Fri, 14 Jan 2022

My students in 382N.19 this semester,

First, welcome to EE382N.19.  I am looking forward to seeing you 
next Wednesday, although I will admit I am not happy that I will
not be teaching in-person, at least not initially.

I have received several emails from students asking if we will be 
on Zoom the whole semester.  The simple answer is that I have no 
idea.  The word we have gotten from the senior UT administration 
is that we will be on Zoom through January 28, but move to in-person 
on January 31.  What will actually happen, I assume, will be based
on the state of the pandemic much closer to January 31.

For my part, I am planning the course such that we will be in-person
starting January 31.  If that does not happen, we will adjust, as we
did two years ago when we moved to Zoom after the semester break.

Right now, I am scheduling two midterms, one written one in class, and
one individual oral one in my office in early April.  If we are on Zoom
in April, I will cancel the oral exam since much of its value is lost
if we do not actually do it in person.

The most important single element of the course is the 3-person design
project.  My hope is that your group will be able to meet regularly
in-person.  If not, we will have to fall back to Zoom, which is doable
but in my view not as good.  Similarly, I am hoping to conduct design 
reviews in person, although again, if we have to fall back to Zoom, it 
is doable but not as good.

The course webiste is now on line, easily accessible (among other ways)
from my home page www.ece.utexas.edu/~patt. Scroll down to the statement
that I am teaching 382N.19 this semester and click on the icon.  The
course descriptor, and some additional information are there.  We will
briefly go over it at the start of class on Wednesday.  It is probably
a good idea for you to look at it before then in case you have any
questions.

If you have any questions, and you choose to send me email, I will try
to respond quickly.

Enjoy the last weekend of your semester break.  Stay safe.  I hope you
get a lot out of 382N.19 this Spring.

Best wishes,
Yale Patt