ENG 6 - Engineering Problem Solving
Spring 2011

Course Information

• Instructor
  Prof. Bevan Baas
  2037 Kemper Hall

  Office hours

  	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thur	Fri
  Prof. Baas		10:20-11:30 am 2 Wellman→2037 Kemper	2-3pm 2037 Kemper	10:20 am-10:45 am 2 Wellman
  Aaron Stillmaker				3-4pm Acad Surge 1116	1-2pm Kemper 2107
  Ahmed Elsherif		11:30-12:30pm Acad Surge 1044		12:30-1:30pm Kemper 3089
  Alexander McCourt			3-4pm Acad Surge 1116		2-3pm Kemper 3089
  Kevin Louchis				3-4pm Acad Surge 1116	4-5pm Kemper 3089
  Xinran Cai		12:30-1:30pm Kemper 3087		10:30-11:30am Acad Surge 1116

  
  

  Lecture

  TTh, 9:00 - 10:20am

  Wellman 2

  Textbook, strongly suggested but optional

  Engineering Computation with Matlab, 2nd Edition

  David M. Smith

  Communication

  • Course web page:   http://www.ece.ucdavis.edu/~bbaas/6/
  • Immediately after each lecture I will be available in the lecture room or right outside
  • Instructor office hours
  • TA office hours
  • Email the TA for your lab section for urgent or personal matters that cannot be handled through office hours or during lab time

  Grading

  • 25%   Homework
  • 40%   Labs
  • 15%   Final project
  • 20%   Final exam

  Additional course information

  • Prerequisites: Mathematics 16B or 21B (may be taken concurrently)
  • The Smith text is sufficient for this course but if a second textbook is desired, I suggest: Getting Started with Matlab, Oxford University Press, 2002. Is serves as a concise introduction to matlab with good coverage that may be a good alternative to the Smith text for more advanced students. Chapter 2 has some nice tutorials, chapter 3 summarizes basic functions and file I/O, chapter 4 covers scripts, and chapter 6 gives a good overview of graphing. $30 on amazon

Lab Information

Lab Sections and Teaching Assistants

• Section A05, Mon 3, Room 1116, Kevin Louchis, kdlouchis(AT)ucdavis.edu
• Section A03, Mon 7, Room 1044, Ahmed Elsherif, arelsherif(AT)ucdavis.edu
• Section A06, Mon 7, Room 1116, Alex McCourt, amccourt(AT)ucdavis.edu
• Section A01, Tue 7,   Room 1116, Xinran Cai, xrcai(AT)ucdavis.edu
• Section A04, Wed 4, Room 1116, Aaron Stillmaker, astillmaker(AT)ucdavis.edu
• Section A07, Wed 7, Room 1116, Aaron Stillmaker, astillmaker(AT)ucdavis.edu
• Section A02, Th 7,   Room 1116, Xinran Cai, xrcai(AT)ucdavis.edu

Basic info

• Academic Surge 1044 and 1116 hours
• Basic lab info provided by EACS
• Lab instructions and notes
• For the lab/quiz portion of each weekly lab:
  • Attendance in lab is required
  • Typically, much of each lab/quiz will cover material from the previous week's two lectures in addition to material covered by the previous homework.
  • You may use any permitted aid such as your own notes, your own book(s), or the internet.
  • You may not communicate with anyone and should not have anything other than matlab/octave, text editor, or a browser with search information on your screen.
  • It is the responsibility of the student to verify work has been correctly uploaded into smartsite. There are ways things can go wrong, so always verify your submissions.
• Logging into computers requires account numbers which will be given to you by your contact TA.
• Lab grades will be adjusted so the average grade for each lab section is the same.
• For several logistical reasons, you may attend only the section in which you are enrolled. I realize that is not the most convenient option for many, but it is unfortunately necessary.
• In general, you are free to use the lab anytime another course is not using the room according to EACS posted hours.
• Example lab solutions will be posted after the completion of the final lab section each week.

Each lab session has three major components: 1) the programming problem, 2) a brief lecture by the TA, and 3) time for group and individual questions.

Lab programming sub-problems are normally graded on the following scale (note there is no 4):
    0   Little attempt made
    1   Not fully built
    2   All there, but not working
    3   Just about correct
    -   -
    5   Totally correct

Simple sub-problems will be graded on the following scale:
    0   Not a full effort
    1   Close but fundamental problem
    2   Correct

Homework

All work must be done individually. On each homework, write your name, lab section number, and problem set number clearly at the top.

Homeworks are assigned weekly and the deadline is strictly enforced by smartsite. They will normally be due Mondays at noon. It is the responsibility of the student to verify work has been correctly uploaded into smartsite. There are ways things can go wrong, so always verify your submissions. Unfortunately, late homeworks cannot be accepted except for verifiable medical excuses approved by the instructor.

