Computing Tools in an Advanced Filter Theory Course

Seyed Mousavinezhad; R. Eugene Stuffle; Wei Pan; Steven Grant Maclure

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Conference: 2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Indianapolis, Indiana
Publication Date: June 15, 2014
Start Date: June 15, 2014
End Date: June 18, 2014
ISSN: 2153-5965
Conference Session: Emerging Computing and Information Technologies
Tagged Division: Computing & Information Technology
Page Count: 10
Page Numbers: 24.308.1 - 24.308.10
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--20199
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/20199
Download Count: 455

Paper Authors

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Seyed Mousavinezhad Idaho State University

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Dr. Mousavinezhad is an active member of IEEE and ASEE having chaired sessions in national and regional conferences. He is an ABET Program Evaluator (PEV.) He is the Founding General Chair of the IEEE International Electro Information Technology Conferences, www.eit-conference.org and served as 2002/2003 ASEE ECE Division Chair. He is a panelist for the National Science Foundation, has published a book in hand-held computing in 2013 and received an NSF grant (Enhancing Access to Radio Spectrum), 20133-2014. He is IEEE Education Society Membership Development Chair and Van Valkenburg Early Career Teaching Award Chair. Professor Mousavinezhad received Michigan State University ECE Department’s Distinguished Alumni Award, May 2009, ASEE ECE Division’s 2007 Meritorious Service Award, ASEE/NCS Distinguished Service Award, April 6, 2002, for significant and sustained leadership. In 1994 he received ASEE Zone II Outstanding Campus Representative Award. He is also a Senior Member of IEEE, has been a reviewer for IEEE Transactions including the Transactions on Education. His teaching and research interests include digital signal processing (DSP) and Bioelectromagnetics. He has been a reviewer for engineering textbooks including "DSP First" by McClellan, Schafer, and Yoder, published by Prentice Hall, 1998 and Signal Processing First, Prentice Hall, 2003. He served on the Board of Directors of ECEDHA and Awards Committee Chair. Hossein is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the international research journal Integrated Computer-Aided Engineering.

Gene Stuffle has over 35 years of academic experience as part of his 48-year professional career. The last 25 have been with the College of Science and Engineering at Idaho State University in Pocatello, Idaho, where he has served as Chair of Electrical Engineering, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies, and Interim Chair of Computer Science. He has more than 50 publications in the areas of computer-aided education and circuits and systems. His volunteer efforts include MATHCOUNTS and National Engineers Week Organizing Committees. He has authored several in-house texts, software manuals, and solution manuals for popular textbooks.

Dr. Wei Pan is At-Large Graduate Faculty, Electrical Engineering at Idaho State University, she has several years of industry experience in semiconductor and energy sectors. Wei has several industrial patents.

Steven Maclure is Instructor, Electro-Tech Core, College of Technology, Idaho State University. Steve spent several years working in semiconductor industry before joining ISU.

