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
