New Course Proposal
ENSC 328-1 Random Processes in Engineering
Jim Cavers
Calendar Description
Course Number: ENSC 328-1
Course Title: Random Processes in Engineering
Credit Hours: 1 Vector: 1-1-0
(lecture-tutorial-lab)
Course Description:
An introduction to continuous-valued random processes, including first
and second order statistics. Topics:
definitions of random processes taking complex values in continuous time;
autocorrelation and autocovariance functions in the
time domain; stationarity, ergodicity;
power spectral density in frequency domain; effect of linear filters; crosscorrelation functions and cross-power spectral
densities.
Prerequisites: ENSC 380-3 and STAT 270-3.
Recommended: None.
Corequisites: None.
Special Instructions: Students who have taken ENSC
327-4 may not take ENSC 328-1 for further credit.
Course(s) to be dropped if this
course is approved:
None.
Rationale for Introduction of This
Course
Knowledge
of random processes is a prerequisite for the signal processing course ENSC
429-4 Discrete Time Systems. At present
this material is available only as a portion of ENSC 327-4 Communication Systems. The proposed ENSC 328-1 is a
one-credit gap filler that will give students in the Systems option and
the Biomedical Engineering option access to ENSC 429 without having to take
ENSC 327.
Caveat: ENSC 328-1 will be constrained
not to go beyond the preparation given in ENSC 327 – without this constraint, it could expand beyond a one-credit load in the
hands of an enthusiastic instructor.
Will this be a required or elective course in the
curriculum; probable enrolment when offered?
This
course is an alternative path into an elective, but very popular course, ENSC
429 Discrete Time Systems. It will serve
both the Systems and the Biomedical options, so
probable enrolment 40 per year.
Indicate Semester and Year this
course would be first offered and planned frequency of offering thereafter.
First offering Spring
2006, annually in the Spring semester thereafter. More frequent offerings are possible if a
largely self-study format is adopted (see below).
Which of your present CFL
faculty have the expertise to offer this course? Will the course be taught by sessional or limited term faculty?
Drs. Bird, Cavers, HajShirMohammedi, Hardy, Ho, Kim, Stapleton, Vaughan.
Are there any proposed student
fees associated with this course other than tuition fees?
No.
Is this course considered a
`duplicate' of any current or prior course under the University's duplicate
course policy? Specify, as appropriate.
By design, it covers the
same material as roughly one third of ENSC 327-4 Communication Systems.
Note: Senate has approved
(S.93-11) that no new course should be approved by Senate until funding has
been committed for necessary library materials. Each new course proposal must
be accompanied by a library report and, if appropriate, confirmation that
funding arrangements have been addressed.
Provide details on how existing
instructional resources will be redistributed to accommodate this new course.
For instance, will another course be eliminated or will the frequency of
offering of other courses be reduced; are there changes in pedagogical style or
class sizes that allow for this additional course offering.
Various
delivery formats are possible. At
present, we plan one hour per week over the semester. This is not a great load upon
an instructor. It is also possible that
a good text and notes could make this almost a self-study course, using weekly
group meetings with the instructor to keep coordination and ensure
understanding. In the latter format, we
could offer the course more than once per year.
Does the course require
specialized space or equipment not readily available in the department or
university, and if so, how will these resources be provided?
No specialized space or equipment that is not
readily available is required.
Does this course require computing
resources (e.g. hardware, software, network wiring, use
of computer laboratory space) and if so, describe how they will be provided.
Only the computing
resources currently available in Engineering Science.
Topics
The
topics will be illustrated by common and useful examples in signal processing.
Review of
Signal Analysis
the Fourier transform
signals and linear systems
sampling
Review of
Random Variables
random experiments
distribution and density functions
functions of random variables
sums of independent random variables
expectation, mean and variance
the Gaussian random variable
Continuous
Random Processes
basic definitions
sample functions
stationarity and ergodicity
correlation functions and power spectra
transmission through linear systems
cross-correlation and cross-power spectra
Grading
Grading
will be based on three assignments and a final examination.
Text
This
material is almost always introduced in the context of communication
systems. Initially, we will rely on such
texts as:
R.E. Ziemer
and W.H. Tranter.
Principles of Communications: Systems, Modulation and Noise. 5th
edition. John Wiley, 2002.
Simon Haykin. Communications
Systems. 4th edition. Wiley.
2001.
John G. Proakis
and Masoud Salehi. Communication
Systems Engineering. 2nd edition. Prentice Hall. 2002.
Ferrel Stremler.
Introduction to Communication Systems. 3rd edition.
Hwei Hsu. Schaum's Outlines of Analog and
Digital Communication. McGraw Hill. 2003.
Later we
may develop “course packs” of notes that deal specifically with the needs of
this specialized course and that are cheaper than a full text.