Course syllabus

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Course-PM

SSY081 SSY081 Transforms, signals and systems lp1 HT25 (7.5 hp)

Course is offered by the department of Electrical Engineering

Contact details

To reach our offices, go to the EDIT building (Entrance from Maskingränd 2), take stair F, go to floor 7.

 

Student representatives

Course purpose

The course will provide fundamental knowledge about linear systems and how they can be used to describe physical phenomena. Different mathematical tools which can be used to calculate the relationship between input and output signals in linear systems will be presented.

 

Schedule

TimeEdit

Course literature

Textbook

Signal Processing and Linear Systems

Second Edition
B. P. Lathi and Roger Green

ISBN: 9780190299040

 

ISBN for e-book: 9780190857691

Link to Chalmers store: https://www.chalmersstore.se/e-bocker/e-bok-signal-processing-and-linear-systems.html

 

The textbook has been changed in 2024 because the old one became unavailable.

If you have a different textbook that was used in the same course (SSY081 or SSY080) in the past years, likely you will find similar material.

Example of alternative books are

Signal Processing and Linear Systems
     International Edition,  B.P. Lathi, Oxford Univ. Press

Signals, systems, and transforms

Phillips, Charles L.

Course design

The course includes

  • lectures held by the examiner
  • exercise sessions held by a teaching assistant (Tiffany)
  • project work that you (the students) will carry out in teams of 4 students
  • project discussion
  • online quizzes outside the lectures (graded)
  • online quizzes within the lectures (not graded)

Material will be posted on Canvas. The project implementation requires the use of Python. You should have a computer or smartphone to be able to reply to the quizzes.

Changes made since the last occasion

There are three main changes compared to the past year

  1. We have a new TA, Chiara Fantinato
  2. You have to submit separate reports for each question of the project
  3. Project discussion will occur during the course, rather than at the end

Learning objectives and syllabus

Learning objectives:

  • identify and give examples of different signal types, such as periodic signals, absolutely summable/integrable signals, finite energy signals and band-limited signals.
  • identify important system properties, such as linearity, shift-invariance, causality and BIBO-stability, in examples.
  • select the appropriate transforms (Fourier series, Continuous and Discrete time Fourier transform, Laplace transform, Discrete Fourier transform and z-transform) for a given problem.
  • compute the transforms of commonly used signals in the course.
  • apply transform techniques to find the output of a LTI system, both in continuous and discrete time.
  • identify the Nyquist rate of a band-limited signal.
  • employ the Sampling Theorem to reconstruct band-limited signals from sampled data.
  • interpret plots of the DFT (Discrete Fourier Transform) of a sampled signal.
  • interpret the effect of filters on a given signal.

 

Link to the syllabus on Studieportalen.

https://www.chalmers.se/en/education/your-studies/find-course-and-programme-syllabi/course-syllabus/SSY081/?acYear=2025/2026

Examination form

Mandatory: Written examination + Project work (in teams of 4, report + presentation)

Written exam (4 h)

  • 10 questions (‘quick’ answers, type A, 1 point each), 10 points in total (1x10)

4 points required for passing

  • 3 questions (calculation, type B, 5 points each), 15 points in total (3 x 5)

5 points required for passing

  • Points of type A questions + Points of type B questions + Optional bonus points >= 12 for passing

Points

<12

[12,16)

[16-21)

[21-25]

Final grade

U

3

4

5

Written exam is enough to have the possibility to get up to 25 / 25 points, corresponding to a final grade of 5 / 5.

Allowed material during the written exam:
•    A calculator (among those approved by Chalmers)
•    Two A4 pages where you can write by hand whatever you believe may help you during the exam (e.g., exercises that have been solved in class, definitions, etc). You can write on both sides of the sheet, so you can have 2 pages of handwritten notes in total.
•    In addition, you are provided with the following tables

o    Trigonometric identities
o    Fourier transforms
o    Fourier transform operations
o    Laplace transforms
o    Laplace transform properties
o    z-Transform
o    z-Transform operations

 

Optional: online quizzes

They give up to 3 / 25 points that can be added to the points obtained from the mandatory examination, to improve the final grade.

 

Project work (updated, based on the feedback of last year students)

  • You implement your project in groups of 4 students and write a common report
  • The project consists of three questions that are assigned in different dates
    • Question 1: 18th of September
    • Question 2: 30th of September
    • Question 3: 14th of October
  • The corresponding submission dates are
    • Question 1: 25th of September
    • Question 2: 9th of October
    • Question 3: 21st of October
  • For each question, each group has to submit in Canvas a report that does not exceed 2 A4 pages along with the code and filled checklist as separate files, not a zip-file
  • The report should be written in English (using the provided template)
  • Please indicate your group ID in the report
  • Few days after submission, we will have a discussion about how each of you has implemented the project questions and how your implementation relates to what we have studied in the course. These are the dates for the discussion
    • Question 1: 30th of September
    • Question 2: 14th of October
    • Question 3: 23rd of October
  • You do not need to prepare any slide for the discussion. We will ask questions depending on your report/code
  • Each team member is supposed to be able to justify the choices made in the project implementation and to “defend” their solution
  • It is mandatory to attend all three discussions. In order to pass the project, you have to pass all 3 discussions. Note, you work in groups but the grade (U/G) is individual.
  • If you miss one discussion, or your explanations during the discussion are insufficient, you have to repeat it during the exam week or one of the re-exam weeks
  • It is very useful to implement the project during the course, because it helps to understand the course content. However, we are aware this is not always possible. Therefore, if you do not implement the project during the course, you can also submit it during the two re-exam weeks. In this case, you have to submit the whole report (3 questions) at once. The discussion will also encompass the three questions.
  • It may happen that there is something to be changed in the report/code. You have to apply the changes by the exam week (or re-exam week).

Course summary:

Date Details Due