course plans

[Neha]

hi guyz... has anyone decided about the courses you'll be taking in
the Fall semester or course schedule as a whole..??

[zach]

not yet, but i think we can do that whenever we get our cmu ids.. that
is if you don't want to wait to meet your academic advisors..

the blackboard is pretty useful if you want to see what you can do and
what you want to do.

select the course you're interested in here:
http://www.ece.cmu.edu/prospective/graduate/courses.html

then search for the course here:
https://blackboard.andrew.cmu.edu/bin/common/category.pl?type=COURSE

[Neha]

Now, since most of you have started receiving andrew Id's, I think we
should start discussing about courses and i'll also ask a few of ECE
seniors to join the group and guide us regarding courses.

[Chintan]

If you can ask any senior to join this group and tell us about the
courses then it would be of real help.
Also I came across this brilliant site to schedule for courses,
http://sched.tcpulse.com/
By just adding course nos, you can see the timetable for the whole
week, and that can be exported to Outlook / Google calender.

[Hemant Agrawal]

Hi guys,

Welcome to the course selection stage. What about the courses do you guys wanna know? Shoot email to the group email, I am listenin and will reply to all ECE course queries or will try to get info from my colleagues if not me.

Regards,
Hemant Agrawal.
(MS Electrical & Computer Engineering)
Carnegie Mellon University.

[Chintan]

Hi Hemant,

I have mostly decided upon these courses for fall.
My area of interest: Embedded Systems / Computer Systems

18-243: Introduction to Computer Systems (Though I know many things
earlier, Parth strongly suggested me to take this course)
18648 Embedded Real-Time Systems
18660 Numerical Methods for Engineering Design and Optimization (New
course, offered this year only. Any idea about it? )
18-667: Design of Integrated Embedded Systems

If you know which book you follow for 18648 and 18667, no info given
on course site.
Is taking 4 course in first sem is manageable or its a suicide?

Thanks,

On May 23, 7:52 am, Hemant Agrawal <hemanta...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi guys,
>
> Welcome to the course selection stage. What about the courses do you guys
> wanna know? Shoot email to the group email, I am listenin and will reply to
> all ECE course queries or will try to get info from my colleagues if not me.
>
> Regards,
> Hemant Agrawal.
> (MS Electrical & Computer Engineering)
> Carnegie Mellon University.
>

[prashanth]

We need to do 8 courses in all chitan.
http://www.ece.cmu.edu/prospective/graduate/masters/requirements.html
...and then look at the first link zach posted.

doesn't it make sense doing 2,3,3 instead?

[Hemant Agrawal]

hey guys,

i wanna clear something. 2,3,3 isnt allowed. for international students you have to do 3 atleast for the first two sems. for the last sem you will be registering for less than 3 inevitably and hence enrolled only as a part time student, which is not allowed in the first two sems. so no quesiton of being able to extend to 4 sems!!

Regards,
Hemant Agrawal.
(MS Electrical & Computer Engineering)
Carnegie Mellon University.

[aaditya nagendra]

Hi Hemant,

A couple of questions 4 u..

1. Can we register for a course now and later unregister ourselves..?? and if so, until what time before the course start can we do that..??

2. Is it better for us to register for the courses right now..?? or consult the academic advisor after arriving at CMU and then register..?? n if we desire to take a specialization related undergrad course so as to gear up for the main grad courses, does that also get counted for the credits..??

Thanks,

Aaditya

[Chintan Parikh]

Hi Aaditya,

To answer you questions,

1. Yes we can drop any time till Oct I guess, the exact date is mentioned on OLR site
2. Only one UG level course is counted towards MS, thus we have to choose them wisely.

Regards,

[Hemant Agrawal]

Answers:
1.yes and u can drop the course by the course drop deadline which is after the midterm gets over, which is about 6 weeks after the course starts, so u can taste the course and drop if u r getting bad grades or not liking it.

2. yes, you should reg for courses right away, advisors will help, though not much. classes get full earlier than u think. wes u can take undergrad courses, they can be counted toward ur degree.

Regards,
Hemant Agrawal.
(MS Electrical & Computer Engineering)
Carnegie Mellon University.

[Ramkumar Krishnan]

Hello Hemant, 

Thank you for all the valuable information ur providing us! 

