Real Time Data Acquisition In A Signals And Systems Course

A sophomore or junior level course entitled Signals and Systems or Linear Systems Theory is contained within almost every electrical engineering program in the country. The United States Naval Academy offers a junior level Signal and Systems course that includes a significant amount of hands-on lab time. This course is taught in a 2-2-3 format. The availability of both PCs and DAQ software that allow for seamless introduction of real-world data into the MATLAB workspace has facilitated this process. This paper discusses some of the lab exercises that are used in this course. These lab experiments have allowed our students to see immediate applicability for the theory and skills that they are learning in class.