ES 101B Section 1: Communication in the Digital Age Laboratory (1)

Spring 2011

Lab hours	Lab Location	Instructor	Office	Office hours	Email	Tel
Mon 9:00-11:30 PM	Salazar 2003, unless stated differently	Dr. Ali Kujoory	Salazar Room 2005	Mon 11:30 AM-11:50 AM Tue & Thu 10:30-11:30 AM or by appointment	ali.kujoory@ieee.org	(707) 664-2030

Course Description - Laboratory, 2 ½ hours. To demonstrate the concepts discussed in the course ES 101A & give hands-on experience to the students.

GE Area - This course meets the GE science laboratory requirement.

Co-requisite - ES 101A, or permission of the instructor.

Prerequisite - GE Math eligibility

Course Objective - The objectives of this course are to achieve the GE Area B3 objectives which are:

· Improve the understanding of the practical aspects of theories of science & technology.

· Improve problem solving & critical thinking skills through application of scientific knowledge using hands-on activities.

· Get some hands-on experience & basic terminologies used in electricity & communication, narrowband, or broadband technologies.

· Get some hands-on experience with the electrical, electronics, & optical measurement equipment.

· Explore & research application of scientific methods.

Attendance - Attendance is mandatory. There will be no excused absences except in the case of emergencies that could be substantiated.

Text Book & References – No textbook is required. Instructions are available via this webpage for each lab experiment.

Lab Experiments (See the table below for title of the experiment) – Let students get hands-on experience & work together

· Structure – The experiments are performed in groups of 2-3 students per group. You can choose your own partners

· Responsibility – Members of each group are encouraged to work together in the lab & outside to discuss the experiments and are required to submit a joint report that presents the discussions, observations, and conclusions of the whole group.

· Log book – Every student needs to bring a logbook with grid paper to be able to draw the graphs from the oscilloscope. Please bring your logbook every session to record your observations, data, & notes as you perform the experiment. The log book facilities writing your report. The instructor will check & sign off your logbook as you leave the lab. Make sure to enter date of the lab session, group number, names of the group members.

Homework & Lab Report – Each group is expected to write a formal lab report for the whole group & turn in a hard copy at the beginning of the following session. The lab reporter rotates after each experiment. Please use MS Word (and MS Excel if needed) to write a concise & neat report, single space, 2-3 pages. Hand-written reports are not accepted. Your report should use the following format:

· Title Section: Title of the experiment, date of the lab session, date the report is written, the group number, name of the reporter, name of other group members, lab objective.

· Procedure, Data, & Calculation Section: The procedure steps briefly and the data you collected and calculations for each step, followed by the answer to each question in the instruction sheet.

· Discussions and Conclusion Section: Include any discussions, observations the group made, and your conclusions based on your results.

Group Discussions: Let the students exercise teamwork, discuss interesting topics/problems in the group, & find total solutions, resolve differences, & practice leadership.

· The in-lab group discussions each group discusses an important topic during the lab session in detail & presents the results.

· Structure – The class is divided into several groups, each group comprises 2-3 students, with a Group Leader chosen by the group members for each topic.

· Responsibility of group members – All members should participate actively in the activity & contribute to the discussion.

· Responsibility of Group Leader

– Facilitates the group discussion, keeps the necessary order, makes sure that the group is focused on the topic, keeps the votes if required, summarizes the output (according to the votes if necessary), & makes sure that the group delivers on time (Notes can be captured by a recorder or the leader).

– Leadership rotates among members so that every member will have an opportunity to practice leading a group

– For each activity mainly the group leader presents the output/result to the class. Unless otherwise stated, no outside work/report is required after the session.

· Tools

– Computer & access to the Internet for the lab group discussions

– Microsoft Office: PowerPoint, Excel, & Word for development & presentation

· Slide set structure – The set can comprise at least four slides as follows:

– A title slide that includes the topic title, group number and name of the group members.

– A slide that describes the topic briefly.

– One or more slides on advantages, disadvantages, and applications of the topic. Use diagrams, examples, or any mechanism that support or help your argument.

– A summary or conclusion slide plus a list of the references for the content.

Class Participation - Your participation in the lab & in the group discussions is essential; also based on the reading, developing questions or perspectives you raise in the class.

Tests – For the quizzes & the final exam, please see the tentative list of activities below.

