Class Time: T Th 10:30 - 11:50, in EGR 201
Lab: M 1:00 - 4:00, in EGR 101

Master Tutor: Caitlin Wood
Master Tutor Group Hours: Sunday 2-4; Wed 7-9
Master Tutor Individual: by email

Pre-/ Co-requisites: Physics 117, Physics 210
Text: Fundamentals of Electric Circuits, by Alexander and Sadiku, McGraw-Hill, 2009, 4th ed.
NOTE: You may use the 3rd edition, since the text is almost identical. However the numbering of the homework problems is likely to differ between the two editions, and some problems may not appear in both versions. If you decide to use the 3rd edition of the text, it is YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to make sure you are doing the correct homework problems each week.  

Course Overview and Objectives
The basic objective of this course is to introduce students to the fundamental theory and mathematics for the analysis of the flow of electrical energy through electrical circuits. Through the material presented in this course, students will learn:

1. The fundamental principles in electric circuit theory and be able to extend these principles into a method of thinking for problem solving in mathematics, science and engineering
2. To analyze analog circuits that include energy storage elements in the time and frequency domains, both theoretically and experimentally
3. How to predict the behavior of these basic electric circuits
4. Ways in which electrical engineering shapes and benefits society
5. To improve oral, graphical and written communication skills
6. How to learn and to work effectively both individually and in groups
7. To evaluate personal learning process and understanding of the concepts and skills from class

Course Concept Map
A set of concept maps will be used throughout the semester to bring together the course topics and analysis techniques. The maps will be gradually introduced, and are provided here for easy reference.

Assignments
There will be weekly homework assignments and weekly lab assignments. There will also be short reading and homework quizzes most weeks in class, two in-class midterm exams and a final exam.

Homework format
All homework solutions must be written on standard engineering paper (or typed and printed when appropriate, e.g., Matlab code and computer plotted results). Students are encouraged to work together to understand the concepts, but each student must work out and hand in her own solutions. All assignments are to be neatly written or typed, and stapled, with your name and date. Note that students are expected to follow the Honor Code for all work in this course. Copying on homework, labs or quizzes/exams, and other violations will be brought to the honor board.

You may use the 3rd edition, since the text is almost identical to the 4th edition. However the numbering of the homework problems is likely to differ between the two editions, and some problems may not appear in both versions. If you decide to use the 3rd edition of the text, it is YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to make sure you are doing the correct homework problems each week.

The purpose of the homework is for you to have the opportunity to practice - practice - practice the skills and concepts from class. Since homework is the time to practice, you are not expected to have perfects solutions at all times. You are expected to do your best work for each problem however. In recognition of these goals, each homework problem will be evaluated on a 0-10 point scale as follows:

• 0 No effort
• 2 Problem statement written out but not attempted
• 6 Incomplete attempt
• 9 Complete attempt, incorrect solution
• 10 Complete attempt, correct solution

Laboratory
The weekly lab sessions will include pre-lab assignments, performing the laboratory experiments and a professional, post-lab write-up in the form of a short, 1 to 2 page, memo. The pre-lab must be completed and handed in before the lab is performed. There will be no make-up labs scheduled - if you are going to miss a lab, inform Prof. Cardell and Sue Froehlich beforehand to set up a time that you will be able to use the lab equipment. Be sure that the final lab memo that you hand in is clearly written, well labeled, includes the name(s) of you lab partner(s) and is professionally presented.

All labs must be completed to pass the course - any student who does not hand in all labs will fail the course.

Lab write-ups will generally be 2 page memos that must follow the Lab Memo Guidelines

Projects
There will be a laboratory group project in which students will gain practical experience in designing and building a circuit, artifact or piece of technology related to the material in the course. The projects must be designed, built, demonstrated to be functioning and presented to classmates and instructors.

Quizzes and Exams
There will be weekly quizzes that are used to assess progress and ensure students do not fall behind.

micro-Quizzes
The μ-quizzes will be given once a week should take 5 to 10 minutes to complete. The questions on these μ-quizzes will be related to the homework due the previous week. In addition to providing the instructor with feedback on the class progress, these tools are also a great opportunity for student self-assessment on learning course material. Average quiz grades of 9 or 10 may be used to raise a student's final grade at the end of the semester.

Exams
There will be two midterm exams and a final exam, used to solidify concepts and assess the learning progress.

Class attendance
Students are required to attend class and participate in class discussions and problem solving exercises.

Grading
Grades in this course are designed to represent your achievement of the objectives listed above. The course components that will make up your grade are listed below.

Late Policy
All homework assignments are on Thursdays by 4pm to room EGR 105B, and labs are to be submitted at the beginning of lab; late assignments will be penalized at the rate of one point per minute unless you have requested and received and extension at least 24 hours before the deadline. However, each student will have a total of 1 hour (60 minutes) grace time to be used as desired by that student over the course of the semester, such that you can have a semester total of 60 tardy minutes for homework and labs without penalty (note that these minutes cannot be used for in-class reading questions, μ-Quizzes or exams!).

Honor Code
The weekly homework assignments and lab memos and pre-labs that you submit must be your own work. You are encouraged to discuss the problems and experiments with your classmates and work on them together, but each student must work out her own solutions. It is not okay to copy answers from another student's homework - doing so is a violation of the Honor Code. Note that it is a violation of the honor code 1) to use or copy another student's work, or 2) to provide another student with your work. Projects will be done in small groups. Exams must be exclusively each student's own work, following the instructions provided with each exam. Do not hesitate to ask any questions that you may have concerning the honor code.

Matlab Hints and Tutorials:

• Appendix E, page A-46 of the text
• Matlab Basics
• Matlab's own tutorial
• Utah tutorial
• MIT-Strang Linear Algebra Matlab Hints
• MIT-Signals Matlab Tutorial
• Smith CS370 tutorial