EC Engineering

credits: greedge.com

Today's post is for EC engineering students or those aspiring to take up EC engineering. In this post I'll be writing about the most important subjects you should focus on in the first 2 years of engineering if you want to really grab on to concepts and are passionate about giving something to technology. I learnt this the hard way, so decided to pass this on for anybody interested in conceptual learning. If you are serious on EC engineering, then learn in depth on these subjects:

These are important subjects for the first year:

1. Basic Electronics: This subject is like an intro to EC. Almost all the topics here will be studied in your engineering course. So, this subject is like chapter one of engineering. Spend good amount of time on this subject and if possible, go just a little further than the syllabus but keep it easy on your mind because deeper topics are on their way.

2. Basic Electrical Engineering: Again, this subject also important to set roots on EC engineering. This subject is worth your time, but make sure it  doesn't go too heavy on the mind as its focus is on providing basics of working of electrical devices(like a transformer). It's more like branch out from EC, but the branch is still pretty close to the main road (If you can understand that analogy) In short, for core EC, this subject CAN’T be ignored, but it need not be taken too seriously either.

These are important subjects for the second year:

1. Analog Electronic Circuits: This subject is extremely important. Make sure you spend most of your time learning it, because it explains the working of the most basic components like diodes and transistors at the electrons level. In later stages of your education and career, if you are able to innovate or have breakthrough theories, you'd owe it all to this subject. Read further on this subject apart from your syllabus as well. Its totally worth your time.

2. Fields and Waves: This subject is also quite important if you're interested in learning deeply about communication. It has basics of electric and magnetic fields which have to be studied if you're interested to innovate in the field. You'll learn motion of electrons in different fields and what governs their speed etc., so focus on this subject as well, it's very interesting.

3. Logic Design: This subject is super important and very interesting. The best part, it's actually simple. Major subjects later on, have their basics in this subject. Focus on this subject because, if you plan on taking up masters after engineering, then GRE,GATE etc will test your knowledge of logic design. So in all the four years, keep in touch with this subject and try to update yourself through journals and other info on the net.

4. Signals and Systems: This subject sets the foundation for type of signals (discrete and analog) and their mathematical analysis. Mainly it's like the 1st unit to digital signal processing, so spend enough time for it. This subject may be difficult only for those who have a weak memory and/or dislike math. :D But of course, for those who have been questioning as to WHY math is taught, this subject practically applies math and you can actually see the signal being generated in the lab. So basically, it’s all applied math which is fun for some people, but if you hate math, I know you'll curse this subject. :D

5. Electronic Instrumentation: This subject is relatively easy, read it as a story book or something :D You will enjoy the subject as its pretty simple. Later on you can come back to books on this subject for a quick revision of topics you require to recall. Nothing more on this, just spend time on it when you feel your brain is too filled up for anything mind-taxing.

Just realized that I almost listed all the subjects in your 3rd sem. :D
But, these are important so it’s crucial that you focus on your second year, and get all concepts straight and make sure you ask your doubts (even if you think they may be really silly, don't bother about it. Just ask.)

6. Microcontrollers and microprocessors: This subject is a little tough for those who don't have a computer science background. Assembly language will require your time to understand it thoroughly, but this subject is excellent. By learning this subject, you'll learn how exactly you should proceed with applications of controllers and processors. You can make various applications using these chips easily, if you have complete knowledge of assembly language. To sum up, this subject is really important to learn so you can get habitual to programming chips and making different applications (which is what you'll probably be doing in your career unless you go for VLSI or chip design in general)

7. HDL fundamentals: This subject is awesome! For those who have a knack for programming, this subject is going to be piece of cake, really. This subject is like a state of the art subject (as in, this and microcontrollers and processors subjects are more recent than all other subjects which even our previous generation have probably studied :P ) Basically its designing a chip, by coding either its specifications or its way of functioning, or both. It’s a great subject and its fun. Your 4th sem is more fun-while-learning whereas your 3rd sem will be slightly boring as you'll have to use your mind a lot. Here, you can have fun at the same time. Even HDL lab is going to be fun as you'll see that your code works on the FPGA kit, and/or you can also simulate the chip and see its working.

