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COURSERA

Fundamentals    of Elektrical   engıneering

onlıne  course

Welcome!

Fundamentals of Electrical Engineering will (finally) launch on 20 January. This course has been taught at Rice University for several years as the introductory course for electrical engineering majors. It is structured somewhat differently than introductory electrical engineering courses taught at other universities. Instead of concentrating on circuits and practical systems, this course goes over virtually all topics in the signals-and-systems subfield, arguably the heart of electrical engineering. Once you complete this course, you will know the fundamentals to some depth in the field and understand the principles behind the design of cellular telephone, Wi-Fi and computer networks.

I been asked by several students if the prerequisite of single-variable calculus suffices. That and a knowledge of complex numbers are all that is required. Reviewing complex numbers, addition/subtraction, multiplication/division and Cartesian/polar forms of representation would be a good idea. We really use complex numbers in electrical engineering a lot.

The text for the course is online (http://cnx.org/content/col10040) and was written for this course. For those wanting a complete copy of the notes in pdf format, you can download them here (3MB). Each video has links to the appropriate online modules so that you can read the lecture material and, if you chose, work short exercises to test your understanding. Additional homework problems to those assigned in the course can be found at the end of each chapter.

Can't wait to get started!

Don H. Johnson

Questions about the Accompanying Lab Course

The course Fundamentals of Electrical Engineering Laboratory complements the video lecture course Fundamentals of Electrical Engineering. You do not need to enroll in both courses. The lecture course is self-contained. Those who also enroll in the lab will see "theory in action," gaining more insight into electrical engineering. However, the lab course requires purchase of electronic equipment and parts, cost is US$250. Because of inventory issues, only 1000 lab kits are available. The lab course will be offered again and, if the demand is sufficient, more kits will become available.

The lab equipment and software is (almost) ready to be ordered and installed. The ordering website should be up tomorrow or the next day. See the lab course page for details.

NOTE: The lecture course can run on any system having a browser. However, Windows is the required operating system for the laboratory. You cannot run a Windows emulator instead of running Windows natively. Running an emulator like Parallels or Fusion will not work since the lab software needs direct access to the USB port and the data rates are higher than the emulator/native OS can handle. I tried this myself and "discovered" I had to dual-boot my Apple computer.  

INTRODUCTION

COMPLEX NUMBERS

Week 1 - Basics of Signals and Systems

CIRCUIT BASIC

CIRCUIT INTERCONNECTION LAWS

EQUIVALENT CIRCUITS

MORE EQUIVALENT CIRCUITS

Week 2 - Circuit Fundamentals

Circuits with Inductors and Capacitors (14_37)

Circuits with Sinusoidal Sources (26_46)

Analog Filters (38_14)

Node Method and Conservation of Power (20_43)

Operational Amplifiers (34_18)

Week 3 - Generalizing Resistor Circuits

Fourier Series (38_44)

Signals in the Frequency Domain (28_18)

Introduction to Matlab (18_31)

Week 4 - Signals in the Frequency Domain

The Frequency Domain_ The Entire Story (35_37)

The Speech Signal (26_55)

Week 5 - The Fourier Transform

Basics of Computer Calculation (13_47)

Signal Acquisition by Computer (25_29)

Decibels (6_37)

Discrete-Time Signals and Systems (15_41)

Week 6 - Digital Signal Processing

Discrete-Time Spectral Analysis (16_06)

Spectrograms (12_14)

Efficient Spectrum Calculation (18_31)

Computing Spectra (25_02)

Week 7 - Computing Spectra

Digital Filters_ Time-Domain (42_19)

Digital Filters_ Frequency Domain (20_54)

Week 8 - Implementing Digital Filters

Wireless Communication Channels (21_54)

Wireline Communication Channels (28_44)

Noise and Interference (25_04)

Week 9 - Communication Fundamentals

Analog Communcation (20_39)

Digital Communication (19_48)

Digital Communication Receivers (20_54)

Week 10 - Transmitting and Receiving Information

Data Compression (34_28)

Error-Correcting Codes (29_00)

Correcting Communication Errors (19_20)

Week 11 - Digital Communication

Analog vs. Digital Communication (18_55)

Channel Capacity (19_37)

Week 12 - Communicating Information

About the Final Exam

Week 13 - Final Exam
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