I would like some information either from you or some friend perhaps of yours, who might be doing some work on DSP. I was checking the course list on this page: 

http://www.ece.cmu.edu/prospective/graduate/courses.html  

But many of these courses are not seemingly listed in the Fall 09 Schedule for 09, as given here: https://acis.as.cmu.edu/gale2/open/Schedule/SOCServlet

Can you please tell me why even some Fall scheduled courses seem missing ? The choices for DSP seems very very bare... Can u pls get us some more info on this.... It would help us a lot! 

Thank you

Cheers

Ram

[Hemant Agrawal]

1. the 2nd link is the official course schedule list. the 1st link is just a history of traditionally popular courses at ECE-CMU, but it is not the official list for forthcoming semesters. The website does provide a history about the course though, which should tell you how popular the course has been.

2. yes you are right, CMU is a interdisciplinary institute, you cannot expect to dive into depth in any one field, you have to diversify, the head of dept has told me that we call the program as 'professional masters' coz they strive to make us ready for the industry and equivalent to a phd student without the depth of the thesis level research. So, my point is, if you wanna do DSP in depth, take up basic courses as you mentioned and then if you like the work being done here (which is not indicated by the number of courses offered), enroll for phd. one of the three DSP guys in my batch converted to phd at the beginning of spring for the same reason, i guess.

hope the info clarifies your mind.

Regards,
Hemant Agrawal.
(MS Electrical & Computer Engineering)
Carnegie Mellon University.

[Arjun P Athreya]

@ all:

I am just completing my BE here(exams approaching too... :) ).

Now, I know what I intend to major in. But, when I choose courses how do i know which of these are lighter/heavier courses? I heard that work load on a few courses can be really high..so, whats the right way to enroll for courses because I might land up taking all heavy courses then..?? Should I wait till my adviser is allotted or...I do it like the way others are doing..?

Arjun

[Hemant Agrawal]

@arjun: all the best for ur BE exams

@all: regarding 'weight' of a course, it will be only clear to YOU when YOU will sit for first two weeks of classes, I stress YOU since the 'weight' is a relative quantity (and not mass, which is the material description you can see eon website and the course schedule) , if you understand the pun intended. advisors help is valuable, but turns out that it is statistically majorly not cared about by MS students.

Regards,
Hemant Agrawal.
(MS Electrical & Computer Engineering)
Carnegie Mellon University.

[Kshitiz]

@Ramkumar:
CMU ECE does not have many professors in pure DSP related areas and
hence limited courses. For Fall09 you can probably take 18751
(Stochastic Process), 18771 (Linear Systems). DSP is increasingly
seeing its applications along with Machine Learning so I also
recommend courses like 10701/11755. If you are interested in speech
signals 18492 (Special Topics: Speech Processing ) will be a good
match.

@all:
I will be able to answer queries related to Signals/Control related
course selection, do let me know if have any question.

@Chintan:
4 courses in a semester will be extremely difficult but many people
have done that in past. If you are intent on finishing in 2 semesters
then you may try doing that, otherwise 3,3,2 scheme seems the best.

@Aaditya:
You can drop course until Nov 2 (check CMU 09-10 academic calendar
http://www.cmu.edu/hub/09-10-academic-calendar.pdf), in this case the
course will not appear in your transcript. There is another rule where
you can drop your course right until a day before final exam, in that
case the course will appear in your transcript with a letter grade W
(Withdrawn). Anyway its always better to register for more courses
now, sample them in first 2 weeks and retain the ones you find
worthwhile.

@Arjun:
You must at least decide upon a big pool of courses and register for
them right now. As I understand, MS advisers wont have a lot of role
to play in your course selection. You can look at course FCE (click on
the course number and scroll to bottom of page) to collect some
statistics about the course/instructor in past.

Welcome to CMU and do take note of IGSA, http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/igsa/site/index.html
- you will probably need to use their temporary accommodation service
for your first few days in Pittsburgh.

