This course studies: time and frequency signal analyses; random processes and noise; base-band & pass-band signals; modulation/demodulation and optimal reception techniques; coding and information theory.
| GRADUATE ATTRIBUTE | LEARNING OBJECTIVES |
| A. IN-DEPTH KNOWLEDGE OF THE FIELD OF STUDY | |
| A2. A broad understanding of the field of study, including how other disciplines relate to the field of study. | |
| A3. A comprehensive and in-depth knowledge in the field of study. | |
| A5. An international perspective on the field of study. | 2 |
| A7. An appreciation of the link between theory and practice. | |
| B. EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION | |
| B1. The ability to collect, analyse and organise information and ideas and to convey those ideas clearly and fluently, in both written and spoken forms. | 3, 5 |
| B2. The ability to interact effectively with others in order to work towards a common outcome. | 5 |
| B3. The ability to select and use the appropriate level, style and means of communication. | 3, 5 |
| B4. The ability to engage effectively and appropriately with information and communication technologies. | 5 |
| B5. The ability to practise as part of an interdisciplinary team. | |
| C. INDEPENDENCE AND CREATIVITY | |
| C2. The ability to work and learn independently and effectively. | |
| C3. The ability to generate ideas and adapt innovatively to changing environments. | 4 |
| C5. The ability to formulate and investigate problems, create solutions, innovate and improve current practices. | |
| C6. The abilities and skills that provide a foundation for future leadership roles. | |
| D. CRITICAL JUDGEMENT | |
| D2. The ability to apply critical reasoning to issues through independent thought and informed judgement. | 1, 2, 4, 5 |
| D4. The ability to process material and to critically analyse and integrate information from a wide range of sources. | |
| D5. The ability to evaluate opinions, make decisions and to reflect critically on the justifications for decisions using an evidence-based approach. | |
| E. ETHICAL AND SOCIAL UNDERSTANDING | |
| E1. An understanding of social and civic responsibility. | |
| E3. An appreciation of the philosophical and social contexts of a discipline. | |
| E4. A knowledge and respect of ethics and ethical standards in relation to a major area of study. | |
| E5. A knowledge of other cultures and times and an appreciation of cultural diversity. | |
| E7. The ability to work effectively and sensitively across all areas of society. | |
| E8. An understanding of and respect for the roles and expertise of associated disciplines. | |
A. Bruce Carlson, Paul B. Crilly and Janet C. Rutledge, Communication Systems: An Introduction to Signals and Noise in Electrical Communication, McGraw-Hill, 4th ed., 2002.
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Leon W. Couch, II, Digital and Analog Communication Systems, Prentice-Hall, 7th ed., 2007.
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Simon Haykin, Communication Systems, Wiley, 4th ed., 2001
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Students are not expected to purchase the following books, but may find them useful:
Students should sign-on for and attend a fortnightly prac session (commencing in Week 6). The pracs are designed to reinforce your learning of the course material and to build practical skills. There will be three pracs and a prac exam (described in the Assessment section below). More information about prac groups and sign-on will be given in class before the end of Week 2.
Prac activities are designed to be carried out in pairs.
You should obtain a workbook in which to write your prac notes. The workbook should be an A4, bound notebook. All preparatory exercises, working notes and diagrams, code listings, etc., should be included in your workbook (as glued-in printouts if necessary). Your workbook will not be directly assessed. However, it is the only item you may take into the prac exams, so it is in your best interests to make it as complete as possible. Your prac workbook should be individual, i.e., it should be separate from your partner's workbook (although the contents may well be very similar).
Keeping a workbook is a good introduction to professional practice. Many people working in industry or research [such as the author!] keep workbooks. Indeed, many employers insist that workbooks be maintained. These fully document the thoughts and steps behind any experiments or development. The workbooks are legal documents which can be used, for example, to support patent claims.
You are not required to attend any of the lectures, tutorials or pracs (except those in which an assessment activity is taking place). However, you are strongly encouraged to do so. The lectures, tutorials and pracs have been specifically designed to aid your learning of the course material. Failure to attend a session may result in you being disadvantaged. It is up to you to find out what happened in any class session that you miss.
Should you miss a prac, you may be able to attend an alternative session. You should be prepared to provide documentary evidence of extenuating circumstances, e.g., a medical certificate. The capacity of the laboratories is quite limited, so the possibility of attending a session other than your regularly scheduled session is quite low. Preference will be given to those students who have a legitimate excuse for missing a session.
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Late submission of the assignment will result in a penalty of 10% per day. A late submission should be made to the School Office, not the submission boxes.
