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Showing posts from February, 2018

EP 223 - Electronics Lab II, Autumn 2016-17

Instructor Name Pradeep Sarin Prerequisites None Important Topics Covered Op-amp characteristics, negative and positive feedback, Schmitt trigger design, instrumentation amplifier, phase shift oscillator, filters, lock-in amplifier, reflections in transmission lines, gain-bandwidth product, common mode, op-amp oscillations in detail. Assignments Pre-lab assignments were easy but reading material uploaded was sometimes a lot and not all of it was very useful. In-lab assignments were just right and grading policy was also good. Labs were really very useful in understanding the working of op-amp circuits and were fun . Similar to EP 215, there are pre- and post-lab assignments on moodle, no projects and a really nice grading policy Exams and Grading End semester exam was just right and grading policy was also fine. Again, 5-10% per lab and 30-ish% for the endsem Books/Online Study Material Only read from the suggested pre-lab reading material, most of

EP 213 - General Physics lab, Spring 2016-17

Instructor Name Senthil Kumar Prerequisites No prerequisites at all. Important Topics Covered 1) Photoelectric effect 2) Frank Hertz Experiment 3) Young's Modulus by Cornu's method 4) Measurement of dielectric constant 5) Coefficient of viscosity by Stoke's Method 6) Thermal Conductivity by Forbes method 7) Magnetic susceptibility by Guoy's method 8) Potential energy of a magnet Credit Distribution In-sem - 60% ; Endsem - 40% Assignments: Have to write the experiment before the lab. Note: This is a review to help you make a more informed choice about how to study for this course and/or choosing this course. While we've tried to keep it objective and complete, one must keep in mind that students have varying interests, methods of study, and the course itself changes from year to year.

EP 215 - Electronics Lab I, Autumn 2016-17

Instructor Name Pradeep Sarin Prerequisites Nothing, but it helps if you remember what was done in EE 112 Important Topics Covered I-V characteristics of basic electrical components and applications of a BJT Assignments Generally there are pre- and post-lab assignments on moodle, no tutorials, no project, not terribly difficult (the 2016 endsem was tricky though) Credit Distribution Each Lab has an equal weight, around 5-10% (depending on the number of labs) and the endsem weight is generally around 30%. Pretty much guaranteed an AB or an AA (as with most labs) Online Study Materials Prof. Sarin provides all required material in the pre-lab assignment Note: This is a review to help you make a more informed choice about how to study for this course and/or choosing this course. While we've tried to keep it objective and complete, one must keep in mind that students have varying interests, methods of study, and the course itself changes from year t

EP 230 - Electronics Lab III, Spring 2016-17

Instructor Name Pradeep Sarin Prerequisites Basics of Flip Flops, Combinational circuits, Boolean Algebra, Registers Important Topics Covered Flip Flop implementation, latches, registers, Finite State Machines, Mealy/Moore Machines, VHDL Programming [as the Course Project] Assignments In Lab: Assignments consist of short reading material (slides/websites) and doing some simple questions on Moodle itself. The lab is elec heavy, requiring knowledge of various circuits and circuit elements. You need to think hard during the lab and apply concepts from the pre lab material to successfully complete the lab. Also, there are only 5 lab sessions, until the midsem exam, after which you move on to the project Project: You are given 1 month to work on a project of your choice, on the Altera DE0Nano Cyclone IV FPGA board. The Instructor, lab Incharge and the TAs vet the project and assign weekly deadlines that you have to show your progress on. You are also suppo

EP 219 - Data Analysis and Interpretation, Autumn 2016-17

Instructor Name Vikram Rentala Course Type Core for EP students Course overview Probability axioms and theorems ;  Probability distributions - Mean, variance, skewness, kurtosis, moments, characteristic function, cumulants ; Transformation of variables ; Multivariate probability distribution ; Detailed discussion of Gaussian, Poisson, Binomial and Multinomial, Chi-squared distributions ; Statistical and Systematic errors ; Error propagation ; Error ellipses ; Parameter Inference ; Confidence Intervals ; Hypothesis Testing ;  Likelihoods ;  Goodness of Fit Test ; p-value. Brief look at other distributions like exponential, gamma, Lorentz/Cauchy/Breit-Wigner, log-normal ; Generalised approach for distributions : n-dimensions ; Likelihoods associated with histograms Prerequisites No formal or informal prerequisites. Credit distribution 2 quizzes (10% each), midsem (25%), endsem (45%), assignment (10%) . Feedback on Lectures Attendance not compulsory. Classes

