Signals and Systems using MATLAB: an integrated suite of applications for exploring and teaching media signal processing

Effectively teaching introductory media signal processing (MSP) to students requires a means of communicating complex concepts without advanced mathematics. At the Media Arts and Technology program at UCSB we are teaching graduate media arts students concepts of MSP. These students, while interested in learning how their digital tools work, have an incredibly tough time working through the material the way traditional engineering students do. To address this we have used MATLAB to build a comprehensive suite of exploratory demonstrations and applications tailored to illustrate sophisticated concepts, and to inspire students that may not possess a strong background in mathematics. Our application, "Signals and Systems using MATLAB" (SSUM), is presented here, and its use in a course designed to teach MSP to media arts students is discussed. Its usefulness extends beyond media arts to engineering and computer science curriculum. SSUM can be obtained for free from http://www.mat.ucsb.edu/tildeb.sturm