No extensions will be granted except in exceptional personal circumstances (documented medical reason or family emergency). Personal hardware or computer failures are not grounds for extension.
Although COMS4100 shares many resources with COMS7105, including lecture and tutorial times, COMS7105 assessment items may differ materially from COMS4100 assessment items. For instance, exam questions may be more searching, assignment topics may be more challenging. This is intended to reflect the greater depth of knowledge and higher level of expertise which is expected of COMS7105 students.
The class test will be based closely on the tutorial exercises of Weeks 2, 3 and 4.
The class test will be held during the tutorial session of Week 5. The class test will be closed-book. Students are permitted to use an EPSA approved and labelled non-programmable calculator in this examination. More details on EPSA approved calculators can be found at http://www.epsa.uq.edu.au/calculators.html. The use of unlabelled calculators is not permitted.
The class test is in two parts. In Part A, general understanding of the material covered in Weeks 1-4 is tested. Questions in Part A do not require detailed derivation to obtain an answer. In Part B, detailed understanding is tested in questions that require more substantial working and derivation.
The class test will be in a multiple choice format and will be marked accordingly, with full marks awarded for each correct answer and no marks for incorrect answers.
The mid-semester exam will be based on material presented/covered in weeks 1-8. The questions will involve problem solving.
The mid-semester exam will be held during the tutorial session of week 9 and will be of 90 minutes' duration. The mid-semester exam will be closed-book. Students are permitted to use an EPSA approved and labelled non-programmable calculator in this examination. More details on EPSA approved calculators can be found at http://www.epsa.uq.edu.au/calculators.html. The use of unlabelled calculators is not permitted.
The mid-semester exam is in two parts. In Part A, general understanding of the material covered in Weeks 1-8 is tested. Questions in Part A do not require detailed derivation to obtain an answer. In Part B, detailed understanding is tested in questions that require more substantial working and derivation.
The mid-semester will be in a multiple choice format and will be marked accordingly, with full marks awarded for each correct answer and no marks for incorrect answers.
The last scheduled prac session (Weeks 12 and 13) will be a prac examination. The exam is individual and lasts 50 minutes. The two-hour prac session will be split into two prac exam sessions. Students will be informed by email as to which of these sessions they are allocated. The exam will consist of an appropriately abridged version of one of the two pracs conducted earlier in the semester.
An examiner will carry out the marking at the prac exam by inspecting the practical work of the student and by asking questions about the results observed. Marks will be awarded according to the following criteria:
Students, working in pairs, are required to undertake and submit a report on a specified project.
More details on the project/assignment will be made available before the end of Week 4. Students need to nominate their partner before the end of Week 4. For this purpose, a sign-on sheet will be placed on the noticeboard of Level 1, GP South, before the end of Week 1.
Marks will be awarded on the basis of the following criteria:
More details will be forthcoming when the project details are released before the end of Week 4.
The end of semester exam will be based primarily on material presented/covered in Weeks 9-13, but will have some coverage of material from earlier weeks. The questions will involve problem solving.
The exam will be three hours in duration and will be held during the final examination period. This exam will be closed-book and may contain multiple-choice, short-answer, and essay questions. Students are permitted to use an EPSA approved and labelled non-programmable calculator in this examination. More details on EPSA approved calculators can be found at http://www.epsa.uq.edu.au/calculators.html. The use of unlabelled calculators is not permitted.
Note: Assessment variation is possible for students with a disability.
Note: Students may request the use of dictionaries, including bilingual dictionaries, supplied by Examinations Section.
Broadly speaking, the criteria used for marking the final exam are, according to the type of question asked, as follows:
An overview of the University’s assessment-related policies can be found on myAdvisor (http://www.uq.edu.au/myadvisor/index.html?page=2910).
Academic Integrity
It is the University's task to encourage ethical scholarship and to inform students and staff about the institutional standards of academic behaviour expected of them in learning, teaching and research. Students have a responsibility to maintain the highest standards of academic integrity in their work. Students must not cheat in examinations or other forms of assessment and must ensure they do not plagiarise.
Plagiarism
The University has adopted the following definition of plagiarism:
Plagiarism is the act of misrepresenting as one's own original work the ideas, interpretations, words or creative works of another. These include published and unpublished documents, designs, music, sounds, images, photographs, computer codes and ideas gained through working in a group. These ideas, interpretations, words or works may be found in print and/or electronic media.
Students are encouraged to read the UQ Academic Integrity and Plagiarism policy (http://www.uq.edu.au/hupp/index.html?page=25128) which makes a comprehensive statement about the University's approach to plagiarism, including the approved use of plagiarism detection software, the consequences of plagiarism and the principles associated with preventing plagiarism.
