See course web page for instructor and course information.

Office Hours: E-mail me for an appointment.

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Grades

• Gradebook for this quarter is coming soon.

Attendance Quiz Results

• Results for this quarter are coming soon.

Assignment Questions and Clarifications

• From Homework #1:
  
  
  • Question:

    As for Question #2 on Page 10, What does it mean by asking if the case is too unique to permit generalizations to other engineering products? It is kind of hard to understand the meaning of the question. It would be great if you could explain what kind of answer the question is requiring.

    Answer:

    Good question!

         The phrase "too unique" makes no sense. Something is either unique (i.e., there is one of them) or it is not. It is a fallacy to suggest that something could be "more unique" than something else.

         I think the question should read:
    
    "Is this case unique, or can it be generalized to other engineering products?"
    
    In other words, can other engineering products be enhanced by simple human contact? That is, is the artificial lung example a special case?

Writing Resources

• See my home page for general writing resources (e.g., for style, grammar, voice, etc.).

Help Getting Started Using TeX/LaTeX

For myriad reasons, professional technical documents are rarely produced with popular programs like Microsoft Word. In areas that are highly influenced by mathematics (e.g., engineering), the free TeX typesetting system dominates. Many TeX (pronounced "tech") users prefer the LaTeX suite of macros to simplify common typesetting tasks.

TeX documents, like the source code for computer programs, start as text files that are later "compiled" into their final document form. Thus, many people feel that TeX typesetting is more like programming than it is like using standard word processing tools.

1. If you want to submit assignments using TeX, you will need one of the free TeX distributions. These distributions contain TeX and the popular LaTeX macros.
   • Windows users should get MiKTeX. Click on the link under Download.
   • Mac OS X users should get MacTeX. Download the MacTeX Installer.
   • Unix users should get TeX Live. Follow the quick installation directions.
   These distributions contain programs that can "compile" TeX source files into a nice-looking printable form.
   
   
2. Once you have installed a TeX distribution, you will need an editor. Any text editor can be used to edit TeX files, but some are more friendly than others.
   • TeXmaker is a popular free LaTeX editor for Windows, Mac OS X, and Unix.
   • TeXnicCenter is a popular free LaTeX editor for Windows.
   • WinEdt is a popular commercial shareware LaTeX editor for Windows.
   • The combination of Vim with the VIM-LaTeX suite makes for a powerful LaTeX editor for Windows, Mac OS X, and Unix.
     • Mac users may want to check out MacVim.
     • All VIM-LaTeX users may want to check out my notes on getting VIM-LaTeX working smoothly.
   • TeXShop is a free and minimal LaTeX editor and PDF previewer (with auto-refresh) for Mac OS X.
   • TeXworks is a free and minimal LaTeX editor and auto-refreshing PDF previewer (based on TeXShop) that is still in development for Windows, Mac OS X, and Unix. It is available for download. It is based on Qt and Poppler.
   • Kile is a popular free LaTeX editor for KDE (i.e., for Windows, Mac OS X, and Unix).
   • iTeXMac is a popular free TeX editor and PDF previewer for Mac OS X.
   
   
3. You will probably also want a good PDF viewer. Some of the editors above include decent PDF previewers, but others depend on you to find one.
   • Members of the Adobe Acrobat family (including the free reader) are sufficient so long as your editor knows how to kick them whenever your PDF is regenerated. Unfortunately, they are big and bloated and have a stagnant feature set.
   • Mac users should check out the free Skim, which supports auto-refreshing and lots of other helpful features.
   • Windows users might want to check out the free Sumatra PDF, which is a minimal PDF viewer that supports auto-refreshing and has some other nice features.
   
   
4. You may want some examples to get you started.
   • homework_example.pdf is a minimal homework example.
     • Its LaTeX source code, annotated with lots of comments, is annotated_homework_sample.tex.
     • Its unannotated LaTeX source code is homework_example.tex.
       • This example might make for a good homework template.
     
     
   • memo_example.pdf shows a simple LaTeX memorandum ("memo") example.
     • Its LaTeX source code is memo_example.tex.
     
     
   • report_example.pdf shows a simple report that uses the memoir document class.
     • Its LaTeX source code is report_example.tex.
   It might be helpful to see my old homework template page too.
   
   
5. Additional LaTeX examples (e.g., LaTeX code for electronic circuits, graphs, and block diagrams) can be found in my Mercurial repositories for
   • ECE 209 (not too much here),
   • ECE 327 (a circuits lab with lots of documents with lots of circuit diagrams),
   • ECE 481 (not too much here),
   • ECE 557 (a controls lab with lots of LaTeX and MATLAB generated figures).
   Click on the files links and navigate the tree.
   
   
6. Some other terrific examples can be found on the web.
   • PSTricks lets you harness the power of PostScript to draw great looking line drawings inside TeX.
     • The pst-circ package is especially relevant. It helps draw circuit diagrams.
   • PGF/TikZ has been growing in popularity as a more portable alternative to PSTricks.
   • The TeX Users Group (TUG) links to lots of helpful resources.
   • The Comprehensive TeX Archive Network (CTAN) is a huge central store of useful TeX material.
   • The LaTeX Community forum can be a great resource that can quickly answer some of your questions.
   • The comp.text.tex (CTT) Usenet newsgroup has been a resource for TeX users for a long time. Search and participate.