Revision as of 08:16, 3 August 2010

Peer Legacy for ECE311

All students who have previously taken ECE311 are welcome to use this page to leave comments/give advice to future students.

• I never felt like I completely grasped the physics and "intuition" behind some of the fundamental concepts we learned about in ECE 311. However, the way the course was structured (at least when I took it), the exams did not emphasize whether you not you "understood the physics", but whether or not you could perform the math. So, for me, doing well in this course amounted to doing practice problems. If your lecturer doesn't do enough, I think the Sadiku textbook for the course is decent, but there are tons of additional materials out there. Check out MIT OpenCourseWare as well. To me, ECE 311 was just a glorified vector calculus class. --rscheidt

• This course is basically Physics 272 with vector calc. Difficulty in this course varies depending on how much the professor decides to delve into the actual material (and how much vector calc is stressed). Unfortunately, you only reach electromagnetic waves towards the very end (which is where most of the applications lie), so your E&M knowledge is not really complete after taking this course. Consider this course a stepping stone. --weim

• ECE 311 is a course I struggled a lot. The physics class I took in sophomore year is very helpful. So doing well on that class gives great benefit. The difficulty is how to imagine things in three dimensions. Choosing the right coordinate system for most of the problems is essential. This is the course, which either you like or hate most. It does not need a lot of background from other ECE classes. But the physics class is important. Professor Dan Jiao is very good at explaining things. I was in the other section which was great too. Avoid choosing the 7:30am section will be another advice.--pan11

• I think ECE311 is one of the most difficult classes in EE. All subject of ECE311 is conceptional and untangible. This class is related to more physics rather than ECE classes. To do well in ECE311, I recommend you to solve many problems. By solving a lot problems, you can get the concept of this material. I also recommend that you should read professor Dan Jiao's lecture notes. It explain material very detail and give some examples. It you read Dan Jiao's lecture notes carefully, you do not need to read the text book. sje

• The other contributors have acknowledged correctly that the class is very intensive mathematically, and that it is up to the student to develop the intuition behind the concepts independently. I recommend taking a supplementary course like ECE321 (Electromechanical Motion Devices) and its associated lab, ECE323, to see electromagnetic concepts in action. Just like ECE201 is a foundation for applications in analog circuits (and not very applicable directly), ECE311 will establish understanding, but won't be useful for solving real-world problems unless you develop the knowledge with a course that uses it. To be successful: avoid power-hour sessions (unless that is your preferred learning style). Review vector calculus problems and establish consistent notation for your homework solutions (this is important when dealing with vector and scalar quantities and for referring between an entire vector and its individual components). As always, do the work that's required of you and it will be easy to succeed. --Ryan Taylor

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