Homework sub-problems are normally graded on the following scale (note there is no 4):
    0   Little attempt made
    1   Not fully built
    2   All there, but not working
    3   Just about correct
    -   -
    5   Totally correct

Simple sub-problems will be graded on the following scale:
    0   Not a full effort
    1   Close but fundamental problem
    2   Correct

Final Exam

The final exam is a mandatory component of this course. It is designed to test a working knowledge and understanding of concepts, not just mechanical procedures. Unfortunately, no early or late exams are possible. If an unavoidable emergency prevents your attendance at the final, you will be required to submit written proof of the emergency and the make-up exam will likely be given as an oral exam with the instructor.

The final exam will cover material from:

• Lectures,
• Assigned readings,
• Labs, and
• Homeworks.
Some material may be present in only one of these sources.

Course Software

Begin all submitted scripts and functions with a header with key information

Matlab

• May be purchased for $100 in bookstore (check upstairs near customer service if none available) or on-line
• Locations where it is freely available:
  • Academic surge labs when the room is unscheduled, or with the consent of the present instructor if there is a class in session.
  • 75 Hutchison
    M-Th 8am-10pm
    F 8am-6pm
  • 177 MU
    M-Th 5pm-10pm
    F 5pm-6pm
    Sat noon-4pm
    Sun noon-10pm
  • (Maybe) Your home department's computers
    Caution: be sensitive about asking dept. IT people for help; some IT people are very sensitive about this.

Octave

• Installation instructions for windows, March 31, not yet fully debugged.
• Key differences between Octave and Matlab
• Submissions for octave must have a filename of the form:
  xxxxx_octave.m

Course Policies

Grading Errors

Clear and significant grading errors should be described and justified in writing and given to the instructor within a week of being returned. Due to the inherent subjectiveness of grading and to be fair to all students, only truly significant mis-grades will result in a grade change. In addition to the description of the suspected grading error, you must write the following on your regrade request and sign immediately below it. "I certify that I have not altered this work in any way after it was returned to me. I understand that such altering would constitute a violation of the Code of Academic Conduct." Note that to discourage falsified regrading, some number of all graded assignments/labs/exams will be photocopied before being returned to students.

Individual work and Dishonesty

In this course, all work must be done "individually"—meaning done entirely by the student whose name is on the work. However, asking other students conceptual questions and explaining high-level concepts are important steps in the learning process and are strongly encouraged. This is very different from giving or receiving aid related to a specific assigned problem--which is not permitted. Copying someone else's work or allowing your work to be copied in any setting (hwk, lab, exams,...) does not promote learning, is unfair to honest students, and will be reported to Student Judicial Affairs. Students that observe inappropriate activity should report what they see (anonymously if desired) to a TA or the instructor.
Policy on collaboration

Course Schedule

Date	Reading	Lecture	Slides
Tue, March 29	Ch. 1	Course introduction, Computing introduction	Course overview
Th, March 31	Ch. 2	Scripts, Built-in functions	Getting started
Tue, April 5	Ch. 3	I/O, Logical expressions, Arrays I	Built-in functions & I/O Arrays I
Th, April 7	-	Arrays II	Arrays II
Tue, April 12	Ch. 11	Plotting	Plotting
Th, April 14	-	Boolean operations, Arrays II
Tue, April 19	Ch. 4	Arrays III Flow Control: if, switch	Arrays III Flow Control: if, switch
Th, April 21	-	Flow control: for, while	Flow control: for, while Slides 23-26 for: basic examples
Tue, April 26	Ch. 5	Functions	Functions Slides 7-10, 19
Th, April 28	Ch. 8	File Input & Output	File input & output Slide 20
Tue, May 3	-	Monte Carlo methods	Monte Carlo I Slide 7 Monte Carlo II
Th, May 5	-	Audio I/O and processing I	Audio Slides 7, 17, 18 Practice .wav sound clip
Tue, May 10	-	Audio II	aud1.m aud2.m aud3.m
Th, May 12	-	Character strings	Strings
Tue, May 17	-	Cells and structures	Cells & Structures May 17, 4pm: minor updates News: Mining Raw Data
Th, May 19	-	Image I/O and processing I	Image May 19, 11pm: slide 10, fixes News: Job prospects [Graphic] News: Self-driving cars Ex solution: hwk6.3b
Mon, May 23	Final project, subject to updates and clarifications
Tue, May 24	-	Image processing II Interpolation	Image processing II Interpolation and curve fitting May 26, 5pm: new slides 2, 7-8, 25-27
Th, May 26	-	Curve fitting	Observed common mistakes
Mon, May 30	Memorial Day No labs Mon May 30 - Th June 2
Tue, May 31	-	Matrix mathematics Pattern matching	Matrix mathematics Pattern matching
Th, June 2	-	Symbolic manipulations Numerical non-linear equations	Symbolic manipulations Numerical nonlinear equations
Wed, June 8, 1:00 - 3:00	-	Final Exam Single-sided, preferrably-typed exam notesheet must be your own work (it will be verified by checking tool), will be turned in with your final exam, and you must upload to smartsite before the exam.
Reference material not covered this quarter   • Input output GUI   • Object Oriented Programming