Digital Signal Processing (Online)



Overview

A new, fully online course for those wanting to learn about Digital Signal Processing or refresh their DSP knowledge.

Based on the classroom course, Digital Signal Processing (Theory and Application), this online course consists of weekly live online tutorials and also includes a software lab that can be run remotely.

The course provides a good understanding of DSP principles, and their implementation and equips you to put the ideas into practice and/or to tackle more advanced aspects of DSP.

The 'Hands-on' laboratory session is included to illustrate the taught material. The hands-on session uses specially written software running on PCs* to simulate signals and systems in both the time and frequency domains and work through illustrations of basic DSP functions.

All delegates will receive an e-book copy of the latest edition of Understanding Digital Signal Processing by Richard Lyons (Pearson Education).

* The software can run on Microsoft Windows, Apple OSX and Linux

Benefits

By completing this course, you should be able to understand the workings of the algorithms we explore in the course and how they can solve specific signal processing problems.

This course will provide you with a comprehensive grounding in DSP concepts and algorithms, plus practical information on the design and implementation of DSP systems.

You will be given a good understanding of DSP principles and their implementation and equips you to put the ideas into practice and/or to tackle more advanced aspects of DSP.

The theoretical knowledge is illustrated by application examples, by demonstrations and by work in the laboratory.

Code examples will be provided although no specific coding experience is required.

Places are limited to 16 participants on this course, ensuring full advantage of laboratory practice.

Dates, Times and Delivery

Online tutorials are delivered via live video on Wednesdays each week and practical exercises are set to allow you to practice the theory during the week.

You will also have access to the course VLE (virtual learning environment) to communicate with other students, view and download course materials and tutor support is available throughout.

The live tutorials will be on Wednesdays from 13:00 - 14:30 and 15:00 - 16:30 (UK time) with a 30-minute break in between.

A world clock, and time zone converter can be found here: https://bit.ly/3bSPu6D

You should allow for 10 - 15 hours study time per week in addition to the weekly lessons and tutorials.

Programme details

Each unit will be covered in two x 1.5 -hour sessions over a period of six weeks.

Units

Unit 1

27 September - 1 October:

  • Introduction to DSP
    • Signal Processing
    • what is DSP?
    • advantages and disadvantages
    • quantisation and sampling
    • aliasing
    • anti-aliasing
    • reconstruction filters
  • Theoretical Foundations
    • difference equations and z transforms
    • finite and infinite impulse response filters (FIRs and IIRs)
    • poles, zeros and frequency response
    • correlation

Unit 2

4 - 8 October:

  • Digital Filter Introduction
  • Design of Digital Filters
    • FIRs and IIRs
    • Butterworth
    • Chebyshev and Elliptical filters
    • linear-phase, windowing
    • bilinear transform & frequency warping
    • direct synthesis by CAD
    • hardware & software implementations
    • wordlength
    • precision and stability

Unit 3

11 - 15 October:

  • Frequency Domain Processing Introduction
  • Frequency Domain Processing Application
    • continuous and discrete Fourier transforms
    • The fast Fourier transform (FFT)
    • applications
    • convolution
    • correlation

Unit 4

18 - 22 October:

  • DSP Laboratory
  • DSP Hardware and Systems
    • A/Ds, D/As and over-sampling
    • microprocessors
    • DSP processors
    • fixed and floating point comparisons
    • programming and debugging techniques

Unit 5

25 - 29 October:

  • ASIC Implementation Technologies
    • architectures for high performance
    • pipelining and bit-slices
    • carry-save and carry-look-ahead
    • array multipliers 
  • Some Typical DSP Applications
    • speech recognition
    • control
    • image recognition
    • radar
    • room response analysis
    • demonstrations

Unit 6

1 - 5 November:

  • Algorithm Implementation on programmable DSPs and Microcontrollers
  • Hands-On exercise review and wrap up

The course VLE will remain open and the materials are available to you for six additional weeks after the end of the course.

Certification

Participants who attend the full course will receive a University of Oxford electronic certificate of attendance. 

The certificate will show your name, the course title and the dates of the course you attended.

You will be required to attend all of the live sessions on the course in order to be considered for an attendance certificate.

Fees

Description Costs
Course fee, standard £895.00

Payment

Fees include electronic copies of course materials.

All courses are VAT exempt.

Register immediately online 

Click the “book now” button on this webpage. Payment by credit or debit card is required.

Request an invoice

If you require an invoice for your company or personal records, please complete an online application form. The Course Administrator will then email you an invoice. Payment is accepted online, by credit/debit card, or by bank transfer. Please do not send card or bank details via email.

Tutors

Mr John Edwards

Speaker

Sigma Numerix Ltd

Since obtaining his BEng (Hons) from the University of Bradford, in the 1980s, John has worked as a Signal Processing Applications Engineer for companies such as Loughborough Sound Images, Blue Wave Systems, Motorola, Picochip Designs and XMOS Semiconductors.

John now works as a Digital Signal Processing and Embedded Systems Consultant for Sigma Numerix Ltd. He has worked with DSPs in a wide range of applications including wireless (2G, 3G WCDMA and 4G LTE), Voice Over IP, voice band and broadband modems, control, medical instrumentation and noise and vibration analysis.

John has been a visiting lecturer at the University of Oxford since 1993 and teaches the annual Digital Signal Processing course as part of the Summer Engineering Program, for Industry.

John is a member of the IET, IEEE, and is a regular contributor of papers at international DSP conferences.

Mr Volker Mauer

Speaker

DSP IP Manager, Altera

Volker has a B.Sc. in Information & Communication Systems from Furtwangen University and a M.Sc. in VLSI Design from Bournemouth University.

He previously worked for GEC Plessey Semiconductors and Siemens Semiconductors in the development GPS and GSM chip sets.

He currently works for Altera, where he covers DSP design for several application areas, including communication systems, test and measurement and radar, and is involved in the definition of DSP features for new device families.

Volker is a member of the IET and IEEE, and a Chartered Engineer. He holds more than 20 patents in the area of efficient hardware implementation of DSP functionality.

Application

If you would like to discuss your application or any part of the application process before applying, please click Contact Us at the top of this page.

Level and demands

Graduate level engineers and computer scientists who have limited experience with, and/or limited knowledge of DSP. Although a reasonable competence in mathematics will be helpful it is not essential and all the basic theory will be covered from scratch. This course is an ideal "refresher course" for those who have previously studied DSP.

If you're uncertain whether this course is suitable for your requirements, please email us with any questions you may have.

IT requirements

This course is delivered online using Microsoft Teams. You will be required to follow and implement the instructions we send you to fully access Microsoft Teams on the University of Oxford's secure IT network.

This course is delivered online; to participate you will need regular access to the Internet and a computer meeting our recommended Minimum computer specification.

It is advised to use headphones with working speakers and microphone.

Terms & conditions for applicants and students

Information on financial support