Signals and systems are encountered any time in our daily life. Signals are physical quantities such as the voltage, current, temperature, pressure, sound, image, electromagnetic wave, etc. Signals mainly depend on time, and mathematically they are functions of time. Systems are simply modeled as black boxes, which transform a signal (input) to another signal (output). An RC low pass filter, a common-emitter transistor amplifier, a television, a cell phone, a car, etc., are examples of systems. As you can see signals and systems cannot be separated and should be considered together.
Anybody has toyed with a device in his/her childhood or tried to open or fix a device using a screwdriver, pliers, cutter, etc., or opened hood of a car to investigate the machine. Similarly, in this course we will play with signals and systems to understand and learn and use tools for analyzing them; we are going to learn definitions and descriptions about signals and systems and mathematical methods to analyze and understand signals and systems.
Based on the above short description it is agreed that signals and systems are in the heart of electrical and electronics engineering.

Contents

1. Introduction.
2. Linear time invariant (LTI) systems.
3. Fourier analysis.
4. The Laplace transform.
5. Filtering.
6. Sampling.
7. The z-transform

Textbooks/Sources:

1. Linear Systems and Signals. B. P. Lathi. 2005. Oxford University Press.
2. Signals and Systems. Alan V. Oppenheim. 1997. Prentice Hall.
3. http://ocw.mit.edu/resources/res-6-007-signals-and-systems-spring-2011/lecture-notes/

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Grade Evaluation

Midterm Exam 1:	25 %
Midterm Exam 2:	25 %
Final Exam:	50%
Total:	100%

Attendance: 70% (If attendance is lower than 70% you get NA and your midterm and final exams will not be evaluated.)
Grading on a curve (bell curve) will not be used as a grade assessment method in this course. The grade assessment is absolute. Therefore, the students should expect basic questions, which measure whether you learned at least the required concepts in exams.

References/Links

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grading_on_a_curve
2. http://www.suite101.com/content/teachers-should-avoid-grading-on-the-curve-a179963
3. http://tigger.uic.edu/~mikel/grades.html

Grade	Range	Weight
AA	90-100	4.00
BA	85-89	3.50
BB	80-84	3.00
CB	75-79	2.50
CC	70-74	2.00
DC	60-69	1.50
DD	50-59	1.00
FD	30-49	0.50
FF	0-29	0.00

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