Signals and Systems

Electronics are increasingly being integrated into everyday items and everyday life.

Chips, sensors and antennas can be found in consumer electronics products (e.g. portable audio players, HDTV and DVB-H receivers) and communication devices (e.g. mobile phones, home appliances and cars), as well as in sophisticated equipment for science and industry (e.g. radar systems, control systems for robots, and medical systems).

Signal analysis and processing plays an important role in these electronic systems, being crucial to the acquisition of signals and the extraction and interpretation the information that the signals are presumed to carry. Signal processing is also used to interpret the nature of physical processes based on the observation of either a signal or the manner in which the process alters the characteristics of a signal. Electrical engineers who specialise in signals and systems design and develop electronic systems over a wide range of applications. Examples include the development of medical equipment (e.g. hearing aids or MRI scanners), wireless communication systems, radar and remote-sensing systems, large antenna arrays for radio astronomy and control systems (e.g. adaptive optics or the control of swarms of satellites).