Basic Information
- Course Code: EE 344
- Course Name: Electronic Design Lab
- Course Offered In: Spring 2023
- Instructors: Prof. Siddharth Tallur
- Prerequisites: There is no hard prerequisites to take this course. However, a basic understanding of PCB Design and making CADs, and other skills like soldering would be helpful while completing the project.
- Difficulty (on a scale of 5): 3
Course Content
EDL is a unique lab course offered by the electrical department, where the students work on a semester long project in groups of three. The topics of the projects vary across multiple domains such as RFID, IoT and wireless battery chargers, with the objective being to develop a working prototype for the same. The course also covers the basics to Schematic and PCB design along with a basic introduction to CAD using Fusion 360. The lectures go through the good practices of PCB design for high frequency circuits, criteria for choosing electronic components, reading datasheets, and working of some transistor circuits. The lectures were only conducted till the midsem.
Feedback on Lectures
The lectures were very useful to understand the approach one should take towards their project. These lectures covered all the aspects right from how to start choosing components till creating a well-packaged prototype. The lectures were conducted only up to the midsem, for 1.5 hours a week apart from the usual lab slot. 80% attendance in the lab and lectures was mandatory.
Feedback on Evaluations
The entire project timeline was divided into 5 milestones. For each milestone, each group had to submit a detailed report explaining the progress of the project and the future plans. This report was evaluated by both the faculty advisor of the project and the assigned RA, who would give their feedback. There was also a midsem exam, for all the topics covered in the lectures. At the end of the semester, there was a final presentation with a video demonstration. The weightage of the final presentation was 35%, while for the midsem the weightage was 20%. The remaining 4 milestone evaluations accounted for the remaining 55%
Study Material and Resources
There is no text book reference for this course. The best way to get references for your project would be constantly discussing with your progress with the mentor RA/TA, and looking for relevant papers on the Internet.
Follow-up Courses
Can be followed up by doing a B.Tech. project under your faculty advisor
Final Takeaway
The grading of the course was good, with the instructor acknowledging the effort the students put in for their projects. The course was not too difficult, however it asked for a lot of time commitment. Each evaluation report, along with submitting the relevant forms took a lot of time. Almost all groups had spent countless nights in WEL just before the final presentation. The RAs and TAs were very helpful, and often stayed back to help all students. All in all, this was a very unique experience with a lot of fun memories