ELEN30012: Signals and Systems

Final exam closed book 60%
Mid sem test closed book 10%
3 assignments assigned in week 7, week 9, week 11 each worth 5%
Workshops (assessed inside the workshop) 15%, each workshop worth 1.5%

3 assignments that basically is a tweak of the workshops questions. For example if the workshop is exploring first order diff eqn. then the assignments will explore 2nd order diff eqns. You do the assignments in your workshop groups. They are not hard as long as you keep up with lectures. You can do the assignments by yourself and then compare with your mates; that's what I did.

Overall, this subject is relatively straightforward. The topics covered were:
-Mathematical foundations of signals and systems
-convolution
-Fourier series and transforms
-Laplace and z transforms
-State space representations
-Transfer Functions

I have to mention; this subject requires you to be able to write mathematical proofs (like pure maths subjects) probably since Robert himself is a mathematician. So before walking into this subject familiarise yourself with writing proofs (contrapositive, contradiction etc.) and try to develop that "flair"/"instinct" when given something to prove (what I mean is that creativity in proving math theorems e.g. given you have to prove something for a set of natural numbers you could instictively come up about breaking the case into proving separately for both odd and even numbers).

Quite a number of people walk into this subject with difficulty in their mathematical background. This subject assumes you're familiar with matrices manipulation (i.e. not just eigenvalues etc. but also for proofs) and complex numbers. Revise them before doing this subject.

The concepts themselves are difficult to understand the first time you see them. Really do spend some time struggling with the concepts; Youtube the particular concept etc. This subject could easily turn into a "plug into the formula" subject; don't let that happen to you, really do understand what's going on and the physical implications of the theorems, because the exam has tricky questions and so if your mentality is "plug into formula" you'll get a bad time in the exam (the exam is hurdle and Robert is a very strict marker; he told us in lectures he doesn't scale up the mark at all/fit to a curve).

Similar to the mid semester test, except there are trick questions here. The last question of the exam is the most difficult one; don't expect to be able to answer it unless you have a good mathematical flair. Apart from that, just make sure you know how to do each problem in the problem booklet, understand the concepts being examined and you should get a decent score.

The problem booklet questions could, as I said, give you that "ah this problem-use and plug in this formula!" mentality because the problem booklet questions doesn't really test your conceptual understanding. Don't let that happen to you because the exam tests conceptual understanding as well. Use some other books/resources to test your conceptual understanding; I'd advice you consult Schaum's Signals and Systems and Alan Oppenheim on http://www.ocw.mit to come to grips with conceptual understanding
All in all a very straightforward subject. Concepts are difficult to understand the first time you see them but once you get it, it becomes very easy. Topics are connected between each other; understand the connections. If you put in the effort (do the problem booklet

Yes

Robert Schmid

The lecturer, Robert, explains things very clearly and succinctly. He has this thing called problem booklet which is full of practice questions for this subject, along with answers at the back as well as a sample exam. He would do some of these problems in the lectures so it's really good for us to know what he expects of us in the exam. He is also approachable; gives chances to ask questions at the end of lectures and have consultation hours as well. The consultation hours tend to get packed though so better ask him stuff at the end of lectures. The low point of the lectures would be that he digresses quite a number of times from the lecture material, breaking your focus. But apart from that lectures are generally good.

Many questions similar/even exactly the same to the problem booklet questions. 1 hr closed book test. Not too difficult given you do the problem booklet questions. No trick questions whatsoever here. Past midsems provided with worked solutions which is nice.

Yes 2014 and 2015, previous exams were also available but written by another lecturer

4 Out of 5

None, the lecture notes are more than enough. But I also used Alan Oppenheim's signals and systems book though

Lectures: 3x1 hr lectures per week
Workshop: 1x2 hr Lectures per week starting week 2

11 workshops; each workshop sheet given a week before the workshop and there are pre workshops to do before each workshop. These are generally easy; I suggest do the whole workshop even before the workshop as they are not too hard. In the workshop you finish off the rest of the workshop with your group partners, which are assigned to you at workshop 1. The workshops are all MATLAB implementations of things; you better revise your matlab skills before commencing this subject because the subject assumes you know basic matlab already. You need to finish the workshop sheet before the end of that workshop, at which the tutor will check your answers and give you marks if you get them right.

2016 Sem 2

98