EECE 321 Course Syllabus

Course: EECE 321 – Electronic Systems Quarter: Winter 2022 Credits: 4

Instructor: Tina Smilkstein Office: ET266 Phone: TBD
Email: smilkst@wwu.edu

Class 2:00 pm - 2:50 pm MWF Ross Engineering 322 01/04/2022 - 03/18/2022 Lecture
Class 3:00 pm - 4:50 pm R Ross Engineering 338 01/04/2022 - 03/18/2022 Lab
Office Hours: Zoom office hours every day at 8pm (except Saturdays): https://calpoly.zoom.us/j/7082519121 . In-
person by request. Other times also available by request.
Course Description: Upper division treatment of active linear and nonlinear electronic circuits. Analysis, design
and testing of electronic circuits and subsystems with primary emphasis on the application of
integrated circuit components and modules including active filters, signal generation, and data
convertors.
Prerequisites: EECE 310, EECE 320
Textbook: Slides and .
Optional References: Google. and YouTube will help with practice problems, solving methods, applications, and
other support.

Inclusion:
My opinion is that: Interacting with people of all life experiences/styles/challenges/opinions can only
make a person smarter. What I mean by that is: You will have to make many decisions in your life and career
(obviously). If you make those decisions based only on a small set of your own experiences I can almost
guarantee you that your decisions, at some point, won’t be as good as if you had spent time listening and
being open to other’s views and lifestyles. Knowledge is power. Hearing people’s opinions, even if you don’t
agree with them or they make you angry, will give you knowledge you didn’t have before and may not ever
have a chance to get on your own. It will give you more choices when you make (design and life) decisions
and make the decisions you do make more informed. I think a diverse student body is essential in allowing
exchange of such information and making smart members of the world. I think what I’ve said is true no
matter what field you are in.
To help support an environment where ideas are exchanged, I think it’s very important to make this
class as accessible to all students no matter what their situation. To that end, I will do whatever I can to
support those of you that have special needs. That could be an accessibility issue for someone in a
wheelchair or it could be someone that has to leave early to pick up their kids or it may be someone that has
bad study habits or test anxiety. I want to keep you all in the class and learning as much as you can. Please
tell me if there is anything I can do to help you participate fully in the class.
If you need to ask for special consideration, my philosophy is that I will trust you and you do not
need to divulge any personal information – just tell me what you need. But I can’t help you if you don’t tell
me. The only time that I would request that you give me personal information is if that information might
help me in an emergency situation like an evacuation or if there’s a chance that there might be a medical
emergency. Of course any information given to me is kept in complete confidence.
The school has a disability resource center (https://disability.wwu.edu/ ). If you have something I
should consider such as test anxiety, tell me early so we can work out something acceptable to both of us.

Also, as reference, see Student Code of Conduct, the Ethical Conduct with WWUNetwork and Computing
Resources, and the EECE Lab Use Policy.

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 EECE 321 Course Syllabus

Grading:
Questionnaire: 2%
Homework: 5x3%= 15%
Group homework submission points: 4x1.5%= 6%
In class homework quizzes: 5x2%= 10%
Midterm: 18%
Lab (Weekly stuff) 10x1.5% 15%
Reports (3%+12%) 15%
Final: 19%
Total 100%

Questionnaire:
On Canvas.

Discretionary Points:
These are some points that I might give to those that I feel have participated and have shown in
office hours and class that they understand the course material but their grade may not reflect their skills. I
won’t give these to the people at the top of the grades – that means that these points can only help people’s
grades, they can’t hurt them. If you feel insecure with the subject, come to office hours, ask questions, show
me that you want to figure out what’s going on in the class and I may help you with these points at the end of
the quarter.