PH 306 - Continuum Mechanics, Spring 2016-17

Instructor Name Raghunath Chelakkot Course Type Honours/Elective (Core for DD) Course overview Lagrangian density, generalised Euler-Lagrange equations, concept of continuum limit, tensors, electromagnetic field tensor and lagrangian density of the field Fluid mechanics - Navier-Stokes equation, its solutions for specific conditions Elasticity - Moduli of elasticity, deformation, stress/strain tensors,elastic energy, bending of rods Prerequisites No formal or informal prerequisites Credit distribution 2 quizzes (15% each), 1 midsem (30%), 1 endsem (40%) Feedback on Lectures No formal attendance policy, classes mostly on blackboard, only introductory lecture and one other lecture on the concept of strain rate, and bending of rods used slides Feedback on tutorials, assignments and exams Ungraded tutorials were regularly provided for practice, and consequently discussed in class Relevant References Goldstein for the initial Classical Mechan

EP 228 - Quantum Mechanics I, Spring 2016-17

Instructor Name Kumar Rao Course Type Core for EP students Course overview Schrodinger Equation, Particle in a box, quantum harmonic oscillator, infinite vector space, bra-ket notations, angular momentum and spin algebra, spherical harmonics, spherically symmetric potentials, hydrogen atom, addition of angular momenta, Clebsch-Gordan coefficients. Prerequisites No formal prerequisites. Knowledge of PH 107 is useful but not essential. Credit distribution Quiz1-10% , Quiz2-10%, Midsem-30% , Endsem-40%, 2 Assignments-10% combined. Feedback on Lectures No attendance policy, but the prof highly encourages attending his lectures. Prof teaches from slides in class. The slides are good and complete; they are regularly updated. Feedback on tutorials, assignments and exams Regular tutorial sheets and tutorial sessions (once a week). In addition, two assignments had to be submitted which carried weightage in the final grading. Relevant References There is

HS 101 - Economics, Autumn 2016-17

Instructor Name K. Narayanan, Surajit Bhattacharya Course Type Core for EP students Course overview Supply and Demand, Elasticity, Competition, Money, Multipliers, Inflation Prerequisites None Credit distribution 2 quizzes (10% each), 1 midsem (30%) and 1 endsem (50%) Feedback on Lectures Attendance was not compulsory, but heavily recommended. The professor would be late uploading slides, and would often edit out important details from them, so it is a must to take good class notes. That being said, the lectures were highly engaging and thought-provoking. Feedback on tutorials, assignments and exams No assignments. Exams were a mix of MCQs and subjective questions, based on lecture material as well as relevant portions of the text references. Relevant References Mankiw (both Macro- and Micro-economics) Macroeconomics by Dornbusch and Fischer Online references Khan Academy Pro-tips Attend classes. Respondent Vedant Basu

MA 205 - Complex Analysis, Autumn 2016-17

Instructor Name Preeti Raman Course Type Core for EP students (Half-sem) Course overview Construction and formalism of complex numbers, algebra of complex numbers, differentiation, continuity, Cauchy-Riemann(CR) conditions, holomorphism, singularities and zeroes, contour integration, Cauchy residue theorem, theorems to calculate contour integration in various interesting scenarios and applications of the same to evaluation of real integrals Prerequisites No formal prerequisites. Informal: MA 105, MA 106, MA 108. Credit distribution 1 quiz (30%) and 1 endsem (70%) Feedback on Lectures Very good lecture notes. Lectures twice a week (1.5 hrs each) with additional 1 hr tutorial. 80% attendance compulsory. Feedback on tutorials, assignments and exams Assignments were fairly doable; most of the problems rely on a clear understanding of the definitions. Relevant References A Friendly Approach to Complex Analysis by Dr. Amol Sasane - very concise, p

EP 207 - Introduction to Special Theory of Relativity, Autumn 2016-17

Instructor Name Raghunath Chelakkot Course Type Core for EP students (Half-sem) Course overview Principle of relativity, Lorentz transformation, concept of invariant interval, Minkowski spacetime, addition of relativistic velocities, energy-momentum 4-vector, conservation of energy and momentum, mass-energy equivalence, basics of tensor analysis, electromagnetic theory in terms of the field tensor. Prerequisites Formal: None; Informal: PH 108 (Maxwell's  equations) Credit distribution 1 quiz (15 marks) and 1 Midsem (35 marks); Total - 50 marks Feedback on Lectures No formal attendance policy, classes exclusively on blackboard. Feedback on tutorials, assignments and exams Exam problems were based largely on content covered in the lectures. Ungraded tutorials, mixed bag of easy and hard problems. Relevant References Spacetime physics by Wheeler and Taylor Introduction to STR by R. Resnick Mathematical Methods for Physicists by Arfken