Hey everyone! I hope you all had great weeks! The weekend is finally here! Lately I have blogging a lot about my extra-curricular activities and weekend adventures, so this week I thought I’d tell you a little bit about my favorite class this semester! It was hard to pick which one to write about, but I have to say that my favorite is my class with Professor Redekopp called Electrical Engineering 101.
Every Tuesday and Thursday I go to Olin Hall for his lecture on Digital Logic. This pertains to the use of truth tables, equations, and Karnaugh maps to implement an efficient circuit meant to perform a specific task. He has covered topics ranging from number systems to logic gates to canonical sums. Having this be my first class in Digital Logic, I was a little nervous to take on such an intimidating course. However, now that I am already two months into the class, I love it! It challenges me to use logic to create the most efficient circuit design which I find to be fun. There is not only one solution to every problem, and it’s interesting to see the other methods my peers used to arrive at their conclusions.
What I really love about his class is that he doesn’t talk at his students or just lecture the entire time. It is a very interactive course where he gives us practice problems and asks for responses to his questions. Even though I take this course at 8:30 AM, his teaching style makes it almost impossible to fall sleep and makes me excited about my major! He also allots time for us to do sample homework questions at the end of the period so we are more familiar with the format and can ask him questions before attempting these on our own. Another unique aspect to his teaching style is his use of online video lectures. He posts them for every section that we cover, allowing us to review the material in depth and relearn what areas may have been a little confusing. He also utilizes a website called Piazza that allows us to ask him or other students questions about the homework assignments, labs, or any other area of the course. These resources make this class much more enjoyable because I am never at a loss of ways to further enhance the material.
Beyond the lectures, I really enjoy the discussion section that I attend every Thursday. I am lab partners with one of my friends, Melanie, and we get to work together to create different circuits. Just a couple of weeks ago, we made an alarm system so that it would go off if any doors or windows were open. We were excited when we got it to finally work!
https://twitter.com/JacquieLowe4/status/380864118044909568
Taking this course has made me even more excited about studying Electrical Engineering! I cannot wait to see what other courses I will be taking next semester that expand the material in this class! I hope you have enjoyed learning about one of my favorite classes this semester!
Have a great weekend! Fight On!
Jacquie
