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From: Nasser M. Abbasi on 8 Jul 2010 15:55

I find DSP the hardest subject to become good at. Other students like me
at school also complain how hard the DSP courses are compared to the
other EE courses and other engineering courses in general.

I think some of the reasons are:

1. DSP courses Has the most math. (including complex variables).
2. Two domains to worry about, time and frequency. Jumping from one to
the other can get confusing.
3. Two other domains to worry about, continuous time vs. discrete time.
4. Many relations between many concepts to get right.
5. One has to also be good in programming.
6. Demodulation is just hard. Filter design is hard.
7. Need to also be good in probability and statistics to do random
signals (real life).
8. Has to know how to do lab work also. Hard stuff.

And many more. May be you can add more items to the list.

Do many of the DSP experts here also found DSP hard at school? It seems
only the very smart can become good at DSP.

I think one is either born to do DSP or not. I think it is genetics.

--Nasser




From: Tim Wescott on 8 Jul 2010 16:00
On 07/08/2010 12:55 PM, Nasser M. Abbasi wrote:
>
> I find DSP the hardest subject to become good at. Other students like me
> at school also complain how hard the DSP courses are compared to the
> other EE courses and other engineering courses in general.
>
> I think some of the reasons are:
>
> 1. DSP courses Has the most math. (including complex variables).
> 2. Two domains to worry about, time and frequency. Jumping from one to
> the other can get confusing.
> 3. Two other domains to worry about, continuous time vs. discrete time.
> 4. Many relations between many concepts to get right.
> 5. One has to also be good in programming.
> 6. Demodulation is just hard. Filter design is hard.
> 7. Need to also be good in probability and statistics to do random
> signals (real life).
> 8. Has to know how to do lab work also. Hard stuff.
>
> And many more. May be you can add more items to the list.
>
> Do many of the DSP experts here also found DSP hard at school? It seems
> only the very smart can become good at DSP.
>
> I think one is either born to do DSP or not. I think it is genetics.

I found DSP to be Fun Fun Fun. But then, in general the more fun I was
having the more my classmates were bitching and moaning. (E&M was fun,
too).

DSP certainly keeps your brain stretched and limber.

--

Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com

Do you need to implement control loops in software?
"Applied Control Theory for Embedded Systems" was written for you.
See details at http://www.wescottdesign.com/actfes/actfes.html
From: Rune Allnor on 8 Jul 2010 16:02
On 8 Jul, 21:55, "Nasser M. Abbasi" <n...(a)12000.org> wrote:

> Do many of the DSP experts here also found DSP hard at school?

Yes and no.

I thought the techncalities of DSP were hard, but I was motivated
to learn. By the time I took my first DSP class I had already
worked with data analysis for several years, in a summer vacancy.
As far as I was concerned, DSP was a tool worth learning to do
that job better.

Rune
From: Greg Berchin on 8 Jul 2010 16:42
On Thu, 08 Jul 2010 12:55:27 -0700, "Nasser M. Abbasi" <nma(a)12000.org> wrote:

>
>I find DSP the hardest subject to become good at. Other students like me
>at school also complain how hard the DSP courses are compared to the
>other EE courses and other engineering courses in general.

I'm going to save this post, and break it out next time someone tells me how
hard the course of study was for their MBA.

>I think some of the reasons are:
>
>1. DSP courses Has the most math. (including complex variables).
>2. Two domains to worry about, time and frequency. Jumping from one to
>the other can get confusing.
>3. Two other domains to worry about, continuous time vs. discrete time.
>4. Many relations between many concepts to get right.
>5. One has to also be good in programming.
>6. Demodulation is just hard. Filter design is hard.
>7. Need to also be good in probability and statistics to do random
>signals (real life).
>8. Has to know how to do lab work also. Hard stuff.
>
>And many more. May be you can add more items to the list.

9. Our array indices start with "0".

10. We call sqrt(-1) "j" instead of "i".

11. We have an identity crisis -- we constantly bombarded with questions like,
"If you're not a hardware engineer, and you're not a software engineer, then how
can you be an electrical engineer?"

>Do many of the DSP experts here also found DSP hard at school? It seems
>only the very smart can become good at DSP.
>
>I think one is either born to do DSP or not. I think it is genetics.

The signal processing engineers with whom I have become acquainted are the sort
who were good at ALL technical subjects. Non technical subjects -- that's a
different story.

Greg
From: Jerry Avins on 8 Jul 2010 16:49
On 7/8/2010 3:55 PM, Nasser M. Abbasi wrote:
>
> I find DSP the hardest subject to become good at. Other students like me
> at school also complain how hard the DSP courses are compared to the
> other EE courses and other engineering courses in general.
>
> I think some of the reasons are:
>
> 1. DSP courses Has the most math. (including complex variables).
> 2. Two domains to worry about, time and frequency. Jumping from one to
> the other can get confusing.
> 3. Two other domains to worry about, continuous time vs. discrete time.
> 4. Many relations between many concepts to get right.
> 5. One has to also be good in programming.
> 6. Demodulation is just hard. Filter design is hard.
> 7. Need to also be good in probability and statistics to do random
> signals (real life).
> 8. Has to know how to do lab work also. Hard stuff.
>
> And many more. May be you can add more items to the list.
>
> Do many of the DSP experts here also found DSP hard at school? It seems
> only the very smart can become good at DSP.
>
> I think one is either born to do DSP or not. I think it is genetics.

DSP wasn't an academic subject when I was in school, but I learned the
math it needs for other purposes. Try designing vestigial-sideband
filters using waveguides of different dimensions, or calculating an
antenna's radiation pattern. I don't see that DSP is any harder than
other physical sciences covered in depth. The design of steam turbines
is interesting too. I was graded on all of those topics and more.

DSP is hard because a result is either right or wrong. Unlike some other
subjects, correctness isn't negotiable. All of science and math is like
that.

Jerry
--
Engineering is the art of making what you want from things you can get.
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