--
Kshitiz Kumar
PhD Candiate (Robust Speech Group)
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~robust/

On May 25, 2:22 pm, Hemant Agrawal <hemanta...@gmail.com> wrote:
> @arjun: all the best for ur BE exams
>
> @all: regarding 'weight' of a course, it will be only clear to YOU when YOU
> will sit for first two weeks of classes, I stress YOU since the 'weight' is
> a relative quantity (and not mass, which is the material description you can
> see eon website and the course schedule) , if you understand the pun
> intended. advisors help is valuable, but turns out that it is statistically
> majorly not cared about by MS students.
>
> Regards,
> Hemant Agrawal.
> (MS Electrical & Computer Engineering)
> Carnegie Mellon University.
>
> On Mon, May 25, 2009 at 2:17 PM, Arjun P Athreya

> <arjunp.athr...@gmail.com>wrote:

>
> > @ all:
>
> > I am just completing my BE here(exams approaching too... :) ).
>
> > Now, I know what I intend to major in. But, when I choose courses how do i
> > know which of these are lighter/heavier courses? I heard that work load on a
> > few courses can be really high..so, whats the right way to enroll for
> > courses because I might land up taking all heavy courses then..?? Should I
> > wait till my adviser is allotted or...I do it like the way others are
> > doing..?
>
> > Arjun
>

> >>>http://www.ece.cmu.edu/prospective/graduate/courses.html<http://www.ece.cmu.edu/prospective/graduate/courses.html%C2%A0>

>
> >>> But many of these courses are not seemingly listed in the Fall 09
> >>> Schedule for 09, as given here:

> >>>https://acis.as.cmu.edu/gale2/open/Schedule/SOCServlet<https://acis.as.cmu.edu/gale2/open/Schedule/SOCServlet%C2%A0%C2%A0>

>
> >>> Can you please tell me why even some Fall scheduled courses seem missing
> >>> ? The choices for DSP seems very very bare... Can u pls get us some more
> >>> info on this.... It would help us a lot!
>
> >>> Thank you
>
> >>> Cheers
> >>> Ram
>

> >>>>> On Sat, May 23, 2009 at 11:04 PM, Hemant Agrawal <hemanta...@gmail.com

> >>>>> > wrote:
>
> >>>>>> hey guys,
>
> >>>>>> i wanna clear something. 2,3,3 isnt allowed. for international
> >>>>>> students you have to do 3 atleast for the first two sems. for the last sem
> >>>>>> you will be registering for less than 3 inevitably and hence enrolled only
> >>>>>> as a part time student, which is not allowed in the first two sems. so no
> >>>>>> quesiton of being able to extend to 4 sems!!
>
> >>>>>> Regards,
> >>>>>> Hemant Agrawal.
> >>>>>> (MS Electrical & Computer Engineering)
> >>>>>> Carnegie Mellon University.
>

[Ramkumar Krishnan]

Hemant and Kshitiz,

Thank you so much for your clarification. I have now understood the basis for CMU's thinking and offerings. I will conduct a more  thorough research about the courses on offer and inter-disciplinary options, and get back to you for more doubts! :P 

Thanks a bunch guys, seriously Great Job! 

Cheers

Ram

[Arjun Athreya]

Hi All,

I have seen the pool of subjects, and I have decided to take 18202
(which is all math...) and Introduction to Telecommunication. I am now
contemplating between a few more subjects mainly in security
(Information Security etc..) and wireless networks domain(Digital
Wireless communication, Wireless & Internet Policy etc).

I plan to choose the next subject or two in the weeks to come
though....

I am really happy with the help Hemanth and Kshitiz are offering....

Regards,

Arjun

On May 28, 2:39 pm, Ramkumar Krishnan <ram.cool1...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hemant and Kshitiz,
> Thank you so much for your clarification. I have now understood the basis
> for CMU's thinking and offerings. I will conduct a more  thorough research
> about the courses on offer and inter-disciplinary options, and get back to
> you for more doubts! :P
>
> Thanks a bunch guys, seriously Great Job!
>
> Cheers
> Ram
>

[Renegade]

Hi ppl,

I am planning to take 4 subjects this semester. I know that is not
considered wise but.....I gotta do it.
I have registered for the subjects:

18-243 Introduction to Computer Systems

18-756 Packet Switching and Computer NEtworks
(15-600 Java and J2EE Programming || 15-637 Web Application
Development) (Either will do)

However, I am really confused abt the fourth subject. I have to choose
between 18-730 Introduction to Computer Security and 15-857
Performance Modelling.

