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ECE329

ECE329 (Fields and Waves I) is a 3-credit-hour course that is specifically required for EEs as part of the Electrical Engineering Core and satisfies the 1-of-6 Electrical Engineering Foundations Course requirement for CEs. This course also satisfies the 2-of-5 requirement for an EE minor. It is offered in the fall, spring, and summer.

Content Covered

  • Calculus 3 review
  • Electrostatics
  • Maxwell's Equations and Fields
  • Wave propagation, theory, and polarization
  • Wave propagation and theory through material media
  • Transmission lines
  • Smith Charts and Impedance Matching

The first part of the course is a survey of electrostatics and Maxwell's equations, which are relevant to electromagnetic fields, in both differential and integral forms. They form the backbone of this course; knowing them from the beginning is advantageous as some later concepts are formulated within the same framework. Prior exposure to such topics is likely, either through PHYS212 or AP Physics, but ECE329 goes into far greater depth by leveraging the full power of Calculus 3 theorems to handle more general situations. Careful attention is a must, as it is easy to erroneously dismiss these critical topics as review. Students then learn about potential functions, electromagnetic wave behavior in material media such as conductors, dielectrics, and magnetic materials. The course emphasizes plane wave transmissions and their phasor forms; it is advisable to pay close attention to their mathematical derivations. Towards the end of the course, students learn about transmission lines and using Smith charts to determine reflection coefficients and input impedances.

Prerequisites

ECE210 is the only official prerequisite to the course. Familiarity with phasors is essential for the second half of the course. It is also generally advisable to take/review PHYS212 and MATH241 before taking this course, as the first half of the course heavily relies on electromagnetics and the important theorems learned in Calculus III. That being said, the course is self-contained in this respect; solid understanding of PHYS212 or MATH241 is not required as the course will teach you what you need. Circuit fundamentals from ECE210 are applied towards the end when studying transmission lines. Familiarity with phasors and vector calculus are extremely helpful.

When to Take it

ECE329 assumes that students are comfortable with phasors and the notion of Fourier analysis and will not review them. Therefore, it is advised to take this course the semester after taking ECE210. It is not recommended to take this alongside ECE210 unless the student is exceptionally strong in math and physics. If you want to take this course as soon as possible, take ECE210 as soon as possible.

Course Structure

The course overall starts off quite light, especially if the student is already familiar with electromagnetics and calculus 3. However, it will continually ramp up throughout the semester, which each topic building upon the previous one. Do not fall behind!

During the semester, the course assigns 14 written homeworks, due every week. These homework sets are generally not too difficult and will contain both calculations and derivations of expressions. Students have cited that each week's homework can take very different amounts of time, from under an hour to upwards of five hours to complete. They can sometimes be surprisingly annoying.

The course will also have three midterms and a final. Difficulty of the midterms depends heavily on the professor who is organizing the course during that semester. There are only a few practice exams - thus it is recommended to keep up with the homework every week. Professor Kudeki's notes have good practice questions with solutions in them, should the student find that they need more practice. Cheatsheet policies vary depending on the semester and the lead instructor. During some semesters, students are provided a cheatsheet. During others, students are allowed to bring one double-sided 3x5 index card to the first exam, two double-sided 3x5 index cards to the second exam, and so on. Students are highly recommended to reuse index cards from prior midterms, but this is not enforced.

Professor Ilie has been working to add a VR lab component to the class: see ECE398RI2. It is highly recommended to take this course concurrently with ECE329 as it allows you to see what the theoretical results you learn actually look like.

Instructors

The course is usually directed by Professor Kudeki, who wrote the course notes and teaches in the summer only. During the semester, lecturers have included Profs. Chen, Waldrop, Ilie, Shao, and Goddard. Apart from electromagnetics, lecturers tend to have backgrounds in related fields including biomedical imaging/instrumentation, remote sensing, and solid-state electronics.

Course Tips

The course moves very fast, as it has to cram a lot of content into very little time. The weekly homework is your opportunity to really sit down and learn the material, so it is recommended to do them fully on your own and only go to office hours if you have been stuck for more than an hour. The office hours right before the homework is due are often crowded - instead, attempt the homework early and go to the office hours right after homework is due. You'll probably be able to get a professor to yourself.

Make sure you show your work on exams for some partial credit.

Electromagnetics is a rich and deep subject. Due to the amount of content ECE329 needs to cover, it will often attempt to obfuscate or handwave things away. Uncover them! These are where the interesting topics lie and where your understanding of the material will deepen significantly. Make it a goal to ask a question every lecture (this is easily doable if you pay attention, except maybe the first lecture).

Life After

Wave and field behavior is relevant to topics ranging from theory to application in areas such as wireless communications, optics, GPS, and modeling of interconnects in circuits. ECE329 provides a better direction of their intellectual and professional interests in ECE. Knowing electromagnetics is also beneficial in the solid-state electronics area. Simulation of electromagnetics in various media is a major research undertaking. The follow-on elective, ECE350 - Fields and Waves II, takes a broader and more in-depth survey of fields and waves and their behavior in transmission lines and antennas, building on ECE329 concepts. It is advisable to take ECE350 immediately after ECE329. ECE329 and ECE342 - Electronic Circuits are the prerequisites for ECE453 - Wireless Communication Systems.

For those more curious about where Maxwell's Equations come from, ECE329 opens the door towards special relativity and eventually general relativity. As a challenge - using only special relativity and Coulomb's Law, derive Maxwell's Equations.

Infamous Topics

  • Transmission lines: They can be quite difficult to grasp if taught poorly, as students often do not know what they even look like.
  • Smith Charts: there is a lot going on; but not terrible if the student sits down and carefully analyzes what is going on.
  • First half of the course: It can look deceptively easy, but topics that seem like review can suddenly morph into difficult, ''unsolvable'' problems.

Resources

3blue1brown has an amazing video on divergence and curl: link.

Veritasium has amazing videos on the subject as well. Most relevant to ECE329 is this transmission line puzzle: link. Followup video here: link.