Implementing Ideas from the Course Design Retreat
NFTS Luncheon
October 13, 2004
Before (EE 447, WS 2001):
Grading
Two Tests: 40% (20% each)
Final Exam: 40%
Homework: 15%
Participation: 5%
After (EE 447, FS 2002):
Grading
Final Exam: 30%
Midterm Exam: 20%
Group Work: 10%
Reading Quizzes: 10%
Homework (rough): 5%
Homework (final): 5%
Professionalism: 5%
Reflections: 5%
Presentation: 5%
Learning Portfolio: 5%
Goals
Students will understand and remember key concepts from the main content areas
listed in the topical outline (below).
For a given communication channel, students will be able to compute the
maximum rate of reliable transmission and design, evaluate, and implement codes
that achieve capacity with reasonable decoding complexity.
Students will build the knowledge and develop the skills necessary to read and
understand articles written in journals such as the IEEE Transactions on
Information Theory.
Students will learn how to work effectively in a group setting to accomplish goals
related to a coding theory project.
Students will appreciate the importance of coding theory and information theory
and its impact on society.
Students will be able to direct their own learning in understanding, designing and
evaluating new codes.
Learning Portfolio
El Eng 343, Winter 2004
Weeks
Due on May 7, 2004
Prepare a learning portfolio that summarizes your work in El Eng 343. The purpose of
this portfolio is to provide an opportunity for reflection and review. Your portfolio
should consist of a narrative section and a compilation of what you consider to be your
best work in the course. Your grade will be based on the overall impression created by
your portfolio and your response to the questions listed below.
Narrative: The narrative section should describe what you have learned during the
semester and what you consider to be your best work. The length of the narrative should
be at least five (5) but no more than ten (10) complete double-spaced typed pages, 12-pt
font, 1-inch margins. Specifically, at a minimum the narrative should answer the
following questions:
1. What did you learn in the course that you did not know before the semester
began?
2. What was the most challenging aspect of the course?
3. What was the most enjoyable aspect of the course?
4. What did you do well in the course?
5. What aspects of your work needed improvement?
6. What advice would you give to students who take the course during its next
offering?
7. What did you learn about working effectively in teams?
8. What was your best work in the course (describe work listed in appendices)?
9. What plan of study will you follow to learn additional material related to this
course, and how has the course prepared you to fulfill your plan?
Appendices: (Specify at least 5 pages of appendix) The appendices to the narrative
should consist of your best work during the semester. Moreover, the narrative should
contain descriptions of the work and what features qualify the work for inclusion in a
learning portfolio. Finally, in the narrative you may explain the purpose of the
assignment and its benefits to your education.
Tips: Remember that the grade for the learning portfolio is based upon an overall
impression; therefore, neatness and presentation will improve your grade. It is suggested
(but not required) that you use the questions above as subsection headings printed in
bold. Be sure to use the narrative to convey the impression that you understand the main
concepts presented in class and in your readings. The learning portfolio can be shown to
potential employers to demonstrate your achievements this semester and should convey a
sense of accomplishment. The narrative is not a venue for criticism (negative or positive)
of the course. Most importantly, the learning portfolio is a landmark that represents your
time and energy devoted to the study of analog and digital communications. Finally,
submit one copy for grading, and keep one copy for your own records.
Learning Portfolio Excerpts
I enjoyed this entire course to the fullest. . . . I would like to say something about my
instructor Dr. Weeks, who is a more than instructor for me. He spent lot of his valuable
time in clarifying my questions, however silly my questions are. I learned so many
important things, related to both technical and professional, from him. I would always
remember his effort to bring a professional from me. Being a part of the Cryptography
class I taught lot more things other than course work, like how to write technical reports,
how to work in groups to get better results, how to review the work of the others. On the
whole this class taught me so many valuable things besides fun.
I was attentive for all the classes even though the classes started in the late afternoon.
This is because we had a cryptographers meeting atmosphere rather than a normal
classroom discussion.
