Instructions for Completing ECEN 220 Laboratory Assignments

It is essential that you carefully read through this in order to understand how to successfully complete a lab assignment. All labs follow a specific format and require the following:

1. Completing the lab assignment
2. Completing the lab report
3. Passing off the the lab in person with a TA

Each of these will be described in detail below.

Each lab assignment is carefully designed to help you learn specific skills and apply material you learn in the classroom. They are all organized with the following sections:

• Learning Objectives: a brief summary of the main points at the beginning of each lab.
• Preliminary: prerequisite material or work that needs to be completed before you arrive at your scheduled lab time.
• Exercises: a number of steps to be completed in order to pass off the lab assignment. These exercises build upon each other and should be completed in the order in which they are presented. Most exercises will have questions or design/simulation tasks that are required for the lab report and pass off.
• Pass Off: some exercises require a pass-off at the end of them. At the end of the lab, there is a final pass-off. These must be completed in the lab, in person, with a TA. The requirements for each lab's pass off will be described at the end of each lab page. More details on the pass off are described in the Pass Off section of this document.
• Personal Exploration: Some labs will ask you to perform some personal exploration once you have the basic lab completed. This personal exploration activity should involve at least 15 minutes of effort beyond the minimum requirements of the lab. You are required to document your personal exploration activity in your lab report. Some suggestions are provided for you but you should pick anything that is exciting to you! If the lab does not explicitly require a personal exploration, you need not do one.

All lab descriptions contain resources to help you complete the lab exercises including instructional videos, links to external web pages, SystemVerilog files, and code examples.

The lab exercises will frequently ask you to answer questions or complete simple problems. These questions are to help test your understanding and should be completing before proceeding farther in the lab. Students who skip over the questions and proceed directly to the lab exercises will not be prepared to complete the exercise. If you do not know how to answer a question, consult with a teaching assistant, other students, or the instructor. It will be very difficult to complete the lab exercises properly without having a good understanding of the answers to the questions in the lab. These tasks are always colored red and you will answer these questions in your lab notebook and on Learning Suite.

Many labs also contain tutorials. These are intended to teach needed concepts so that the lab itself can focus on putting them into practice. It is very important that you read the tutorials when they are presented. To see a list of all the tutorials, go here. A link to the tutorials page is also included in the sidebar to the left.

Many of the labs discuss topics that are taught in the textbook. References to these sections will be presented with footnotes. ¹⁾

In addition to completing the lab exercises, you are required to use a lab notebook to work through questions and to record your pass-offs.

The heading of each report should include the following:

• ECEN 220: <Semester>
• <Lab #> : <Lab Name>
• <Last Name>, <First Name>
• <Section Number>

You should also leave room at the top of your report for TA pass-offs.

Here is an example on how this should be done:

ECEN 220: Winter 2018
Lab #1: Introduction to Digital Systems
Smith, John
Section 1

Exercise 1: _________ Exercise 2: __________

Final Pass Off: ___________________ Date: _________

After the heading, you will need to answer the questions associated with the Preliminary section and each of the Exercises. Then you will need to copy your answers to the Learning Suite quiz that is associated with this lab.

Even though you will use a lab notebook for your work and to record Pass Off signatures, your answers must be entered on Learning Suite to receive credit.

Pass offs are designed for you to demonstrate what you have learned from each exercise. Each exercise has instructions for passing off that section. You enter the required Lab Passoff (the questions in green) on the Lab Passoff 'x' assignments.

When you have done so, a TA will initial your lab notebook. At the end of the lab, you will complete a final pass-off, typically demonstrating your working module. Once you have completed this pass off, a TA will sign and date your lab notebook and enter the grade on Learning Suite. Each pass off must be completed by a TA in person in the lab room.

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