Collage of images depicting various signal processing methods and applications.

Much of what we do today, if we do it successfully, depends on the digital analysis and control of signals. Our computers, smart phones, video cameras, microwaves, GPS systems, all record and process discrete data signals. Without the signals, nothing works. Understanding those signals by mastering the relevant mathematics is essential for scientists and engineers to enable us to do what we do: make phone calls, play video games, record sounds and images, make and record transactions, fly aircraft, analyze big data . . .

Professor Alan Oppenheim has taught signal processing at MIT for decades. Starting on Feb 3, open to the public on the edX platform, Dr. Oppenheim offers 6.341x Discrete Time Signal Processing. Taught with colleague Dr. Thomas Baran, this course provides “both an in-depth and an intuitive understanding of the theory behind modern discrete-time signal processing systems and applications.”

The course is organized into 11 units, each of which consists of two to four topics. The course videos are adapted from recordings of a class recently taught on the MIT campus. The textbook, written by Professor Oppenheim and Ronald W. Schafer, is available free in viewable form on the course site. The course topics have auto-graded problem sets for self-assessment, and students can interact with each other in an online discussion forum.

People interested in getting a foretaste of this course might explore OCW’s 6.341 Discrete-Time Signal Processing, a published version of the course Professor Oppenheim taught at MIT in 2005. Those who would like to bone up on the basics of signals and systems can get going with OCW’s 6.011 Introduction to Communication, Control, and Signal Processing, as taught on campus by Professor Oppenheim in 2010.

OCW also has a supplemental resource including some of Dr. Oppenheim’s earlier on-campus lectures: Digital Signal Processing.

 — Joe Pickett, OCW Publication Director