ELEC120 - Foundations of Electrical Engineering

Spring 1999

References:

The library has many books that cover the topics of this course. Relevant titles usually have the words "circuit analysis" or "digital logic" or "introduction to electrical engineering" or "computer programming" in the titles. Also please take advantage of the electronic lessons in the class folder.

Tentative Outline:

TOPICS: (Not necessarily in order!)

1. Introduction to the course. Review of the electrical components presented in ENGR100. Electric circuit elements, voltage, current, energy, and power. Units. Independent and dependent sources. Circuit analysis. Resistive circuits, Ohm's law, Kirchhoff's current law (KCL), and Kirchhoff's voltage law (KVL). Series resistance and voltage division. Parallel resistance and current division. Dependent sources, circuits with dependent sources, and operational amplifiers (Bobrow: Chapter 1).
2. Instruments and measurement. Data-acquistion instruments and oscilloscopes.
3. Nodal analysis, circuits containing voltage sources, and circuits containing operational amplifiers. Mesh analysis, circuits containing current sources, and examples. Applications of above concepts. Examples (Bobrow: Chapter 2). Development of algorithms. Computer solutions.
4. Network theorems: linearity, superposition, Thevenin,s theorem and Norton's theorem. Practical sources. Maximum power transfer. (Bobrow: Chapter 2)
5. Energy storage elements, capacitors, energy storage in capacitors, and series and parallel capacitors. Inductors, energy storage in inductors. Series and parallel inductors (Bobrow: Chapter 3).
6. Simple RC circuits and RL circuits. Time constants. Time response of RC and RL circuits. Review of above material (Bobrow: Chapter 3).
7. Nonlinear circuits and diodes (Bobrow: Chapter 6).
8. Computer architecture, binary arithmetic, number representation, flip-flops, registers and counters, applications, microprocessors, D/A, A/D (Bobrow: Chapters 11, 12, 13).
9. Boolean algebra, Boolean algebra theorems, special forms of Boolean expressions (minterm and maxterm expressions), minimum Boolean expressions, minimum factored form, tabular methods of minimization (Bobrow: Chapters 11 & 12).
10. Hign-level programming language and structured programming.
11. Problem solving using computers. Continued use of Excel, Pspice, Matlab and Word processing .
12. Design problems using resistors, capacitors, diodes, and operational amplifiers (Bobrow: Chapters 3 & 6).
13. Design of digital circuits and systems (class notes and Bobrow).
14. Famous mathematicians, scientists and engineers (library research). Biographical sketches.

In this course, we will study fundamental concepts related to analog circuits, digital circuits, circuit design, and programming. This course provides a foundation for future courses in electrical engineering.

Grading

Homework:

Homework will be assigned regularly. Assignments will include reading, problems solving, and programming. A subset of the homework problems will be collected and graded. You are encouraged to work on the homework with groups of your classmates unless specified by the instructor. The purpose of the homework is to practice with the material and obtain a better understanding. I encourage you to learn from each other, and also ask me when you have questions. When you write your solutions to hand in, please write them individually, and be sure that you understand the reasoning. Keep in mind that most of your grade in this course is determined by exams and quizzes, which you have to do by yourself.

Laboratories: Laboratory exercises will be performed by pairs of students. The exercises will be a mixture of analog circuit design, digital circuit design, and programming.

Instead of writing formal lab reports, each of you will keep a lab notebook that will be collected and graded periodically. The lab notebook must be bound, i.e. it cannot be a loose-leaf binder.

Letter Grades:

• 93-100% A
  
• 90-93% A-
  
• 87-89% B+
  
• 84-86% B
  
• 80-83% B-
  
• 77-79% C+
  
• 74-76% C
  
• 70-73 % C-
  
• 60-69% D
  
• Less than 60% F
  

Quiz Schedule:

1. January 29, 1999
   
2. February 19, 1999
   
3. March 19, 1999
   
4. April 16, 1999