signal Processing classes) build upon the concepts learnt in this class and hence it is one of the most important courses of sophomore year for EE students.--Anushree Phanse

Peer Legacy ECE202 - Rhea