ECE314
ECE 314 (Probability in Engineering Lab) is a 1-credit-hour course that counts toward 1 of the 3 labs required for EEs as a supplemental software lab to ECE 313. The course is offered in the fall, spring, and summer terms.
Content Covered
Real-world applications of:
- Law of Large Numbers
- Bernoulli processes, Poisson distribution
- Standardized random variables, parameter estimation, confidence intervals
- Hashing
- Random processes
- Markov chains
- Binary hypothesis testing
- Central limit theorem, Gaussian distribution
- ODEs, failure rates
- Linear regression
ECE 314 begins with an overview of basic Python skills and the early topics of random variables you first learn in ECE313. It then follows fairly closely with lecture as you begin to implement some of the more abstract concepts learned in ECE313. As you will see in class, one of the central ideas behind probability is the ability to predict trends of certain random variables/processes given a large enough sample size. In these python labs you will be able to see "hands on" the result of large sample sizes that you can simulate.
Prerequisites
- ECE313 (Credit or Concurrent)
ECE313 is the only official corequisite for this course.
When to Take it
Taking ECE314 is an excellent way to get 1 of the 3 labs required for EE majors. Taking it concurrently with ECE313 should be no problem as the lectures line up well with the labs.
Course Structure
The course has 1 python lab per week, and a bi-weekly quiz on the last 2 labs. Each lab consists of 3-6 parts where you implement concepts in probability learned from ECE313. The actual python coding is fairly rudimentary, so understanding the probability concepts behind the problems is the hardest part in each lab.
The course meets weekly, but that time is mainly for introducing the new lab with the remaining time left for office hours. The bi-weekly quizes are held in the beginning 25 minutes every week they occur, so you only have to go to class every week there is a quiz. The quizes are fairly simple, and just test students on what they implemented in the past 2 labs. Students are allowed a cheatsheet for each quiz. It is recomended to write notes/equations down for the hardest problems from the given labs, as those will probably be the parts quized.
Instructors
While Professor Bruce Hajek is listed as the primary instructor for this course, the ECE314 TAs are the ones who will administer and grade the quizzes as well as grade the lab assignments for this course.
Course Tips
On the first day, introduce yourself to as many of your fellow classmates as you can so you can get their contact information. Don’t be afraid to reach out to them when you eventually get stuck on a specific exercise, because chances are that they struggled with the same one! Even if you feel confident in your results, double checking them with another student (or multiple other students) is a great way to increase your chances of getting a better grade on your labs.
When it comes to the bi-weekly quizzes, make sure that you remember the ECE313 concepts that you applied throughout the previous labs' exercises, and use your cheatsheet.
Utilizing office hours for this course is highly recommended. If you do not understand the questions or coding problems, you can ask the TA at office hours.
Life After
See ECE313 for future course recommendations.
Infamous Topics
- ODEs: You don't need to remember too much from previous diffeq courses, but the implementation in python is a bit strange. Paying special attention to the documentation should make this manageable.
- Markov chains: These aren't explicitly gone over in lecture, so reading over the probided material is a must.