Academic Honesty - You are responsible to behave ethically & honestly. Copying, cheating, forgery, & other unethical or dishonest actions are not tolerated, will receive zero grade & can be reported to SSU authorities. See http://www.sonoma.edu/uaffairs/policies/cheating_plagiarism.htm

Course Grade Evaluation Policy:

· Lab reports 40%

· Participations in the lab & group discussions 15%

· Midterm 15%

· Final 30%

Grades:

· A >= 94, A- = 90-93, B+ = 87-89, B =84-86, B- =80-83, C+ =77-79, C- =74-76, C- =70-73, D+ =67-69, D = 64-66, D- = 60-63, F =< 60

Our Expectations:

· Arrive on time to attend the lab. Unexcused absences will affect your grade.

· Read the lab instructions available on the course website before you come to class & bring a copy with you.

· Hand in your assignments on time at the beginning of the class.

· Speak up whenever you have suggestions or questions.

· Turn off cell phones, earphones & other distracting devices.

Outcomes:

· The broad hands-on experience to understand some of the basic terminologies used in electricity & communication, narrowband, or broadband.

· Hands-on experience of some electronic components & measurement equipment.

· Have a feel what goes on in some of the electronic & communications lab.

Tentative List of Activities - NOTE THAT THIS TABLE IS PERIODICALLY UPDATED!

Use your Seawolf UserID and password to access the instructions for the experiments.

