Real-Time DSP in a Freshman ECE Course

This paper describes the coverage of real-time DSP topics as part of a one credit laboratory course for freshman majoring in electrical and computer engineering (ECE). The course is motivational in nature and exposes the students to a wide range of areas of electrical and computer engineering. The authors believe it is important to give freshmen a broad perspective of what ECE is all about, and to shine some light on topics they will see later in the curriculum. The resulting single credit hour course meets only one day a week for two hours, with a format that combines both lecture and experimentation. The course is divided into a series of one to three week modules, each covering a selected topic in electrical and computer engineering. This paper describes a two week module which introduces the students to real-time DSP using TI's DSP Starter Kits (DSK), winDSK6, and Code Composer Studio.