Exploring a Career in Digital Signal Processing

[Blade_Runner]

Career in DSP!

I am doing b.e electrical and electronics from bits-pilani , india.
I have just completed my second year.
I had a course on signal and systems(fourier, laplace, sampling etc.) in my fourth semester.It has aroused my interest in dsp field.
Can anyone here guide me on how to proceed with my education in this field so that i could have both theoritical and practical knowledge in the field.
Also is it necessary to choose a specific field such as image, audio , video processing right from the beginning or should i take a course on general dsp first?
And my last question is directed towards indian members on this forum.I know of the huge scope of dsp outside. Does India has the same scope for a career in dsp field..

 

[Blade_Runner]

some1 please reply ...need guidence..
I had one more doubt..IS dsp(i mean when i practically work as a dsp engineer) much of coding stuff or hardware oriented??

 

[Blade_Runner]

Dsp!

I am doing b.e electrical and electronics from bits-pilani , india.
I have just completed my second year.
I had a course on signal and systems(fourier, laplace, sampling etc.) in my fourth semester.It has aroused my interest in dsp field.
Can anyone here guide me on how to proceed with my education in this field so that i could have both theoritical and practical knowledge in the field.
Also is it necessary to choose a specific field such as image, audio , video processing right from the beginning or should i take a course on general dsp first?
And my last question is directed towards indian members on this forum.I know of the huge scope of dsp outside. Does India has the same scope for a career in dsp field..

 

[berkeman]

I merged your two threads into this one -- only one thread per question is allowed here.

DSP is a fun and interesting field. Yes, taking a general DSP class is a good first step. Also, I really like this intro DSP text:

"Designing Digital Filters", by Charles S. Williams

It's a good book for self-study as well, if you want to start learning on your own.

 

[0xDEADBEEF]

DSPs do all kinds of fast signal processing, so it is easy to imagine lots of places in industry where they are useful, BUT thinking that you take a special course and that will ensure your career is completely misguided.
Things are so simple when you look at it. General courses are useful to get a good understanding, whereas specialized courses help you to get employed in a small field of Industry. In the end it's all just programming.
Why don't you ask people who have already taken the courses if the professors are any good. And then there should be a lab course where you can get some hands on experience. Electronics is fun if you do it right.
If there is no lab course get a DSP evaluation board a signal generator and a scope and see what you can build. The more that you have build by yourself the more skills you bring into your first job and the less you need to rely on others to tell you what to do.
If you need ideas go here: http://www.dsprelated.com/

 

[Blade_Runner]

And then there should be a lab course where you can get some hands on experience.

We don't have a separate lab course in our college but the lab is integrated with the dsp course..

If there is no lab course get a DSP evaluation board a signal generator and a scope and see what you can build. The more that you have build by yourself the more skills you bring into your first job and the less you need to rely on others to tell you what to do.

Should i start working on dsp boards just from the beginning or should i first work on softwares such as MATLAB and after about 6-7 months jump to dsp boards..( I understand that writing a algoritm on MATLAB is a differt thing and implementing that algorith on dsp chips a complete different thing alltogether)

DSPs do all kinds of fast signal processing, so it is easy to imagine lots of places in industry where they are useful, BUT thinking that you take a special course and that will ensure your career is completely misguided.
Things are so simple when you look at it. General courses are useful to get a good understanding, whereas specialized courses help you to get employed in a small field of Industry. In the end it's all just programming.

That's what i really want to know.When is the right time to jump onto a specialized course??
I am particularly interested in image processing and audio codecs..and i want to make a career out of it..what should i do for it??

Electronics is fun if you do it right.

I am asking all these , might be weird questions , just because i want to do it right.

 

[berkeman]

Should i start working on dsp boards just from the beginning or should i first work on softwares such as MATLAB and after about 6-7 months jump to dsp boards..

You can even just use Excel for the beginning DSP stuff. I wrote a couple demo programs in Excel as I worked though the Williams book I mentioned. That really helped me to play with some of the processing, to get a more intuitive feel for how it worked.

And yeah, after you get through the basics, probably MATLAB or some DSP platform would be good. Especially if you are interested in video processing, you can look around for a DSP platform that is equipped to work with video data.

 

[Blade_Runner]

You can even just use Excel for the beginning DSP stuff. I wrote a couple demo programs in Excel as I worked though the Williams book I mentioned. That really helped me to play with some of the processing, to get a more intuitive feel for how it worked.

And yeah, after you get through the basics, probably MATLAB or some DSP platform would be good. Especially if you are interested in video processing, you can look around for a DSP platform that is equipped to work with video data.

Interesting...I never knew excel can be used for dsp stuff..
Can you post link to some online tutorial on dsp using ms excel ...it would be difficult for me to buy the book as it might not be easily available in india..(ayleast at my place..)

 

[berkeman]

Interesting...I never knew excel can be used for dsp stuff..
Can you post link to some online tutorial on dsp using ms excel ...it would be difficult for me to buy the book as it might not be easily available in india..(ayleast at my place..)

Using Excel, you just list the input data in the first column, and for each input, you have the difference equation for the filter in the next column. The equation in the 2nd column varies, depending on whether it is a FIR or IIR filter, and what the coefficients are, and what the order of the difference equation is. The equation is repeated at each row, but each result is different because it depends on the current input and the values preceding it. You can put the coefficients in separate absolute cells, so that you can adjust them after each calculation run.

You can graph the filter output column as a function of the input column, to see the time-domain data. I have an old practice Excel spreadsheet showing LPF, HPF and BPF waveforms -- PM me if you want me to e-mail you a copy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_filter

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