The foundation. Required for every physics major, this is the very first electrical engineering course most students will ever take — typically in sophomore year. Op-amps, filters, transistors, comparators, oscillators, and analog signal chains — designed, simulated in Multisim, soldered, and debugged from first principles on a breadboard.
How students experience PHYS 252 Working in pairs during Week 1, students design their circuit on paper, simulate in Multisim, and submit a schematic with a bill of materials. In Week 2, they build alone — nobody may touch their circuit but them. No help from peers or TAs on debugging. They have three hours and an oscilloscope. If it works, an instructor signs off. If it doesn't, they learn something more valuable: how to face a problem that has no answer key.
Before the final project, students complete nine progressive labs — each building the specific analog skills they will need. Every lab includes a written report with circuit photographs, oscilloscope captures, error analysis, and reflections on debugging.
Every spring, Dr. Yang designs a new final project that requires students to synthesize everything from the semester — op-amp topologies, filter design, signal conditioning, comparators — into a single working circuit. The project changes every year. The constraint never does: it must be built on one breadboard, with parts from the course inventory, in a single afternoon.
A stereo audio mixer combining two sources — background music and vocal track — with independent volume control, 2-band active tone shaping (bass at 100 Hz, treble at 10 kHz), and three logic-driven LED indicators showing channel presence and active mixing state.
An audio volume visualizer driving 12+ LEDs across four color-coded threshold levels. Compatible with function generator, microphone, and 3.5mm audio jack. Features adjustable sensitivity, preamplifier with variable gain, and a low-pass filter for noise reduction.
A multi-band analog equalizer with at least three adjustable frequency bands (from sub-bass to upper treble), variable gain per band (±12 dB), and color-coded LED brightness indicators reflecting the gain level of each band in real time.
A C-to-V converter measuring capacitance from 10 nF to 100 nF using only discrete components — no oscilloscope, no function generator, no capacitance setting on the multimeter. Just analog ingenuity, a calibration curve, and five mystery capacitors to identify within 10%.
千里之行，始於足下。Tao Te Ching · Chapter LXIV“A journey of a thousand miles
begins beneath your feet.”