Prerequisites

We have worked hard to make this class as self-contained as possible but clearly there are only so many "first principles" that we can review in a limited time: therefore, we simply must assume that you do possess a working knowledge of calculus and linear algebra and hopefully some notion of probability theory. We encourage you to take the self-assessment quiz we prepared and to review the relevant topics if you encounter any trouble spot while answering its questions. You will find useful references at the bottom of this page.

Schedule

Each week contains approximately 2 hours of video lectures , supplemented by additional material; you can look at the full class syllabus to see an overview of the topics that we will cover. Lectures marked with a star sign (*) are optional supplementary materials and are not part of the graded assignments. You should anticipate a workload of about 8 to 10 hours per week in order to make the most of the class. This includes watching the videos, doing the homework and studying the associated textbook.

• some emblematic examples of famous signals and associated processing, which we call the " signals of the day "

• weekly numerical examples : these examples, fully worked out in Python, are designed to illustrate in a practical way the concepts that you'll learn during the lectures. You are encouraged to use the code, modify it, play with it.

• occasional handouts to complement the material in the lectures and in the book

• solved exercises , where we detail the steps in working through some homework sets

Slides are not available for download.

How to pass this class

A word of caution: the videos are packed with information and they should be regarded as concentrated teaching pills rather than something you leisurely watch. We think that the best approach to make the most of online teaching is to give students resources that they can use and reuse according to how much time they can devote to the task. The ideal workflow goes something like this:

• watch the videos

• take notes while watching

• something is unclear? Watch the video again. Repeat if necessary

• use the book to look up concepts that are still fuzzy

• write a cheat sheet of the week to memorize the key concepts

Finally, the most important thing is to work on the exercises. If you're done with the online homework, you can try your hand at the exercises in the companion textbook. When you think you have mastered a concept, try to write a little numerical routine that implements it, paying attention to the details and making sure that it behaves as the theory would predict. Be active in the forums, and exchange ideas with your fellow students. Ask questions in the forums and our TAs will get back to you as soon as possible. Above all, realize that most of the things you find entertaining today (music, video, internet, IM) are available to you thanks to signal processing! It's time to really understand what's inside the box!