As a student you have a responsibility to incorporate feedback into your learning; make use of the assessment criteria that you are given; be aware of the rules, policies and other documents related to assessment; and provide teachers with feedback on their assessment practices.
There are certain steps you can take if you feel your result does not reflect your performance. Please refer to the myAdvisor web site. (http://www.uq.edu.au/myadvisor/index.html?page=2953)Further to the statement on academic integrity and plagiarism above, students are required to read and understand the ITEE policy on Student Misconduct (http://www.itee.uq.edu.au/about_ITEE/policies/student-misconduct.html).
Late Arrival or Non-attendance at Examinations
The policy and procedure for late arrival or non-attendance at centrally controlled examinations is set out in the University's Examinations policy (HUPP 3.30.5), sections 8 and 10.2.
The way in which late arrival at a School-controlled examination is dealt with will be at the discretion of the course coordinator, who may be guided by the policy for centrally controlled exams.
In the case that a student requests a special exam for a School-controlled exam, the request will be considered and, if allowed, the timing shall be determined by the course coordinator, in consultation with the School's Chief Examiner where necessary, and in accordance with HUPP 3.30.5. Unless otherwise indicated in the Course Profile, applications must be made in writing to the Head of School no later than one week after the exam. Late applications will not be accepted.
Where an adjustment is made to an accredited program, it is the responsibility of the relevant Faculty to liaise with professional and registration bodies regarding the acceptability of the change/s.
Below is a table showing the relationship between the learning objectives for this course and the broader graduate attributes developed, the learning activities used to develop each objective and the assessment task used to assess each objective.
| Learning Objectives | |||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| Learning Activities | |||||
| Course introduction (Lecture) | |||||
| Signals and spectra (Lecture Series) |
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| Random signals and noise (Lecture Series) |
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| Baseband digital transmission (Lecture Series) |
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| Prac 1 (Laboratory ) |
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| Digitisation techniques for analogue signals (Lecture Series) |
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| Prac 2 (Laboratory ) |
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| Coding and information theory (Lecture Series) |
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| Prac 3 (Laboratory ) |
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| Bandpass digital transmission (Lecture Series) |
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| Spread spectrum systems (Lecture Series) |
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| Conclusion & review (Lecture) | |||||
| Assessment Tasks | |||||
| Class test |
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| Mid-semester exam |
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| Prac exam |
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| Team project report |
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| Final exam |
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| Learning Objectives | |||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| Graduate Attributes | |||||
| A IN-DEPTH KNOWLEDGE OF THE FIELD OF STUDY | |||||
| A2. A broad understanding of the field of study, including how other disciplines relate to the field of study. | |||||
| A3. A comprehensive and in-depth knowledge in the field of study. | |||||
| A5. An international perspective on the field of study. |
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| A7. An appreciation of the link between theory and practice. | |||||
| B EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION | |||||
| B1. The ability to collect, analyse and organise information and ideas and to convey those ideas clearly and fluently, in both written and spoken forms. |
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| B2. The ability to interact effectively with others in order to work towards a common outcome. |
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| B3. The ability to select and use the appropriate level, style and means of communication. |
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| B4. The ability to engage effectively and appropriately with information and communication technologies. |
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| B5. The ability to practise as part of an interdisciplinary team. | |||||
| C INDEPENDENCE AND CREATIVITY | |||||
| C2. The ability to work and learn independently and effectively. | |||||
| C3. The ability to generate ideas and adapt innovatively to changing environments. |
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| C5. The ability to formulate and investigate problems, create solutions, innovate and improve current practices. | |||||
| C6. The abilities and skills that provide a foundation for future leadership roles. | |||||
| D CRITICAL JUDGEMENT | |||||
| D2. The ability to apply critical reasoning to issues through independent thought and informed judgement. |
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| D4. The ability to process material and to critically analyse and integrate information from a wide range of sources. | |||||
| D5. The ability to evaluate opinions, make decisions and to reflect critically on the justifications for decisions using an evidence-based approach. | |||||
| E ETHICAL AND SOCIAL UNDERSTANDING | |||||
| E1. An understanding of social and civic responsibility. | |||||
| E3. An appreciation of the philosophical and social contexts of a discipline. | |||||
| E4. A knowledge and respect of ethics and ethical standards in relation to a major area of study. | |||||
| E5. A knowledge of other cultures and times and an appreciation of cultural diversity. | |||||
| E7. The ability to work effectively and sensitively across all areas of society. | |||||
| E8. An understanding of and respect for the roles and expertise of associated disciplines. | |||||
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Authorised by: Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) Maintained by: Software Services Last Updated - 24 May , 2006 |