Teaching signal processing concepts using the SPC toolbox

We discuss an interactive software developed to complement the teaching of digital signal processing (DSP) concepts in various courses taught by the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the Naval Postgraduate School. While DSP is quite important to electrical engineering education, the mathematical concepts used in DSP can be rather difficult when presented in a classical classroom setting. These concepts become more meaningful when they are actually applied to specific problems. The Signal Processing and Communications (SPC) software we developed was designed to assist in the application of the signal processing concepts learned in the classroom and to illustrate their advantages and drawbacks. The MATLAB Version 4 environment is used to take advantage of the graphical user interface. SPC is a window-based, user-friendly tool that allows the user to develop digital filters, analyze signals, and easily design basic signal modeling tools.<>