As far as I know, 18-730 is pretty light and is manageable
(relatively) as the fourth subject. But I am really not interested in
that subject. I really want to do 15-857 but I don't want to do it at
the cost of my grades (and sanity).

Just wanted to ask the seniors whether 15-857 is ok as the fourth
subject or should I stick to 18-730?
I don't think many ECE students would have taken up 15-857. In that
case, can you please suggest from where/whom can I get some accurate
info? I have already asked my academic advisor and he is clueless.

And btw, if you think neither of the two combinations is manageable,
please do tell me so I can either drop the idea of taking 4 subjects
or take up some other light (read loser) subject.

Regards,
Karan

[zach]

Hemant,

I plan on doing something in the field of microprocessors and data
storage, and now that I have to begin selecting courses, things are
getting quite confusing..

I've roughly decided on 6 graduate level subjects for the Fall
semester 09. Obviously I'm going to have to narrow that down to 4,
maybe 3 plus one UG course, but this is where I need some help from
someone who knows more about these subjects than I do.

The six courses I've registered some interest in, are:
18-610 – Fundamentals of Modern CMOS Devices
18-623 – Analog Integrated Circuit Design
18-715 – Magnetic Materials and Devices
18-740 – Computer Architecture
18-743 – Energy Aware Computing
18-614 – Microelectromechanical Systems

Would you recommend doing all four graduate level courses or three
grad courses now and one undergrad course? In either case, which do
you think I should select?

Another question (or many questions stemming from this) I have is
about the MS Graduate Project. It says it has a "variable" number of
credits, but is offered as a course. Do we have to register for this
as well? (Stemmed question no.1: ) Can we register for it in one
semester and then extend our project work over two or more semesters?
(I do understand, though, that it will benefit us if we begin working
on our projects after at least the first semester)

Thanks,
Zach

[Hemant Agrawal]

Hey Zach,

Frankly speaking, I do not have much idea about the courses that you are talking about. Though the names of the courses sound related to your interest, I cannot recommend any one over the other. I suggest that you register for the most of these and choose the final concoction once you attend the first two weeks of classes.

@all guys: add deadline is after first two weeks of classes and drop deadline is after two weeks from the midterm exam ( which is like 6 weeks from day 1). Also about MS graduate research project, only once you come here, talk to professors who share your interests, then you will decide if some professor and you want to work together according to your skill set and the project requirements. So the question of waiting a sem or not depends entirely upon you.

Regards,
Hemant Agrawal.
(MS Electrical & Computer Engineering)
Carnegie Mellon University.

[zach]

Hemant,

I'll do what you recommend. Does it show up in my grades as a black
mark if I register for a bunch of these subjects and then drop out
within the first 6 weeks? Does it make sense to register for all six
and then drop out of two or three courses. My main worry is that if I
drop out of a few, then they'll slap me with the same number of "W"s
in my gradesheet. Is the W a bad thing?

I understand what you say about the research project, but is this a
long affair spanning over multiple semesters, or is it to be
restricted to only one sem? Even (especially) if it's a massive
project..

Thanks,
Zach

On Jun 13, 3:54 am, Hemant Agrawal <hemanta...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hey Zach,
>
> Frankly speaking, I do not have much idea about the courses that you are
> talking about. Though the names of the courses sound related to your
> interest, I cannot recommend any one over the other. I suggest that you
> register for the most of these and choose the final concoction once you
> attend the first two weeks of classes.
>
> @all guys: add deadline is after first two weeks of classes and drop
> deadline is after two weeks from the midterm exam ( which is like 6 weeks
> from day 1). Also about MS graduate research project, only once you come
> here, talk to professors who share your interests, then you will decide if
> some professor and you want to work together according to your skill set and
> the project requirements. So the question of waiting a sem or not depends
> entirely upon you.
>
> Regards,
> Hemant Agrawal.
> (MS Electrical & Computer Engineering)
> Carnegie Mellon University.
>

[zach]

Does anyone know what the

" Semester
Mini-1
Mini-2 " words mean in the 2009 academic calendar?

Semester is pretty self-explanatory, but what are the Minis?

[Karan Handa]

Mini courses are the 6-unit courses..... they are taught in either the first half of the semester (Mini-1) or second half(Mini-2)......