Days 9-11:50 AM	Session	Session Topic	Reports Due	Topics for Group Discussions & Quizzes
Mon 1/31/2011	1	NO LAB		Need to cover some material in ES101A lectures.
Mon 2/7	2	Introduction to the course - Explain what to expect in the report. - Tour the Engineering Labs in Salazar building.		Introduce the course, objectives, content in form of outline, expectations, & the format. Explain what the group discussion is & how it is done & presented. Walk through each lab including the Electronics lab, Networking lab, Optics lab, etc. Briefly mention what the measurement equipment look like & do.
Mon 2/14	3	Group discussion - Explain how to investigate the topic. - Explain hoe develop the presentation slide set. - Give a short tutorial on using PowerPoint.	Write a paragraph (about 100-word) describing each lab you toured in the last session.	Use the Internet to: a. Investigate the top 5 greatest engineering achievements of the 20th century that are related to electrical communication. Define each achievement in a few sentences. Then discuss the impact of each of these achievements on society, economy, world politics, and the way we live, etc. b. Discuss what caused and facilitated the information age and how it started. c. Discuss the impact of the information age on society, economy, world politics, the way we live, etc. d. Define the radio frequency spectrum, its importance, why it is standardized, why it is allocated and enforced. e. Compare analog and digital communications by discussing the advantages & disadvantages of each. Summarize these in a table. f. Define signal to noise ratio in electrical communication systems, its measurement, and ways of its improvement.
Mon 2/21	4	Invited talks followed by DC Circuits & Measurement Devices Expt.		The experiment will familiarize you with DC power supplies & multimeter. All electronic devices get their energy source from a DC supply in form of a battery or an AC-to-DC converter. A multimeter is used to measure resistance, conductivity, voltage, and current.
Mon 2/28	5	Protoboard_and_Resistor_Combination Expt. A Robot Demo by Our Senior students Phillip Brault & Kyler Connelly	DC Circuits & Measurement Devices expt.	This experiment will familiarize the student with the protoboard that allows connecting together a circuit quickly without soldering. It is important to know the internal connectivities in the protoboard. Simple DC circuit with combination of resistors is connected on the breadboard to study the resulting resistance. MARS - A demo on Robots, from a senior project, from Engineering Science Dept.
Mon 3/7	6	Group discussion	Protoboard & Resistor Combination expt. Also write a 250-word paragraph on the Robot demo explaining what you observed, what the robot did, etc.	Use the Internet to investigate the topics below: a. Discuss the radio frequency spectrum, what it does, its allocation, and enforcement b. Compare all the guided and unguided media for their speed (bandwidth and bits/sec, applications, advantages/disadvantages. Provide examples for each. c. Discuss the major network topologies, their advantages/disadvantages, and applications. d. Discuss LAN/MAN/WAN; state their differences as far as ownership, coverage, medium, speed, security, and application with examples. e. Discuss major switching techniques, their differences, advantages/disadvantages for different applications. f. List the criteria/requirements you demand from the service provider to receive the desired triple play services for your home.
Mon 3/14	7	Function generators & oscilloscope Expt. See Note 1 below for User Guides.		This experiment will familiarize the student with signals such a sinusoid or a square wave as they are used in remote communications. Various characterizing parameters such as amplitude, frequency (period), phase, & offset will be studied. An Oscilloscope will be used to monitor these parameters.
Mon 3/21	8	Group discussion	Function Generators & Oscilloscope expt.	Computer security - Learn the web security terminologies, technologies, protection mechanisms, etc. Study the following topics, make the slides and present. a. Define the terminologies (viruses, worm, phishing, spam) & provide some examples b. What is a firewall & how does it work? c. Identify and explain some of the security mechanisms with examples that can protect your computer communication & networking. d. What security mechanism is used for banking & fund transfer (e-commerce)? e. Go to US Postal Inspection Service Mail Fraud Schemes and make a summary slide set on Employment Fraud bullets. f. Go to US Postal Inspection Service Mail Fraud Schemes and make a slide set on Financial Fraud bullets. g. Go to US Postal Inspection Service Mail Fraud Schemes and make a slide set on Sweepstakes and Lottery Fraud bullets. h. Go to US Postal Inspection Service Mail Fraud Schemes and make a slide set on Other Types of Mail Fraud bullets. i. Go to US Postal Inspection Service Mail Fraud Schemes and make a slide set on Telemarketing Fraud and Fraud Against Older Americans bullets. j. What are the security schemes that can be used for computer communications security?
Mon 3/28	9	Midterm		Covers all experiments & Group DIscussions
Mon 4/4	10	Plot data by Excel - Explain how to use the Excel.		This experiment shows how the measurement data obtained can be presented in a table, and how the content of the table can be summarized in form of a plot by MS Excel program.
Mon 4/11	11	Invited talk by Mr. John Harmon, Manager of Wireless R&D Business Development, Agilent Technologies, titled “Understanding Digital Wireless Communications – Beyond Two Cans and a String”,	Plot data by Excel	ABSTRACT - In a world of omnipresent wireless devices, Mr. John Harmon will attempt to make some sense of why they exist, how these systems work and some practical examples to illustrate the inherent principles which make them work.
Mon 4/18		Spring Break, NO LAB/CLASS
Mon 4/25	12	Basic logic circuits Expt. See Note 2 below for datasheets of digital ICs.	Write a 500-word report on the invited talk explaining what you learned and the important points he made.	Let the students learn the basic role of logics in digital communications & understand what the logic circuits are & what they do using switches at the input & LEDs at the output. Also multi-meter & oscilloscope are used to let the student experience various measurements.
Mon 5/2	13	Group Discussion	Basic logic circuits expt.	Use the Internet to investigate the following topics, make the slides and present. a. The cell phone manufacturers & service providers tend to believe that the effects of cell phone on human heath are minimal. What do you think the reasons of their mindset are? b. What are the laser hazards to various body parts? How is laser beam hazardous? c. What are the effects of electric power transmission on health? d. List the restrictions of hazardous substances and some of exceptions to the restrictions of hazardous substances. Why are these restrictions allowed? e. Develop the user requirements in form of a table for the Iphone, a smart cell phone. For each item include whether it is a major or minor requirement, how expensive & attractive it would be with respect to other items. f. Suppose you are a sales person on the road who must be in contact with the clients and make presentations using a PDA. List at least a dozen of requirements (e.g., size, price, capabilities, accessing Internet) for the features of the PDA you desire to use in the first column of a table. In the second column list the counterpart features that may be provided by IPAD and see if IPAD can offer those requirements. g. Discuss WiFi and WiMax and compare them in a table considering their application, coverage, their operation frequencies, bit rate, forms of wireless service (Line of Sight, non-LOS), signal power, standard, etc. h. Discuss 3G and 4G and compare them in a table considering their application, coverage, their operation frequencies, bit rate, forms of wireless service (Line of Sight, non-LOS), signal power, standard, etc.
Mon 5/9	14	Introduction to networking lab at Salazar Room 2006 Followed by REVIEW		This experiment will show what some networking equipment look like & how the computer Ethernet port used for communication. Ping command is to observe connectivity between two PCs. Ethernet hub & Ethernet switch are differentiated by using the Ping command with many packets.
Mon 5/16	15	FINAL EXAM (Salazar Room 2003)	Intro to networking expt.	Final lab exam will be closed book & notes, & will cover the midterm exam, all lab experiments, your observations, equipments used & their functions, the group discussions, & the invited talks we had.
Mon 5/23		No Lab/Class
Note 1 – For the function generator User’s Guide Click User_Guide_33220 & for the oscilloscope User_Guide_54622. Note 2 - Click the icons to download the corresponding IC layout and the spec: 7400, 7402, and 7404.