January 3, 2008 – 8:54 pm
At the start of 2B, it we preconceived that this was going to be one of the toughest terms faced up till now. I’d now say that I’ll agree in the fact that it was tough, but not for the reasons I thought at first.
In hindsight, while the material learned was challenging (as it always should be), the biggest struggle was definitely time management. With 5 courses and 4 of which consist of a 3-hour lab component every other week, the time management to keep up with the material in class and in the lab (which do not necessarily correlate) with pre-labs and post-labs turned into a very time-consuming process, spending hours on end trying to comprehend and deliver what was to be expected from these lab reports.
Onto the reviews!
ECE 204: Numerical Methods for Electrical and Computer Engineers - D. Harder
What can I say about this course. While the core concepts focus on ways of interpolation/extrapolation/root-finding approximations, it was interesting to learn some of these techniques which may be applied down the road whether it be in everyday life or in the field. While I personally can’t say that I’ll remember many of the formulas or techniques, the material was worthy of getting up for 8:30 classes 3 days a week to listen to. I’ve also gained a stronger respect for matricies and Matlab.
ECE 222: Digital Computers - A. Hasan
This has got to be one of my favourite courses to date in this program. 222 focuses on digital computers and the technical aspect as to how data is processed and moves within a computer. Focusing on the CPU operations and memory systems, I learned a lot that can be applied directly to using my own computer. You also learn how to program in Assembler through the labs, but those are definitely more of a giant frustration if anything at all. You WILL spend hours staring at seemingly-viable code only to realize the tiny tiny minuscule error which you will end up beating up your partner, asking why he didn’t see it earlier, and then proceed to rip out your hair. Yes it’s THAT much fun.
I hope I never have to program in assembler… ever again.
ECE 231: Electronic Devices - C.R. Selvakumar
Where do I start with this course…
A continuation of ECE 209, 231 deals with the atomic-scale workings of transistors. That’s essentially the course. By the end of the four months, you will have the most in-depth knowledge as to how a transistor switch works. A transistor switch of which CPUs contain millions of. I could summarize the basics of how it works in a very short paragraph, but that would take away the fun of learning it yourself. Selvakumar isn’t the most organized of profs either. Be prepared to do a lot of reading on your own, and don’t you dare miss a lecture otherwise you are SCREWED.
ECE 241: Circuit Analysis and Design - D. Narin
Professor Narin is a funny guy. His jokes are subtle but hilarious. That is all the good things I can say about this course. Not coming from a strong background in digital circuits (as demonstrated by my poor poor ECE 100 grade), this course essentially combines all of the courses I am worst in (circuits, physics, calculus). Luckily I survived this course (miraculously). The labs are even worse. Be prepared to stare blankly at reams and reams of nonsensical material and be expected to fully understand what you are doing for those 3 hours in the lab.
ECE 251: Programming Languages and Translators - P. Dasiewicz
It took me 3 tries to spell our prof’s name correctly on the line above. One word to describe this course+prof combination: snorefest. Please don’t ask me what I learned in these lectures because honestly I wouldn’t be able to even construct a single convincing thought around what this course is about. The only advice I would give is to just wing it. The projects ask for a lot, and are very specific in what they are looking for, so be prepared to spend a lot of hours getting your compiler to behave exactly the way it is ’supposed’ to.
ECON 201: Microeconomic Theory 1 - D. Picard
Uhhhh ECON is grueling. I took this course as a DE above the other 5 courses above. Being a DE course, I didn’t pay as much attention to it as I probably should have. I found myself cramming at times before midterms and exams to read and catch up in the material that I was lacking. It doesn’t help either that it was only when studying for the final exam did I realize there were audio lectures within the modules (idiot justin…idiot). In essence, the theory built onto the ECON 101 course I took the previous work term quite nicely, and I ended up walking away with a fairly decent final grade. In hindsight I’ll say this one thing that I learned while studying for the final exam. As long as you know how to do a derivative, you can pass this course. Everything kinda ended up boiling down to taking the derivative of your equation and manipulating or substituting.
While I would’ve hoped for a higher average, I’m pretty content with this term, balancing the crazy hours with an intrusive co-op interview schedule. And as one would customarily say, I hope to do better next term. I hear that it is going to be one of our easier terms, but I suppose we’ll have to wait 8 months from now to see if that’s true.
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