–First
2/3 (devices part) of 6.012. Emphasizes energy band concepts more than 6.012
does.
•Teaching
style and quality
–Many derivations
and proofs; emphasizes memorization
–Most people
found this generally interesting and worthwhile
•Difficulty/Challenges
–1st
two weeks very fast run through of quantum physics; memorization/exposure
rather than deep understanding (too fast) – some early exposure would
help; CUED students in similar boat
–2nd
half more applied and difficult
•Exam
strategy
–heavy
on memorization/understanding of the notes; additional reading needed to
understand
•Resources
–Flewitt
notes and supervisions are very good; 2nd half okay but not as
good
–Streetman
is key text; lecture notes draw from additional texts
•Assumed
background and holes to plug
–Basic
physics and chemistry
–Bipolar,
JFET and other transistors; structure and differences assumed (exposure)
–6.011
control material; state space methods for modleing and analyzing dynamic
systems; state estimation; state observer combined with state feedback
•Teaching
style and quality
–One of
the few where students from multiple disciplines are taking the subject
at the same time – shows that this subject matter is relevant and
important in many areas
•Difficulty/Challenges
–Challenging
but most found this interesting
•Exam
strategy
•Resources
–Texts:
Dorf; Franklin, Powell, & Emani-Naeini
•Assumed
background and holes to plug
–Matrix
manipulation and eigenvalue properties (MIT online lectures helpful)
–Assumes
good understanding of continuous time transfer functions, poles/zeros, frequency
response, etc; this is NOT reviewed in 3F1 since assumed people had already
in 2nd year
–6.041;
6.003; 6.011 or alternatively take 3F1 and 3F3
•MIT
equivalence and topics covered
–Parts
of 6.450;
–Topics
Include:
i.) 1st Half: ISI; SNR; Line Coding; Block Codes; Equalization
Filters; Bit Error Rate
transmit/receive filters;
ii.) 2nd Half: Phasors; PSK, QPSK, QAM, BPSK; Brief lectures
on digital TV operation
•Difficulty/Challenges
- Final Exam was one of the more challenging
(medium hard – hard).
- Recommended texts for class are poor reference materials. 1st
half of course is relatively easy to grasp. However, second half of course
ramps up in difficulty. Both lecturers are dry and boring making sitting
through lectures difficult.
•Teaching
style and quality
–Useful
handouts and lecture notes distributed
–Both lecturers
tend to read off the lecture notes, regurgitating the same information.
•Exam
strategy
–Go through
as many practice exams as possible.
–Focus
on understanding the 1st half of the material really well first
before proceeding to study for the 2nd half. Questions
on the 1st half tended to be easier.
•Assumed
background and holes to plug
- Make sure you have a good grasp of the recommended MIT pre-requisites.
They contain the extent of the assumed background.
–None;
Basic C++ knowledge (enough to be able to read code)
•MIT
equivalence and topics covered
–Perhaps
a non-coding version of 6.170
–Design
Patterns
–Understanding
of Object Orientated Programming
–Distributed
Systems: implementing client – server programs through CORBA
–Software
Design Process – methodologies; what to and what not to do in the
process
–Concurrent
Systems – monitors, semaphores, etc.
•Teaching
style and quality
–Lecturers
are both well-spoken
–Interesting
lectures; excellent lecture notes. (They’re more or less all you’ll
need)
–Georg
Klein an especially good supervisor
•Difficulty/Challenges
–One of
the easier courses; However, although the course during the year seemed
really easy, don’t get complacent. The final exam was actually
harder then most expected. It was fair though and in terms of difficulty
I would rank it as average.
–Useful
to study together (to understand concepts)
–If you
have a good memory, it will serve you well for the second half of the course
which focuses on the Software Design Process and requires substantial memorization
•Exam
strategy
–Just go
over the exam questions and you’ll be fine.
•Assumed
background and holes to plug
–Take some
time and learn a little bit of C++ using the 2nd year review
book on C++. (You can get this for free at the DPO)