8. Linear Integrated Circuits: I had a hard time getting used to this one. The first three chapters are all that need your time. Once you get them clear in your head, the rest of it is cake walk. Mainly you need to know how the IC-741 works, in its most basic level.
 The 3 important chapters are 
   1. Introduction (Don’t skip it)
   2. Op Amp parameters, performance - You might take long to understand this chapter because it’s a little complex, but it deals with in-depth learning of the op-amp.
   3. Op Amp as DC amplifiers - In this chapter, you need to know three circuits really well - non inverting amplifier, inverting amplifier and summing amplifier. 
This is a more-work, less-play type of subject; spend your time on it.

The rest of the subjects are also important and they can be handled. (See how I didn’t put math as one of the important subjects? It’s because, practically, you will be using tools and software which are developed by applying these and deeper math concepts; so unless you want to improve working algorithms or something even further, math is just for passing your exams)
Why I stressed on these above subjects is because they're more practical oriented. In your EC career, you will need in-depth knowledge of these subjects, because even if you are required some knowledge from the other subjects, you can always revise a couple of chapters. But these subjects are ones that'll make you an EC engineer. 
In your third and fourth year, knowledge of these subjects will be extremely useful. You'll first learn the technologies prevailing today, and if your basics are right, you'll start getting ideas on how to innovate in these technologies, how to go ahead with practical projects. You can read online magazines, journals and create your own DIY projects and if you have new theories, you can get guided and publish your papers. This stuff is your main work in the last 2 years of your engineering. 
Finally, to sum up everything - EC engineering goes like this- the first and second year are for you to completely understand all the theory and in the third and the final year, you'll spend time in practical application of that theory. So learn with full dedication in your first 2 years, apply them creatively in your last 2 years.
I hope this post is of some help to those who are aspiring to take up EC engineering and want a basic idea of engineering.
To those who’re in their first and second year right now, please take this seriously, it’ll be very helpful if you follow it.

The Five Hundred meter Aperture Telescope (FAST) or The world's largest radio telescope!

The Five Hundred Meter Aperture Telescope (FAST)!

五百米口径球面射电望远镜. Yes, you read it right. China has completed the construction of the largest radio telescope built so far, and has entered a new level in the quest for searching alien life. It’s not functional yet, it will be, this month.  It is built so that weak gravitational waves can be received and we can get more knowledge on what’s out there. It can “see” 5 to 10 times farther in space better than any equipment we have right now. So, if there is an alien civilization and it is sending out signals we will be able to receive them now. The telescope will be made available to worldwide researchers after 2-3 years from now. Let’s hope we get info on alien life and also that it won’t be kept hidden to us!

Cascading Style Sheets - 3: Colors

Today’s post is short, I will be discussing about colors.

Colors make your webpage look brighter and catch the viewer’s eyes easily. Colors are always expressed in terms of RGB i.e. Red Green Blue.

There are 3 ways to specify a particular color in terms of RGB:

·       A valid name is the easiest option – like “blue” or “red” but that stuff is for basic colors and is quite okay if that is what is required by you.

·       The next way to specify the color is by specifying the detail of the amount of intensity of red, green and blue. Let me give an example and I’ll then explain in detail

Ex: rgb(255,0,0) This code, specifies red color. Intensity of each color is determined from the number specified. Range of the numbers is between 0 and 255 with 255 being the highest intensity number.

Ex2: rgb(100,0,100) This code equally divide intensity of red and blue and has no intensity of green. Now, a combination of red and blue gives purple. Hence, this code specifies purple color.

So depending on numbers, intensity of any of the three main colors can be varied and a new color can be specified.

·       This way is a little complex (in a way) because it involves specifying rgb intensity in terms of hexadecimal numbers. Again, I’ll give an example and then explain in detail.

Ex: #ff0000 This code specifies red color. Every color code contains 6 digits. First 2 digits specify intensity of red; the next two specify intensity of green and the last two specify intensity of blue. In hexadecimal, the decimal number 255 is represented by ‘ff’.

Conversion of numbers from decimal to Hex goes like this:

Decimal	Hexadecimal
0-9	0-9
10	A
11	B
12	C
13	D
14	E
15	F
16-25	10-19
26-32	1A-1F

 

This table continues till the last number 255 or in hexadecimal, FF.

