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An Interactive Approach to Signals and Systems Laboratory (Lab Manual)

Description Book Information


A typical undergraduate electrical engineering curriculum includes a signals and systems course during which students are initially exposed to signal processing concepts such as convolution, Fourier series, Fourier transform and filtering. Laboratory components of signals and systems courses are primarily based on textual .m files. Although the ability to write textual codes is an important aspect of a lab component, students can enhance their understanding of signal processing concepts in these courses if they interactively experiment with their codes.

Our motivation for writing this book has thus been to present an interactive programming approach as an alternative to the commonly practiced textual programming in signals and systems labs to provide an efficient way for students to interact and experiment with their codes. The interactivity achieved via hybrid programming, that is, a combination of textual and graphical programming, offers students a more effective tool to better understand signal processing concepts.

Textual programming and graphical programming both have pros and cons. In general, math operations are easier to code in textual mode. On the other hand, graphical programming offers an easy-to-build interactive and visualization environment along with a more intuitive approach toward building signal processing systems.

To bring together the preferred features of textual and graphical programming, we have designed the labs associated with a typical signals and systems course by incorporating .m files into the National Instruments LabVIEW graphical programming environment. This way, although students program the code in textual .m files, they can easily achieve interactivity and visualization in LabVIEW by just having some basic knowledge of the software. The first two labs provide an introduction to LabVIEW and MathScript (.m files) to help students become familiar with both graphical and textual programming in case they have not already done so in their earlier courses.

In addition to the signal processing concepts, students cover example applications in each lab to learn how to relate concepts to actual real-world applications. The applications considered span different signal processing areas including speech processing, telecommunications and digital music synthesis. These applications provide further incentive for students to stay engaged in the labs.

The chapters in this book are organized into the following labs:

      1. Introduction to LabVIEW

      2. Introduction to MathScript

      3. Convolution and Linear Time-Invariant Systems

      4. Fourier Series and Its Applications

      5. Continuous-Time Fourier Transform and Its Applications

      6. Digital Signals and Their Transforms

      7. Analysis of Analog and Digital Systems

The codes and files associated with the labs in this book can be downloaded from the website at www.utdallas.edu/~kehtar/signals-systems (username = signals-systems, password = laboratory). Note that this book is meant only as an accompanying lab book to signals and systems textbooks and should not be used as a substitute for these textbooks.

Authors and Organization:

Nasser Kehtarnavaz
Philipos C. Loizou
Mohammad T. Rahman

Publisher: Connexions
Edition: 1
ISBN-13: 978-0-6151-8809-6

Summary of How NI Technology is Used:

This text brings together textual and graphical programming in a hybrid mode, giving students the ability to interact and experiment with signals and systems concepts.
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Anita B
Applications Engineer
National Instruments
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