EECS16A, Designing Information Devices and Systems I

Summer 2024

Scheduling Updates

If there are any special events to note, or deviations from the schedule as listed below, they'll be noted here!

6/21/2024: Final Exam Time and location has been updated in the syllabus and calendar. For quick reference, it is on Wednesday, 8/7, 6-9PM in Evans 60.

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Schedule

Lecture videos can be found in the bcourses modules page

(Please scroll horizontally if you're viewing this on your phone.)

Calendars

All office hours will be held in Soda 410.

Discussion Schedule

Each day's discussion covers different material. You only need to attend one discussion per day Monday to Thursday.



Resources

Ed (Ask Questions Here)

Homework Practice Problems

Textbook: Condensed Note Content Summaries and Practice Problem Solutions

This book consists of condensed sets of notes that summarize the important material from the course notes, as well as detailed solutions for the online Practice Problems! Here's the entire book and the Table of Contents. Individual chapters of the book (notes and solutions by practice set) can be found here (the links aren't perfect, you may need to scroll a tiny bit down for some chapters). A couple brief comments on using this resource:

  1. We recommend skimming the Introductory Chapter and the Conventions Chapter. These will provide some useful tips to keep in mind.
  2. Each chapter has a Relevant Information section and a Problems section. The first contains a (generally complete) summary of the corresponding content from the notes. The second contains the detailed solutions mentioned above.
  3. This resource may have errors or areas to improve in; if you spot something wrong and would like to mention it, or have feedback of any kind, please make a private post on ed.

Technology Needs (STEP)

Student Technology Equity Program (STEP). STEP provides laptops and other technologies for free and is for undergraduate, graduate, and professional students. It requires just a simple online application form. For details, see here.

Recommended Texts

Circuit Cookbooks

Extra Resources

Setting up How-To's

Videos

Past Exams

Past exams vary in scope from semester to semester, and may include topics that are not in scope for the current semester or module. Unavailable exams are indicated by N/A. In-scope topics for the current semester will be posted on Ed about a week before the corresponding exam.

Semester Midterm 1 Midterm 2 Final
sp24 pdf, sol pdf N/A
fa23 pdf, sol pdf, sol pdf, sol
sp23 pdf, sol pdf, sol pdf, sol
fa22 pdf, sol pdf, sol pdf, sol
sp22 pdf, sol pdf, sol pdf, sol
fa21 pdf, sol pdf, sol pdf, sol
sp21 pdf, sol pdf, sol pdf, sol
fa20 pdf, sol pdf, sol pdf, sol
su20 pdf, sol pdf, sol pdf, sol
sp20 pdf, sol pdf, sol pdf, sol
fa19 pdf, sol pdf, sol pdf, sol
sp19 pdf, sol pdf, sol pdf, sol
fa18 pdf, sol pdf, sol pdf, sol
sp18 pdf, sol pdf, sol pdf, sol
fa17 pdf, sol pdf, sol pdf, sol
su17 pdf, sol pdf, sol N/A
sp17 pdf, sol pdf, sol N/A
fa16 pdf, sol pdf, sol pdf, sol
sp16 pdf, sol pdf, sol pdf, sol
fa15 pdf, sol pdf, sol pdf, sol
sp15 pdf, sol pdf, sol pdf, sol

Practice Sets: Links to Notes and Solutions

It is very strongly recommend that you try the problems themselves here before looking at the solutions below. The links for solutions are not perfect, so you may need to scroll to the bottom of the linked page to find them. Give feedback by emailing at our course email.

Course Staff

Please add berkeley.edu to the end of all emails!

We also have 2 special emails for various purposes. Where applicable, please use these emails so that all relevant course staff can view the message. Note that we prefer for technical or content questions to go on Ed!

  • eecs16a.lab@: for any lab-related questions or concerns
  • eecs16a@: for anything else (including exam-related/administrative questions or concerns)

Instructor



Anish Dhanashekar
he/him/his
eecs16a@, aeroanish@


Sabriya Alam
she/her/hers
eecs16a@, sabriya.alam@


Moses Won
they/them/theirs
eecs16a@, moseswon@eecs.

Course Staff




Carol Li
Head Lab
she/her/hers
eecs16a.lab@, carol.li@

Oscar Gallegos
Lab TA
he/him/his
oscar.tapia.g@

Manooshree Patel
Discussion
she/her/hers
manooshreepatel@

SooHyuk Cho
Discussion
he/him/his
soohyuk.cho@

Erik Ma
Lab Staff
he/him/his
erikjma@

Ayesha Mahfuz
Lab Staff
she/her/hers
ayeshamahfuz@

Alex Um
Lab Staff
he/him/his
syeon-um@

Thomas Chen

he/him/his
tochen920@

Edward Lee

he/him/his
edwardneo@

Policies

For a full list of course policies and the syllabus, see here.

About

EECS 16AB Course Coverage

EECS16AB was specially designed to ramp students up to prepare for courses in machine learning and design and are important classes to set the stage for the rest of your time in the department. A rough breakdown of the content in the classes is as follows:

16A:
Module 1: Introduction to systems and linear algebra
Module 2: Introduction to design and circuit analysis
Module 3: Introduction to machine learning

16B:
Module 1: Differential equations and advanced circuit design
Module 2: Introduction to robotics and control
Module 3: Introduction to unsupervised machine learning and classification

FAQ

Q1: Should I take EECS16A my first semester at Cal?

A1: If you have taken an AP calculus class, then the answer is yes! EECS16A has no prerequisites other than calculus and is designed with freshmen and incoming transfer students in mind. It is designed to be taken alongside 61A. Furthermore, we reserve seats for freshmen and incoming transfer students in the class, so you are essentially guaranteed a spot in the class your first year. It will be harder to get into the class as an upperclassman.

Q2: Should I take EECS 16A and EECS 16B before or after CS 70?

A2: EECS16A and 16B were specifically designed to help ease the transition to CS70 for incoming students. These classes provide an introduction to proofs and the kind of mathematical thinking that is very useful in a class like CS70. We recommend you take 16AB before taking CS70, this should help you have an easier time in CS 70.

Q3: Should I take MATH 54 before taking EECS16A?

A3: EECS 16A is designed to be taken without any prerequisites, so there is no need to take MATH 54 before EECS 16A. EECS 16AB teaches linear algebra with the intent of preparing you for courses like EECS 127 (Optimization) and EECS 189 (Machine Learning) and provides engineering and machine learning examples and applications for linear algebra. EECS 16AB also uses Jupyter notebooks and python so you can better connect linear algebra and computation.

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