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

Fall 2009

 

Lectures on Tue & Thu

Activity Location

Instructor

Office in Salazar

Office hours

Email

Tel

9:00 – 11 :30 AM

Room 2003

Dr. Ali Kujoory

Room 2005

Mon 11:00-12:00 PM

Tue & Thu 3:00-4:00 PM, 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 101B and give hands-on experience to the students. (Does not apply to ES major.)

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 their understanding of the concepts and theories of science and technology.

·         Understand the interconnected and ever-changing relationships among the natural, physical, and technological sciences.

·         Critically assess the social and ethical implications of science and technology in relations to their daily lives.

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

·         Utilize technology in pursuit of intellectual growth and efficacious human interaction.

·         Explore and research application of scientific methods.

 

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

 

Lecture Syllabus

Laboratory Plan:

The course will have about 14 laboratory sessions (10 experiment and demo sessions and four discussion sessions), one per week in the ES Department’s six laboratories. The students will conduct approximately ten hands-on experiments that will illustrate the concepts learned in the lectures and expose the students with various types of components, equipment and devices. The discussion sessions will address the relationship of various technical concepts to the principles of science and their applicability and usefulness in our daily life and the society. It will also address the ethical questions that may arise due to the use or abuse of the above technology. Guest speakers from other departments, such as Environmental Studies, Philosophy, Biology, will be invited to enrich the above discussion giving their perspectives on these issues. The students will be expected to participate actively in these discussions. A framework of the ten experiments is given below.

  1. Two sessions on hands-on experience and demos with electrical signals and various types of signals such as analog and digital signals, digital speech, digital video and synthetic speech used in computers and robots.
  2. Two sessions on hands-on experience and demos relating to various types of computer and communications components and devices such as IC chips, various types of memory, lasers, LEDs, LCDs, solar cells; simple home-usable tools such as multimeter.
  3. One session on hands-on experience with digital displays.
  4. Three sessions on voice and video communications on telephone wires, cables; how speech becomes light and travels through fibers, radio communications.
  5. One session on cell phone communications and communication through internet.
  6. One session on home networking and networking devices such as hubs, routers and switches.

 

There will be total 10 laboratory experiment sessions. In each session students will learn the functionalities and usages of different communication devices/equipments. A sample laboratory experiment could be as follows.

 

Text Book and References:

A laboratory manual will be developed by the ES faculty and made available to the students. In addition a list of references will be provided for the students to supplement their learning in the laboratory.

 

Homework and Lab Report – Although you are encouraged to work together in the lab and outside to discuss the experiments, each student is expected to write his/her own report Lab report and turn in by one week after the experiment is performed.  The due dates are indicated in the course webpage one week from each lab.   Please use MS Word (and MS Excel if needed) to write a concise and neat report, single space, 2 pages maximum.

 

Group discussions (can be discussed separately by the instructor): 

·         Objectives - Let the students learn teamwork, be able to discuss problems and find total solutions, resolve differences, and practice leadership

·         The in-lab group discussions are for major topics during a lab session with ample time for the members to discuss the topic in more detail and present the results.  There may be more than one topic in the lab session

·         Structure – The class is divided into groups, each group comprises 3-5 students, with one Group Leader chosen by the group members for each activity or topic

·         Responsibility of group members – All members should participate actively in all activities and 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), and 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 the group leader presents the output/result to the class

·         Tools

      Computer and access to the Internet for the lab group discussions

      Microsoft Office: Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for development and presentation

 

Test – For the tests and the final exam, please see the tentative list of activities below.

