WHEW. WOOOOOOOOOOWIEE. As this unusual yet unique semester comes to an end, I wanted to look back at the things I've learned as a sophomore. It's insane to think that Junior Year is approaching, and I think the best way to commemorate this school year is to go through the lessons/the things I learned about, especially because of how the method of learning has changed because of these challenging times. Also, to the class of 2020, CONGRADS!!! I wish you all the best for your future, and I know you are going to rock it! So I learned lots of things from all my classes (Of course!!), but I think my favorite class by far was the Systems and Signals class. The concepts I learned in my signals class were so applicable to real life scenarios! For instance, when you send a message to another device in your WiFi, an electronic signal transmits the bits of info (data) to the router which transmits It to the receiver! Signals are everywhere! So, these were some of the key points I felt were pretty 'special' to me this semester: 1. Frequency Domain vs. Time DomainUnderstanding the two different types of domains in signals and systems is important and very interesting! The time domain graph shows how a particular signal (waveform, sinusoid) changes over time. "Frequency" is essentially the number of times a particular instance of a signal occurs. So, the frequency time domain graph shows how much of the signal is in a frequency band over a range of frequencies. 2. Lesson on Fourier transformThis topic was very intriguing, and I wanted to dedicate to it in a separate post (coming soon!!). 3. Thinking "outside" of the box ProblemsThere were many problems in my classes that were challenging to solve, but one particular problem that comes to my mind was in my Digital Logic Design class. We were asked to design a grading system, using only a certain number logical components (a 2-by-1 MUX, 2x4 Decoder, and 2 Comparators). Since there was a restriction as to how many digital logical components you can use, I couldn't just use as many components as I wanted, wherever I want. I needed to understand the function of every component and place them in the appropriate place. It was a tough one, since I had to essentially "experiment" with every possible combination placement of these components. I only had two comparators, and I had to decide whether the input number was a grade A, B, C or D. It was a tricky one, and I finally had to see the answer because my brain was literally about to explode lol. But as soon as I saw the solution, I finally had my AHA moment and realized that I could use the MUX as a component to restrict the possible range of our input. Thinking outside the box is all about understanding the function and using it where it is the most applicable (especially if you don't have that many resources). 4. Real Life Scenario ConnectionsReal Life Scenarios. Super important, especially in my two EE classes. Digital Logic Design is all about the digital components that exist in our computers today, and we essentially looked into the several smaller components that make up these important parts. It's just insane to learn about what an SRAM or DRAM (new posts, maybe?!) looks like, since we have been hearing these words forever but I never really understood what they meant (or how they looked liked) UNTIL NOW!! (no flex) 5. ReflectionsI'd like to end it off by saying, its been a great and CRAZY year. I know it sounds cliché, but sophomore year was a pretty valuable year to me. I actually learned A LOT, and not just about academics/electrical engineering/computer science, but about life. How important it is to be a be a good citizen, stay home, help others, and help yourself of course. How life can give you the most unexpected turns, and how you should just keep on going, and keep on moving. I hope you enjoyed your year as a freshman/sophomore/junior/senior, and once again thank you for reading! I wish you the best, and GOOD LUCK!
Thank you, Aarushi Ramesh :)
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