This method of specifying intensity is widely used, as it is otherwise simple once we know hex numbers and the code also looks compact.

Hence, I conclude this post on colors and the 3 ways to specify them.

Cascading Style Sheets - 2: Ways to insert CSS

In my previous post, I wrote about the three basic types of selectors used in CSS. If you haven’t checked it out yet, I would recommend you see that post once and come back here to the next part of CSS that I’m about to discuss, which is – Ways to insert the CSS codes on your webpage. Here’s a link to the previous post: http://justechjustphy.blogspot.in/2016/06/cascading-style-sheets-css.html

There are three ways of inserting CSS codes and each of them has its own advantages and disadvantages.

·       External Style Sheet.

·       Internal Style Sheet.

·       Inline Style.

1. The External Style Sheet:

The code of the style sheet is separately written and saved with the extension “.css” and it can’t contain any html tags (examples of html tags are <body>, <head>, etc.)

In your html document, to insert the css code that is externally saved, you need to add a link to that file so html can know there’s an external editing file to be added to the webpage.

So, how do we link the css file?

Simple! By using the <link> tag in html between <head> and </head> tags.

Its syntax goes like this:

<link rel = “stylesheet” type=”text/css” href=”your_file_name.css”>

·       In the above syntax, the “rel” is an attribute used to tell html of the type of document to be linked. In this case, it is “stylesheet”

·       Type refers of course to the type of document, which is in this case, a text document or a css document.

·       Href is a very important attribute because it specifies where the webpage should be linked, which is your file name, followed by “.css” extension.

So, now we know how to externally link a CSS file to a webpage. This is very advantageous as it doesn’t mess with the html code. What I mean to tell, is that the editing or the designing part of the webpage code is separate and the actual content of the webpage is separate. That really helps improve readability.

Ex:

CSS code:

 .p{

color: red;

 } // (file is saved as para.css)

Html code:

<html>

<head>

<link rel=”stylesheet” type=”text/css” href=”para.css”>

</head>

<body>

<p> This is the affected paragraph colored red using an external style sheet </p>

</body>

</html>

Output:

This is the affected paragraph colored red using an external style sheet

So, properties of the webpage can be changed anytime, just by changing the file name in href section of the html code. That makes using the External Style sheets very versatile and easy.

 

2. Internal Style Sheets:

As the heading states it, the CSS code is written within the html document between the <head> and </head> tags. There are some examples in my previous post. This form of adding CSS code is pretty basic and useful for small websites and is mostly used when there’s not much editing involved in the webpage.

3. Inline Style Sheets:

It is used to apply a unique style for a single element. It comes within the <body> and </body> tags unlike in previous 2 cases where the internal code is written (or the external code is linked) within the <head> and </head> tags.

Ex:

<html>

<body>

<p style = “ color: blue; “> The affected paragraph </p>

</body>

</html>

Output:

The affected paragraph

As seen in the above example, this way of adding CSS can be used to give a really quick edit to the webpage. It kind of saves up on the number of lines of code required and comes handy.

Multiple Style Sheets:

In case of 2 distinct CSS codes editing the same element and are included in the same html file, then the first defined code is applied and the other one is just ignored.

Ex:

CSS file:

P {

Font-size:20px;

} // file name is myfile.css

Html code:

<html>

<head>

<link rel=”stylesheet” type=”text/css” href=”myfile.css”>

<style>

P { color: purple;}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<p> Paragraph affected with the first defined css style </p>

Output:

Paragraph affected with the first defined css style

In the code above, the CSS with color edit is defined first and hence, only the color edit is applied to the paragraph. If the style tag was written before the link tag, then the font-size edit would be applied to the paragraph.

Now, we move to the final topic of this post, the order of cascading.

Cascading Order:

In case of above multiple style sheets, we have priorities assigned to each type of method of applying CSS. So one with highest priority is applied to the html element, and the rest are ignored. The precedence is as follows and number one has the highest priority:

1.  Inline style (within html element)

2.  External and internal style sheet (whichever is defined first)

3.  Browser Defaults.

Now, we have come to the end of this post which dealt with methods of applying CSS code onto websites.