 

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

 

Class Participation - Your participation in the class and in the group discussions (see the list below); also based on the reading, developing questions, or perspectives you would like to raise in the class

 

Course Grade Evaluation Policy:

·         Lab reports           40%

·         Quizzes  40%

·         Participations in the class & group discussions              20%

 

Academic Honesty - You are responsible to behave ethically & honestly.  Copying, cheating, forgery, and other unethical or dishonest actions are not tolerated.  See http://www.sonoma.edu/uaffairs/policies/cheating_plagiarism.htm

 

Our Expectations:

·         Always come to lab prepared and on time to learn

·         Whenever for some critical reason you cannot attend, send me an email in advance

·         Read the website and plan for the lab

·         Take notes as you do the experiment to use for your report

·         Ask questions when you have them and contribute when you can

·         Have fun and look back on this as a positive and worthwhile course for your study and career development

 

Outcomes:

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

·         Hands-on experience of some electronic components and  measurement equipment

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

 

Lab Sessions Outline:

Session 1:  Introduction to the engineering labs and related issues

Introduce the course, objectives, content in form of outline, expectations, and the format.  Explain what the group discussion is and how it is done and presented.  Go through the lab, starting from the Electronics lab (with more details), internetworking lab, Optics lab, etc.  Briefly mention what the measurement equipment look like and do.

 

Session 2:  Group discussion

Use the Internet to investigate the top 20 greatest engineering achievements of the 20th century and identify where the voice, radio, TV, computer communications, and Internet stand relatively and with respect to other achievements.  For example how important each is with respect to automobile or petroleum and gas technologies.  Discuss these with your group and the class.

 

Session3:  Introduction to measurement equipment for DC and AC signals

This lab is intended to familiarize the student with DC power supplies and measurement equipment.  All digital and electronic circuits including the communication and networking devices (e.g., your cell phone, modern telephone set, and PC) get their energy source from a DC supply in form of a battery or an AC to DC converter.  Measurement tools are used to find out if the communication device is working at the specified values.  It is also good to know what the electronic components (e.g., a resistor) look like. You can use the instructions from the ES110 lab.  It may be a good idea to show the protoboard and how it is used in designing analog and digital circuits.

 

Session 4:  Group discussion

Use the Internet to investigate some of the topics below.  Each group can work on one aspect and present their findings to the other groups.  Examples for discussion topics are:

·         Differences between analog and digital communication, advantages and disadvantage of each with respect to the other.

·         Impact of digital age on our daily life

·         Impact of digital age on modern communication

 

Session 5:   Function generators and oscilloscope

This experiment to familiarize the student with signals such a sinusoid or a square wave and one can monitor them.  All remote communications are based on the sinusoidal and digital waveforms.  The function generator is a device that produces a desired signal of specified frequency, shape and amplitude. This implies that you would be able to adjust the frequency, set the shape or function (sine, triangle and rectangle functions) and change the amplitude level.  There is also another adjustment possible and that is the offset. Offset is the DC level of the signal either positive or negative. An Oscilloscope is used to monitor a signal for frequency, amplitude and delay. You can use the instructions from the ES110 lab.

 

Session 6:  Basic digital circuits

Let the students learn the basic role of logics in digital communications.  Understand what the logic circuits are and what they do using switches at the input and LEDs at the output.  Also multimeter and oscilloscope are used to let the student experience various measurements.

 

Note: For a second experiment on communication, we could use the signal gernerator or som mododulators to demonstrate the modulation.

 

Session 7:  Introduction to networking lab                                  

This experiment is intended to show what some networking equipment look like and learn about the computer Ethernet port and the basic communication among computers over this port.  Use the ping command to observer connectivity between two PCs. We can use the Networking Lab and the “Basic Lab” (http://www.sonoma.edu/users/k/kujoory/course_materials/lab_instructions/) for this.  ES 110 Lab has also an experiment on this.

 

Session 8:  Group discussion

Use the Internet to investigate what computer security means and learn some web security terminologies, technologies, protection mechanisms, etc.  Each group can work on one aspect and present their findings to the other groups.  Examples for discussion topics are:

 

Session 9:  To be worked out (midterm test or another lab?)

