Software Engineering 2MX3 is an introductory course to signals and systems. It's a second semester course and is shared by Software Engineering and Mechatronics.
The purpose of this course is to learn about how a system responds to input. For example, if you push down on the front of a car, it's springs will oscillate until the car is again stationary (finite impulse response). If you kick a car door and leave a permanent dent, that's an infinite impulse response (since it never returns to the way it was before).
The course begins with FIRs and IIRs (finite and infinite impulse responses), which are pretty intuitive and not difficult to understand. Gradually it moves onto convolution (the response of a system to several impulses) and mathematically modeling everything through state space equations and kronecker deltas.
After that it moves onto fourier transforms, which essentially are the bases for discretizing signals for a variety of applications (such as for transmitting data from once cell phone to another) and then reconstructing it at the other end back into a continuous signal.
The last part deals with Z-transforms, Laplace transforms and designing low-pass filters.
Now I'm sure after reading all that you're thinking "Oh man, I have no idea what this is...", but don't worry, it will all make perfect sense once you've gone through the course.
The course is taught by Martin von Mohrenschildt (the head of Software and Mechatronics) and he is absolutely awesome; one of the best profs I've ever had! He makes super complicated things simple by using various "tricks" and does really awesome demos. In one of them he basically makes a techno beat on the spot to explain the different types of wave forms.
The course breakdown is a little daunting:
Midterm Test I 20%
Midterm Test II 20%
Final Exam 60%
The ABSOLUTE MOST IMPORTANT thing you need to do is GO TO CLASS. There is a book for this class, but it is absolutely useless, as it does not show the "tricks" to solving things. Reading it will only confuse you. Also, make sure you do the assignments! They aren't worth anything, but they're very good to know since his tests and the exam is essentially a rehash of them.
Ya, so anyway - go to ALL classes (it's very easy to fall behind) and do the assignments, and there is no way you'll get less than a 10.
Protip: Try to sit closer in his class. His writing kind of sucks and "m, w, cos, sin and t" all look like the same thing from the back.
P.S. Software engineering 2MX3, signal processing to the max!
(you'll know what I'm talking about after about a month in
).
