Revision as of 19:36, 15 December 2009

Peer Legacy for ECE438

All students who have previously taken ECE438 are welcome to use this page to leave comments/give advice for future students.

• If you understood the material of ECE301 pretty well, then ECE438 isn't a gigantic step higher in difficulty, in my opinion. Be sure to understand what you are doing during the labs and that will help you understand the lecture's material. The textbook for ECE 438 - "Digital Signal Processing" by Proakis - is very mediocre but has some examples. It wasn't of much help. The ECE 301 textbook - "Signals & Systems" by Oppenheim - is still a good reference and useful to keep. There were a few times during lecture that the math became a little "hairy" and I wasn't able to follow step-by-step what was being written on the blackboard. If you aren't the best at digesting mathematical steps "on the spot", be sure to review your notes after class, because if you understand completely the steps behind all of the "formulas", then you're probably pretty well prepared for the exams. Even if you don't completely understand all of the "formulas" 100%, you can still do pretty well by doing a ton of practice problems. And there are plenty of old exams to look at on old ECE 438 websites.--rscheidt

• If you understood your 301, this course will be very fun. Bouman gets an A for the lab portion. And contrary to some rumors floating around, Mimi isn't actually terrifying and you will enjoy her lectures :) --weim

• Labs are awesome as you get to deal with practical aspect of signal and image processing.You will learn all sort of things to create a digital sound, modification of images and designing filters,to name a few.Lectures are little difficult to understand,but if one pays attention and follow every sentence the professor is speaking,it will help you.Whatever is there on the exams are based on the concepts in the homeworks and everything is covered in the class.The book is not recommended for this course.Professor Mimi provides all the notes and there are links to other professor's notes who had taught this class earlier.--apanja

• 438, in a word, is awesome. It is one of those few EE course that I think is complemented excellently with the labs, and you actually see, in practical, what you're doing in class. If you're scared of coding and have heard from people that there is alot of MATLAB, fret not. As Prof Mimi said in the first week; MATLAB will be the last of your worries in ECE 438. The math is a little challenging and new; but Mimi gives good examples to link it to, so if you relate it to the real world, it makes sense instantly.

One caveat though, don't rely on friends' notes for this class; if you attend all the lectures, you might have to spend at most 2-3 hours outside class for understanding even the hardest parts; this helped me a great deal. Conversely, if you don't attend lectures, the math will look scary, and create a general feeling of sadness in your life. So attend class!! Dlamba 01:50, 14 December 2009 (UTC)

• As other people have mentioned, if you liked/did well in ECE 301, you will [most likely] enjoy this class. The material is relevant to the real world and I have often found myself thinking about the material out of class when I see real-life applications. In order to really succeed in the class, it's my opinion that you need to do the HOMEWORK. Yes, you may think you understand the material in class, but you won't know the caliber of your understanding unless you attempt real problems. Additionally, if you don't understand what's going on, ask questions! either in class, office hours, or just asking other students; I guarantee that someone will know and be willing to help you grasp the concept. --pclay

• If you were interested in and did well ECE301, I recommend you to take 438. The first part of ECE 438 is pretty similar to ECE301. You will learn about furier transfrom and z-transform again, which you learned from ECE301. By taking ECE438, I understand better about those. When I took ECE301, I did not understand it well even though I got good grade on ECE301. And the second part is basically about filter. Before you take ECE438, I also recommend that you should figure out how to use Matlab because ECE438 lab is based on Matlab. Lastly, if you do homework and attend every lecture classes, I am pretty sure that you are doing well in ECE438.---sje

• ECE 438 is similar to 301 in style and topic but is well taught and anything you might have forgotten from 301 will certainly be covered again. The lab component for this course really helps to see what it is you're doing in the lecture component. Also, because the book for this course provides no help it makes attending lecture very important. --kheldman

• I decided to take DSP because I have a penchant for taking too many credit hours. To be honest, the first few weeks had me thinking about dropping the class (it had been two semesters since I took ECE301, and I never really liked it to being with). However, I realized that the work was actually very rewarding. Dr. Boutin's lectures are excellent (albeit packed with enough information to make your head spin), and the labs are actually fun (even at 7:30am). This class is solely responsible for my interest in signal processing, and helped me better understand topics from very different fields (especially frequency responses, which are used extensively in controls applications). If you are unsure about your ability to handle the course, get some self-confidence and dive in! The bark is worse than the bite, and it is much more interesting than the endless Fourier transforms of ECE301. To attain success: go to class! Missing a single day will put you behind in the notes (and they're generally not available online). Also, review homework solutions. The homeworks are excellent tools for preparing for midterms (which are difficult, but fair). This class is definitely manageable, and absolutely necessary if you want to decode the secret messages in Lab 5.2. --Ryan Taylor

• If you liked ECE301 this course is right for you. It provides the foundations for the understanding of digital signals and how to process them (photos, songs,etc). If you do the homework and go to class you are fine for this class. I would recommend reviewing the ece301 material before taking this class as it relies heavily on it. The labs are great by the way! One of my favorites of the labs i have taken. --Carlos Leon

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