A Digital Signal Processing
Laboratory for Undergraduates
‘Tamal Bose, Senior Member, IEBE
Aberact— An undergraduate level laboratory on Digital Signal
Procesing (DSP) Is described. The equlpment used and samples
‘Of staden experiment are described In detall. The lab based on
‘the TMS320 digital signal processor andi equipped with spectral
tals and audio signal procesing eapeoiiie. The primary
Porpowe of the lab to supplement 4 course on Digital Fier
Desiga and Implementation. However, it can abo be ase for
senior design projects valving DSP applications,
1. wwrmopucnon
NTIL RECENTLY, Digital Signal Processing (DSP)
used to be taught only at the graduate level. With the
aid growth of applications of DSP in the industry, it has be-
‘come necessary to inrodace these concepts to undergraduates.
'A graduate level course on DSP would typically require an
‘indepth background in discrete system theory. A knowledge
of real analysis would also be an asset if advanced topics
on adaptive fiers [1]-2], rite word length effects (3118).
‘nonlinear filtering [9]-{11], and spectral analysis (12}(13),
‘ae included. It is unrealistic to expect an undergraduate to
Ihave such a background. Therefore, an undergraduate course
‘on DSP must be modified sccondingly. Advanced topics like
the ones named above should be avoided. If a laboratory is
used to supplement the couse, then it greatly enhances the
students’ understanding of the concepts. Als, the hands-on
element of the laboratory has a great impact in motivating the
tudents in the subject.
‘There is some published literature on the teaching of DSP
at the undergraduate level. In [14]-15] the authors describe a
{ew senior level projects using TMS320 based DSP systems. In
16, some simple techniques are described for scaling digital
‘ers that can be used by the undergraduates. In this paper
4 DSP laboratory is described in detail, The lecture course
that this lab supplements is also described briefly. number
of student experiments are presented. These experiments are