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ECE110

ECE110 (Introduction to Electronics) is a 3-credit-hour class that is one of the first courses taken as part of the Technical Core requirements for both EE and CE students. It is offered in the Fall and Spring.

Content Covered

  • Charge, Current, Voltage, Power, and Energy
  • Ohm's Law, Kirchhoff's Laws, DC Circuit Analysis
  • I-V Characteristics, Thevenin and Norton Circuits, Node Method
  • Nonlinear IVs: Diodes, BJTs, FETs
  • nMOS, cMOS, Solar Cells

ECE110, as an intro to electronics class, starts with introducing some of the units and concepts having to do with electricity in circuits, which includes charge, current, voltage, power and energy. This is followed by ways to analyze circuits and their components, mostly applications of Kirchhoff's Laws. Following this comes a dive into IV characteristics, Thevenin and Norton circuits, and the Node method, which are all ways to analyze subcircuits and their behaviors. In the later parts of the course, instruction shifts towards three non-linear components: diodes, BJTs, and FETs, all individual components that can have their behaviors added to individual circuit analysis. The last weeks of the course cover nMOS, cMOS, and Solar Cell energy are covered, which are sporadic topics that fill up the end of the course.

Prerequisites

There are no prerequisites for this course.

When to Take it

This course should be taken in either semester freshman year so that ECE 210 can be taken as a sophomore. In general, ECE should be taken wherever it fits in best with other freshamn courses, as it doesn't have much overlap with any other courses at the 100 or 200 levels. However, for someone trying to get into ECE210 as soon as possible to get to upper level EE classes, it should be taken during the first semester as a freshman. For a capable freshman, ECE110 and ECE120 can be taken simultaneously, which is probably the best course of action for a student who has already covered several early required courses and/or is trying to accelerate their path to the upper level ECE courses.

Course Structure

This course's workload is relatively light compared to other courses, but can be tough on an incoming student getting used to university workloads. Weekly homeworks are assigned on both Prairielearn and Gradescope. The Prairielearn sections are multiple choice or short answer, with answers being graded only on correctness. The Gradescope homework is comprised of variations of two of that week's Prairielearn questions, which need to have work written out. Answers for these are graded on work quality as well as correctness.

In addition to the homework, there is a lab section that comprises 30% of the entire class grade. Lab takes place once a week as a 3 hour section. Lab involves various circuit building projects with a four person group. Lab assignments consist of pre-lab and post-lab every week, working mostly in lab with the lab kit provided by the department. Attendance for lab is mandatory, and failure to get a passing grade in the lab category results in failure of the class.

This course has 3 quizzes, which can be considered as midterms, as well as a final exam. The worst quiz score can be replaced by the score on the final exam if it is higher. Each of these are Prarietest exams, which are similiar to the Prairelearn homework, just taking place in a condensed time limit and a controlled environment. Quizzes are 50 minutes long in the CBTF, with exam slots being selectable over a given exam period. In addition, quiz retakes are allowed, where students can gain back a percentage of the difference between their original score and 100%. These are given to students who complete an individual goal, which has most recently been a 75% lecture attendance record. The final exam is similar, with a 3 hour time limit instead of the one. No retake is allowed for the final exam.

This course is graded on an absolute scale, meaning students are graded based on a performance standard, not their performance relative to other students, so doing well on the quizzes and exams is vital to doing well in the class. Extra credit is available, but only for the lab grade. Getting full extra credit is enough to make up for one missed lab. Grading distribution is as follows:

  • Quizzes (10% each, 30% total)
  • Final Exam (25%)
  • Homework (15%)
  • Laboratory (30%)

Instructors

The instructors in this course vary each semester based on availability and student demand. The current course director is Professor Schmitz. This semester (Fall 2023), the instructor list includes Professors Matthew Gilbert, Jonathon Schuh, Hyungsoo Choi, and Kyekyoon Kim. Professors Wandke, Shao, and Schmitz have also recently taught the course.

Course Tips

The most difficult part about the class is the 3 hour lab section and it's not particularly close. In the first place, planning it in your scheduling is one of the most annoying things you do as a freshman because 3 hours blocks out a lot of potential class time and the lab can be frustrating whether you're good at it or not. Taking some time beforehand to prep for lab and starting work early goes a long way for making your life easier. Make sure to take advantage of the TAs in your lab section by asking plenty of questions to ensure you fully understand the material, as labs typically build upon concepts from previous labs. Having a clear understanding of how and why the circuits behave as they do will make future labs, including the lab final, easier to complete. Additionally, try to maintain clear and open communication with your lab groupmates. During the lab, you will be assigned projects that will likely require your group to meet on your own time, outside of the scheduled lab period, so keeping constant communication with your lab partners will make scheduling and collaborating easier. This becomes incredibly necessary during the lab final, where each group member will be responsible for creating a different portion of the total project, with the group needing to combine these parts together at the end. Besides understanding the concepts behind the lab material, establishing effective group habits is the biggest key to success in your lab section.

Practice exams are given out for each quiz and the final, but that's not your only resource. It should go without saying, but because Prairielearn and Prairietest are basically the same, questions can also come off the homework and section review. Questions are always going to be something similar to a question you've already seen; there's almost never any entirely new questions on any exam.

Life After

ECE110 is, for the most part, just a first step into Electrical Engineering. Upper level courses will have more concentrated topics in various EE fields.

This class transitions directly into ECE210, which is a prerequisite for most upper level EE based courses. ECE210 follows on directly from ECE110 and starts with more advanced circuit analysis, before transitioning into various aspects of the main topic of the course, Analog Signal Processing. ECE210 is widely considered to be a significantly tougher class than ECE110, so students must be prepared for the difficulty spike that comes with going into this class.

While most of the "Life After ECE110" content comes after ECE210, there is one important class that can be taken without ECE210, that being ECE385. ECE385 is part of both EE and CE Technical Core, so a lot of students see appeal in getting through one of the high level required courses out of the way fairly early on.

Infamous Topics

  • Going over the Node Method and Thevenin and Norton can be tricky because they are very intuitive, but they have to be understood well as they are covered well on exams and extremely important for future classes.

  • Otherwise, the big source of trouble in this class, aside from the exams, is the lab final, a circuit project students are typically given 3-4 weeks to complete. Lab office hours tend to be busiest around this time and the project itself can be a big hit or miss depending on how well lab content is truly understood.

Resources

All resources needed for the course are included on the Canvas site for the course itself.