The enjoyable aspect of the course was when we had to do explain the homework
problems to a group of students in the class. Each and every person explained one
particular problem of the homework and it was fun altogether. It liked it so much as it
was a kind of experience that I haven’t faced before.
I am thankful to Dr. Weeks for providing such a good course and also thankful to other
students in the class for providing such a great atmosphere in the class. I will probably
remember the course and Instructor in particular throughout my life. A.M.
Even though I had a lot of fun and good things in the course my disappointment was not
getting the best code design award. Our ultimate goal when we started the project was to
get the best project. But things didn’t turn out well as we put ourselves in the hole be
spending very less time in the documentation. The net result was the bad documentation.
My advice to the student who do projects is to spend 30% of the effort for documentation
as it counts a lot. V.R.
Another enjoyable part of the course was the occasional group work that was assigned
to be done in class. That was a quick reprieve from traditional lectures and gave me
sometime to recover from all the math, at the same time being useful towards the course
as well. Last but not the least, the weekly reflections that we had were really worth
spending time for. Each week, the crux of the material discussed in class would be
assigned as a general reflection on the discussion board for the class. This made me think
back over the material discussed in class that wek and recollect things and write the
reflection in my own words. This serves as a review for that week’s work as well.
Reflections first started in the class as general reflections about the course and in due
time changed to technical questions that will usually be questions raised during class that
piques the interest of most of the students in class. This method of reflecting over
material discussed in class helped maintain a sustained interest in the course. H.R.
Lastly I would like to thank Dr. William Weeks, University of Missouri Rolla and
Shannon for giving me an opportunity to learn the basics and advanced topics in
Information theory and Coding theory. They have equipped me with the tools what I
need to pursue my interest in Coding Theory. A. Eluganti
This course has been very successful in helping me understand current trends and
interests in coding theory. Having taken this class I am much better prepared to continue
learning on my own by reading, or by participating in other related classes. I don’t think
there was a single article I even remotely understood a year ago when I flipped through
an IEEE Transaction on Information Theory for the first time. In the issue that came this
month, however, I have a basic familiarity with a majority of the topics discussed in the
articles. Although I listed the amount of information covered in this course as one of the
biggest challenges, covering such a large amount of material gave me the background I
needed to understand publications such as the IEEE Transaction on Information Theory
and to continue learning more about this fascinating area of Electrical Engineering. A.P.
Team Project I
Bandwidth and Modulation
El Eng 243
Due on September 22, 2004
Discuss the bandwidth of audio signals at baseband and at passband. In particular, create
a set of Matlab routines that will allow you to analyze the spectral content of various
audio signals. Your code should be able to compute the PSD and the 99% power
bandwidth of a baseband or passband signal. Compare the bandwidth characteristics of at
least three different types of audio signals such as voice, classical music, rock music, etc.
Furthermore, compare the quality of baseband signals when the audio files are filtered
using highpass and lowpass filters with cutoff frequency 5 kHz. Finally, compute the
bandwidth of modulated audio files using two different modulation schemes.
Your final report for this project must consist of PSD plots, accompanying calculations of
bandwidth, block diagrams, and a narrative discussion to explain your results and to show
that your team understands the spectral characteristics of baseband and passband audio
signals. The plots must be properly labeled on the horizontal and vertical axis. You must
also include all Matlab code in your final project report. Your team will give a ten-
minute presentation of your results to the rest of the class.
Reward points are available for this project. A reward point must be earned by some
outstanding quality of the report and will be treated as extra credit. Reward categories
include best project, outstanding code documentation, outstanding presentation, and
challenging modulation scheme. No team may claim more than two reward points.
Grades will be assigned according to the follow scheme:
Rubric
1 pts: Neatness, grammar, spelling, format, and organization
1 pt: Verbal presentation
1 pt: Documentation of code
1 pt: PSD computation
1 pt: Calculation of bandwidth
1 pt: Plots
1 pt: Signal filtering
2 pts: Modulation schemes
Reward
2 pts maximum per team