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Abstract

Computing Tools in an Advanced Filter Theory Course ABSTRACTSignal processing is an important subject in engineering and computer science disciplines. Fromstudents perspective most concepts of frequency transformation, various transform techniques,impulse response and analog/digital filter design and implementation are considered abstractionsand difficult to understand. To help students visualize difficult concepts in these courses and alsoaiding in computation and analysis of high order systems, several computational tools areavailable as software packages. In this paper we will present details of a senior-level, first yeargraduate course on signal processing where students have access to a design automation softwaretool accompanying a textbook as well as use of commercial tools such as MATLAB,MATHCAD and Pspice. In addition to lecture course there is a separate laboratory section wherestudents experiment with hardware as well as software tools.The textbook software is a filter design/analysis tool, fully functional Windows-based filterdesign software package; it comes with its documented source code detailing the intricacies ofanalog/digital filter design. The software automates the design process and provides filtercoefficients and frequency response characteristics, pole-zero diagrams, and other features aswell. In addition, for analog filters, the Pspice circuit file can be generated to aid in the analysisof active filters. Digital filters designed may be used to filter wave files. After specifying aninput wave file, a filtered output file can be generated, and both input and output files can beplayed using the computer sound card.In studying digital filter design and implementation students need to understand the theorybehind analog filters and their implementation using, for example, active filters. The other kindof digital filter design involves the use of various window functions including the Kaiser windowwhich includes the use of modified Bessel functions. An algorithm is introduced in the course forthe approximation of these high level functions. After “paper” design by students, they can checktheir design computation by using either the software which is part of the book or other availablepackages in the laboratory (we have licenses for both MATLAB and MATHCAD.) It isimportant to realize that for very high order filters, for example designing band-pass filters bytransforming a prototype, normalized low-pass filter, the final design may be of very high order,this will be the case for both analog as well as digital filters. In these high-order systems thecomputation of pole-zero location can result in errors even if a commercial software package isused. The conclusion is that the student should be familiar with both theoretical and practicalaspects of the subject under study. Many engineering educators are facing the problem of righttime, right place and appropriate use of information technology tools that are readily becomingavailable in many courses in engineering and science.

Citation
Format

Mousavinezhad, S., & Stuffle, R. E., & Pan, W., & Maclure, S. G. (2014, June), Computing Tools in an Advanced Filter Theory Course Paper presented at 2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Indianapolis, Indiana. 10.18260/1-2--20199

TY  - CPAPER
AB  -                Computing Tools in an Advanced Filter Theory Course                                           ABSTRACTSignal processing is an important subject in engineering and computer science disciplines. Fromstudents perspective most concepts of frequency transformation, various transform techniques,impulse response and analog/digital filter design and implementation are considered abstractionsand difficult to understand. To help students visualize difficult concepts in these courses and alsoaiding in computation and analysis of high order systems, several computational tools areavailable as software packages. In this paper we will present details of a senior-level, first yeargraduate course on signal processing where students have access to a design automation softwaretool accompanying a textbook as well as use of commercial tools such as MATLAB,MATHCAD and Pspice. In addition to lecture course there is a separate laboratory section wherestudents experiment with hardware as well as software tools.The textbook software is a filter design/analysis tool, fully functional Windows-based filterdesign software package; it comes with its documented source code detailing the intricacies ofanalog/digital filter design. The software automates the design process and provides filtercoefficients and frequency response characteristics, pole-zero diagrams, and other features aswell. In addition, for analog filters, the Pspice circuit file can be generated to aid in the analysisof active filters. Digital filters designed may be used to filter wave files. After specifying aninput wave file, a filtered output file can be generated, and both input and output files can beplayed using the computer sound card.In studying digital filter design and implementation students need to understand the theorybehind analog filters and their implementation using, for example, active filters. The other kindof digital filter design involves the use of various window functions including the Kaiser windowwhich includes the use of modified Bessel functions. An algorithm is introduced in the course forthe approximation of these high level functions. After “paper” design by students, they can checktheir design computation by using either the software which is part of the book or other availablepackages in the laboratory (we have licenses for both MATLAB and MATHCAD.) It isimportant to realize that for very high order filters, for example designing band-pass filters bytransforming a prototype, normalized low-pass filter, the final design may be of very high order,this will be the case for both analog as well as digital filters. In these high-order systems thecomputation of pole-zero location can result in errors even if a commercial software package isused. The conclusion is that the student should be familiar with both theoretical and practicalaspects of the subject under study. Many engineering educators are facing the problem of righttime, right place and appropriate use of information technology tools that are readily becomingavailable in many courses in engineering and science.
AU  - Seyed Mousavinezhad
AU  - R. Eugene Stuffle
AU  - Wei Pan
AU  - Steven Grant Maclure
CY  - Indianapolis, Indiana
DA  - 2014/06/15
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Computing Tools in an Advanced Filter Theory Course
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/20199
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--20199
ER  -