Spring 2020
Prof Vivek Natarajan and Prof Bijnan Bandyopadhyay
Author: Nakul Randad
Pre-requisite courses: SC 639
Pre-requisite skills: A little brushup over MA108 and SC639 helps. Profs do cover the basics/fundamentals in the class.
Course Content:
- Signals & systems and their interconnections
- Convolution, differential and difference equations
- State variable models
- Fourier, Laplace and z-transforms
- Regions of convergence
- Transfer function
- Linear feedback systems
- The stability problem, the Routh-Hurwitz and root locus method.
Motivation to take up the course: Systems and Control is a multi disciplinary field involving modelling a system (elec, mech n sometimes chem n bio) mathematically and designing/modifying it to get desired output. It involves stability, feedback, controls among other stuff. This course ,a compulsory one for minor program, gives the first taste of SysCon (as the previous one was all about laying down mathematical foundations).
Information about Projects/Assignments: The course is divided into two halves; both of which have a couple of assignments, a quiz and midsem/endsem exam. Assignments are manageable as you get a weeks time to finish them.
Quizzes/Midsem/Endsem papers Difficulty: 4/5
Overall Course Difficulty: Moderate
Average Time Commitment: (Apart from lectures and tutorials) Between 3-6 hrs
Attendance Policy: Attendence was not compulsory
General funda: Having a look at the previous year papers and solving a few questions does help before the exams. Questions are generally understanding based and a few similar to the assignments.
Grading stats:
| AA | 5 |
| AB | 8 |
| BB | 3 |
| BC | 1 |
Professor’s Teaching Style: As mentioned the course is divided into two parts: first one deals with convergence, Convolution, Fourier, Laplace and Z transforms. No slides were provided so taking down notes becomes necessary. The instructor has a very high pace and covers a lot of material in a session, so it becomes difficult to synchronise with the lecture sometimes. I would not suggest missing a lecture here. This half does contain a few rigorous mathematical proofs.
The second half introduces you to control systems and their analysis. It has first-order second-order systems, open-closed loops, gain, pole location, stability etc. I found this half very interesting by the quality of the content covered. The prof was interactive and would generally give real-life examples/applications. Slides provided were sufficient enough to cover the content of the course.
Should you do this course?: Recommended.