Syllabus and Policies

Overview

Welcome to EE 120, Berkeley’s introductory course into all things signals and systems. Throughout the semester, we will introduce you to LTI systems analysis, Fourier Analysis, Sampling, and other topics related to signal processing and system analysis.

Note: All times listed on this syllabus are in PST

Course Content

Lecture

  • Mondays and Wednesdays from 4 - 6 PM on Zoom.
  • Lecture attendance is expected. We are doing our best to tailor the format to be as interactive and engaging as possible.
  • The lecture recording will be posted within 1 day of the live lecture to BCourses.
  • We will publish lecture notes before each lecture.

Textbook

EE120 is a self-contained course in that the lecture notes, lectures, discussions, and labs contain all of the material you are responsible for knowing.

If you would like an additional resource to learn material, check out this course by Alan Oppenheim (Textbook is Oppenheim and Willsky)

Discussions

  • Fridays 10 AM - 11 AM, 11 AM - 12PM and 2:30 PM - 3:30 PM over Zoom. See Piazza for the discussion Zoom link.
  • For the most part, one TA will teach all three sections each week for maximum consistency, and each week we’ll rotate who’s teaching. You’ll see all 4 TA’s roughly thrice this semester.
    • Upshot: attend whichever section you like, they’ll all be identical within a given week since it’s the same TA at all of them. We don’t plan to enforce you to attend the one you enroll in unless it’s bursting at the seams.
  • The worksheet will be posted ~1 day before each section.
  • Solutions will be posted ~1 day after each section.

Office Hours

  • You can find each instructor’s office hours on the calendar or the staff page.
  • Zoom links can be found on Piazza.
  • There is no office hour queue. Feel free to join the Zoom call any time during the instructor’s office hours.
  • If you would rather ask questions in private, please make a private/anonymous post on Piazza.

Policies

Communications

  • All official course communications will happen via Piazza and bCourses. We will strive to keep this website as up-to-date of a resource as possible, but there may be some delays between official announcements and website updates.
  • Direct any administrative concerns that can’t be resolved on Piazza to Professor Roychowdhury and Anmol, with “[EE 120]” in the email subject line.

Zoom Policy

  • Never share any class zoom links and passwords with anyone outside of EE120. We don’t want to waste any instruction time dealing with Zoom-bombers. Always look on Piazza for the latest Zoom links.
  • We will try our best not to change Zoom links for lectures, discussions, and office hours. If we do, you will be notified via Piazza.
  • We would encourage you to turn on your computer camera. We frequently use visual feedback to pace our lessons and check that people are understanding. It is also much more enjoyable for us to teach people instead of an LCD screen :)
  • During lectures, please keep your microphone muted unless called upon. During discussions, feel free to interrupt and ask questions.

Exam + Quiz Policy

During exams and quizzes, the following policies will be in place:

  • On the day of the exam, we will post a PDF of the questions as well as an answer sheet to BCourses.
    • You are responsible for printing out the answer sheet and filling out the honor code before the exam begins.
    • If printing is non-trivial, you may either use a tablet to fill in the answer sheet OR use loose paper provided that you use roughly the same space as provided on the exam booklet.
  • There will be a 15 minute scanning period which you can use for scanning and uploading your exam to BCourses.
  • Exams will be open-book.
  • You may not collaborate in any way with other students on exams unless it is through designated exam Piazza threads which course staff will create.
    • Instructors will not respond to questions on these threads. We will make a separate Piazza post if something needs to be clarified.
  • DSP students will start exams at the same time as other students, but will be allowed to submit to Gradescope late based on their time accomodation.

Assignments and Exams

Exams

  • There will be three in-class midterms, three in-class quizzes and no final exam.
    • Quizzes take place during the last hour of class.
    • Midterms will take the full class period, replacing the lecture for that day.
  • The quizzes will be on Sept 14, Oct 21, and Nov 23.
    • The undergraduate add/drop deadline is September 16th. We will almost certainly not have Quiz 1 graded by then. We will, however, do our best to release solutions to the quiz before the deadline so you can gauge how you did.
  • The midterms will be on Sept 30, Oct 28, and Dec 2.
  • DSP exam details will be released closer to each exam.
  • Since all quizzes and midterms take place during class, we will not be accommodating exam time conflicts for any reason. Do not email us asking.
  • Past exams are publicly available on TBP and HKN’s sites. We’ll also be posting some quizzes and midterms from recent EE 120 offerings on the website closer to the exams.

Homeworks and Labs

  • There will be a written homework or Jupyter Notebook lab released roughly every Friday this semester, except during the weeks we have midterms.
  • All homeworks and labs will be submitted via Gradescope.
  • Homeworks should either be printed out and scanned or handwritten using a tablet.
    • If you have access to neither a printer nor a tablet, then you may use notebook paper so long as you make a concerted effort to use an equivalent amount of space as we give.
  • You may collaborate with others, but all submitted work MUST be your own.
  • Assignments will generally be due a week after their release (i.e at 11:59 PM the Friday night after they’re released). However, you will have a two-day grace period and are allowed to submit homework and lab assignments — without penalty — anytime before 11:59 PM PST on the Sunday of that week. This generous policy comes with two important caveats:
    • You should not expect any staff help on the assignments after the official due date.
    • Assignments will not be accepted after 11:59 PM PST on Sundays for any reason.

Weekly Checkins

  • Each week, we will release a Google Form with 5 multiple choice/True-False questions covering the content for the week.
  • You are responsible for filling out the check-in form by the end of the weekend.
  • These check-in forms will be autograded, and you will receive immediate feedback.
    • While these will not count for course points, they are an important way for course staff to gauge how well the material is being understood, and they give us a chance to catch misconceptions early.

Grade Breakdown

  • 25% MT 1
  • 25% MT 2
  • 25% MT 3
  • 10% Quizzes (drop lowest one)
  • 10% Homework (drop lowest two)
  • 5% Labs (drop lowest one)