Group HW submission bonus, HW and HW quizzes:

Homework will be assigned (almost) every week (though I reserve the right to see how the class is
going and un-assign or assign homework a bit differently than the schedule). Late submissions will be taken
case by case. The only exceptions to weekly homework will be during midterm week where homework will
be provided but might not be due. It might be for review and only for your practice for the midterm.
It’s great if you work with other people (I’d prefer you do – and it will help your grade!). Turn in one
version with everyone’s name on it or add the name of the person you worked with if you just check answers
or work with someone but want to turn in your own version. Four of your homework should be in groups or
be collaborative. Allowing you all to work together is to foster discussion with other members of the class,
NOT to allow you to split up the problems and get done quicker. To make sure that you
understand ALL of the homework there will be a short homework quiz on the next class after days that
homework is returned. For example, if homework is due on Friday, the homework should be returned on
Monday and the homework quiz will be on Wednesdays. These will be largely to see if you understand the
concepts from the homework and probably won’t require in depth calculations or design.
The homework groups can be up to 4 people and can change from week to week.

Midterm:
There will be one midterm to help me see if you are keeping up and, also, to “inspire” you to keep
up.

Final:
The final will include the topics from the second half of the course and a section that will cover the
topics that seemed to give people trouble or were especially important from the first half of the course.

Cheating:
Cheating is not fair to the rest of the class, WILL NOT BE TOLERATED, and violates any
concept of honesty, integrity, and engineering ethics. I will follow the guidelines for treatment of cheaters
laid down by the university. I will put up with almost anything else, but cheating will be punished to the
limits possible. Students may work together on the homework (I want you to work together!). You
won’t be successful on the homework quizzes if you don’t understand all the homework questions. Refer to
Tina Smilksten, 321w22syl.docx
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 EECE 321 Course Syllabus
Western’s website on Integrity at: http://www.wwu.edu/integrity/

Grading:
At the end of the semester the top grade in the class will become 100% (unless everyone gets zeroes
or some other unforeseen event) and grades will be assigned as:
A for 100% of top grade > Your score ≥ 93% of top grade
A- for 93% of top grade > Your score ≥ 90% of top grade
B+ for 90% of top grade > Your score ≥ 87% of top grade
B for 87% of top grade > Your score ≥ 83% of top grade
B- for 83% of top grade > Your score ≥ 80% of top grade
C+ for 80% of top grade > Your score ≥ 77% of top grade
C for 77% of top grade > Your score ≥ 73% of top grade
C- for 73% of top grade > Your score ≥ 70% of top grade
D for 70% of top grade > Your score ≥ 60% of top grade
F for 60% of top grade > Your score

I’ll try to keep Canvas up-to-date so you can see where you are grade-wise all quarter.

Software: TBD soon but some combination of LTSpice, MATLAB, MultiSim Live Premium
Optional References: Operational Amplifiers – Characteristics and Applications, Robert Irvine
Microelectonic Circuits, Sedra and Smith, 2014

Tina Smilksten, 321w22syl.docx

WWU
 EECE 321 Course Syllabus
Schedule: (Subject to change)

Week Topics Text Reading

Jan 05 – Jan 08 Course Introduction, Noise Ch. 7.1 – 7.4
Jan 10 – Jan 14 Bode Plots, Active Filters Ch. 3.1 – 3.2, Notes
Jan 17 Martin Luther King Day, No Classes
Jan 18 – Jan 21 Active Filters Ch. 3.4 – 3.6
Jan 24 – Jan 28 Active Filters Ch. 4.1 – 4.2
Jan 31 – Feb 4 Voltage comparators, other non-linear circuits Ch. 9
Feb 7 – Feb 11 Voltage comparators, other non-linear circuits Ch. 9
Feb 14 – Feb 18 D-to-A and A-to-D Conversion Ch. 12, notes
Feb 21 Presidents Day, No Classes
Feb 22 – Feb 25 D-to-A and A-to-D Conversion Ch. 12, notes
Feb 28 – Mar 4 D-to-A and A-to-D Conversion Ch. 12, notes
Mar 7 – Mar 11 Noise Ch. 7.1 – 7.4
Tuesday, Mar 15 Final: 3:30 - 5:30 PM

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