 

Session 10:  VLAN and security lab

This experiment is intended to show what VLAN is and it can be used to connect several PCs at home or office together.  One can use the security mechanism to provide security between two VLANs.  We can use the Networking Lab and the “VLAN Lab” http://www.sonoma.edu/users/k/kujoory/course_materials/lab_instructions/units/vlan-lab.pdf) for this.  ES 110 Lab has also an.

 

Session 11:  Introduction to Fiber optics communications and demo

Discuss the light wave as a medium for communication, the common wavelengths used for various communications and noise sources and factors that affect the propagation.  Demonstrate the fiber, the interface types, the sources and detectors.  Inject a laser beam into a fiber end and detect the light on the other end.  Introduce some optical interference and observe the effect on the eye diagram using an oscilloscope to monitor.  Depending upon the equipment available in the lab this can be used as a demo or a lab to cover each cover each group separately.

 

Session 12:  Introduction to wireless communications

 

Session 13:  Group discussion

a)       Develop the requirements in form of a table for the cell phone as a user.  For each item include whether it is a major or minor requirement, how expensive and attractive it would be with respect to other items.

b)       Repeat the above for an Iphone.

 

Session 14:  Invited talk and Q &A for the course

 

Session 15:  Final test

 

Tentative List of Activities - Chapters to be Covered, Homework Due Dates, and Topics for the Group Discussions

 

Days

Session

Session Topic

Report Due

Topics for Group Discussions and Quizzes

Tues, 9/1

1

Sessions 9/1 – 9/29 taught by Dr. Shally Sarraf

 

Tues, 9/8

2

Introduction to the engineering labs and related issues

 

Tues, 9/15

3

Group discussion

Use the Internet to investigate the top 20 greatest engineering achievements of the 20th century

Tues, 9/22

4

Introduction to measurement equipment for DC and AC signals

 

Tues, 9/29

5

Group discussion

Use the Internet to investigate some of the:

a.       Differences between analog and digital communication, advantages and disadvantage of each with respect to the other.

b.       Impact of digital age on our daily life

c.        Impact of digital age on modern communication

Tues, 10/6

6

Function generators and oscilloscope

See Note 1 below for User Guides.

Tues, 10/13

7

Basic logic circuits

Fun gen & oscil

Tues, 10/20

8

Group discussion

Basic logic cct

what computer security means and learn some web security terminologies, technologies, protection mechanisms, etc. Topic examples that you can expand for discussion are:

a)       Define the terminologies (viruses, worm, phishing, spam) and provide some examples

b)       What is a firewall and how does it work?

c)       What are the security schemes that can be for computer communications security?

d)       Identify some of the security mechanisms with examples that can protect your computer communication and networking.

e)       What security mechanism is used for banking and fund transfer (e-commerce)?

Tues, 10/27

10

Introduction to networking lab

at Salazar Room 2006

 

Tues, 11/3

11

Group discussion

Intro to networking

Use the Internet to investigate the following topics, make the slides for your presentation.

a)   The cell phone manufacturers and 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 some of exceptions to the restrictions of hazardous substances.  Why are these restrictions allowed?

Tues, 11/10

12

Audio Signal Experiment

"The Complete Spectrum Of Information Security - An Inch Deep And A Mile Wide"

Tues, 11/17

13

Invited talk by Mr. Joe Dupre, Information Security Officer, SSU

Audio signal

Tues, 11/24

14

Optical_Measurement_Expt

at Salazar Room 2001

A 750-word report summarizing Mr. Dupre’s talk by each student

Tues, 12/1

15

Invited talk by Mr. John Harmon, Agilent Technologies

Intro to fiber optics

Title of the talk TBD.

 

a)       Develop the requirements in form of a table for the cell phone as a user.  For each item include whether it is a major or minor requirement, how expensive and attractive it would be with respect to other items.

a)       Repeat the above for an Iphone.

Tues, 12/8

16

FINAL EXAM

A 750-word report summarizing Mr. Harmon’s talk by each student

 

Note 1 – For the function fenerator User’s Guide Click  User_Guide_33220 & for the oscilloscope User_Guide_54622.