PLACEMENT EXAMS 

 The chart below identifies exam(s) you

need to pass in order to take specific classes:

All graduate students (transfer, new, continuing) must take placement exams or take the course in order to satisfy the prerequisite requirement. NO EXCEPTIONS.

D-Clearance for classes requiring a prerequisite will only be given after passing the placement exam OR passing the prerequisite course. 

Items to bring:
- USC I.D. (passport or Driver's license is sufficient)
- Pencil with an eraser (no sharing of erasers)
-NO CALCULATORS or SCRATCH PAPER ALLOWED (you will use the exam)

-You will be able to login to view your results within 4 business days after taking the exam.

**All exams are 50-75 minutes and will begin promptly at the designated start time**

EE 441: Applied Linear Algebra for Engineering

Recommended Textbooks

• Linear Algebra with Applications by Gilbert Strang (3rd Edition) Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1988.

Brief Syllabus

• Vectors and Matrices, Gaussian elimination; LDU factorization,singular matrices; singularity & inverse
• Vector spaces; subspaces, all solutions to a general system, of linear equations, linear independence & dimension, rank
• Length, orthogonality, Schwarz inequality, least-squares approximation & projection, Gram-Schmidt orthogonalization & orthogonal matrices, sum and intersection of vector spaces
• Determinants
• Eigenvalues and Eigenvectors, use in solving di.erence and di.erential equations, Hermitian and Unitary matrices

To view an online module of EE-441 concepts please click on the following link: http://mapp.usc.edu/mastersprograms/currentstudents/tutorials.htm

EE 450: Introduction to Computer Networks

Recommended Textbooks

• Computer Networks by Peterson
• Data & Computer Communication by Stallings
• Computer Networks by Tannenbaum

Brief Syllabus

• Communications networks and services, classifications of networks, performance measures such as Throughput and Delay. The public Internet and PSTN. Convergence of services. Networking topologies.
• Network layered architecture, protocols and interfaces. OSI model, TCP/IP model, two- and three-tier client-server models, peer-process communications
• Data communications: Analog and digital signaling, sampling theorem, data and signaling rates, modems, time division and statistical multiplexing, link capacity, transmission media, line coding.
• Link layer Procedures: Error detection and control, flow control, sliding window procedures. Examples of link protocols including PPP and HDLC.
• Local Area Networks: Ethernet, Token rings and wireless LANs. Media access control procedures, CSMA/CD, Token Passing and CSMA/CA. Shared vs. switched LANs. LAN hardware and software components. LAN performance analysis
• TCP/IP and the Internet: The Internet Protocol, packet format, IP addressing and subnetting, fragmentation and re-assembly, address resolution protocol, routing and forwarding tables, routing algorithms (RIP, OSPF and BGP), transport layer protocols, TCP and UDP, connection establishment, end-to-end flow and error control procedures, advertised windows, slow-start, long-fat networks, congestion control, port and socket addressing, etc…

To view an online module of EE-450 concepts please click on the following link: http://mapp.usc.edu/mastersprograms/currentstudents/MOSVLSICircuitDesign.htm

EE457: Computer Systems Organization

Textbook

• Computer Organization & Design - The Hardware and Software Interface (2nd edition) by D. A. Patterson (Berkeley) and J. L. Hennessey (Stanford)

Brief Syllabus

• EE102L review: Basic digital system design -- Datapath unit design and Control unit design
• Basic concepts of assembly language, unsigned and signed numbers, Booth's multiplication and restoring and non-restoring division algorithms.
• CPU performance: relation between execution time of a program and the CPU specs (instruction count, clocks per instruction, and clock period).
• Compare and contrast CISC and RISC instruction sets, simple ALU design, CLA (carry look-ahead adder), CSA (carry save adder) and application to multiplication.
• CPU design: Single cycle CPU design, multi-cycle CPU design, pipelined CPU design including dependencies, hazard detection, stalling, forwarding, branching, flushing, branch penalty due to flushing, branch delay slots.
• Memory and cache organization: fully associative, direct, and set associative mappings, cache TAG RAMs, and cache DATA RAMs, interleaved main memory to facilitate fast block transfer between main memory.
• Virtual memory: page tables (single-level, multi-level), TLBs, introduction to multiprocessors, cache coherency (MESI protocol).

EE 464: Probability Theory for Engineers 

Recommended Textbooks

• Probability and Random Processes for Electrical Engineering, Second Edition, Addison-Wesley, 1994 by Leon-Garcia, A.

Brief Syllabus

• logic and sets, set algebras, probability axioms
• conditioning, independence, Bayes theorem
• combinatorics, binomial theorem, Poisson theorem
• random variables: set definition, densities and cumulative distributions
• expectations and moments of random variables
• covariance, correlation, uncertainty principles
• stochastic convergence: mean-square, almost sure, in probability and distribution
• laws of large numbers, conditional expectations.
• transformed densities, Gaussian random vectors.
• characteristic functions, central limit theorem.
• mean-square and maximum-likelihood estimation

EE 465: Probabilistic Methods in Computer Systems Modeling 

Recommended Textbooks

• Queueing Systems, Vol. 1 by Kleinrock
• Introduction to Probability Models by Ross
• A Course in Simulations by Ross

Brief Syllabus

• Probability models, joint and conditional probabilities, independent events, Bay's rule, permutations, combinatorics binomial coefficients, generating functions. Distribution and density functions, basic queueing theory.
• Queueing theory, analysis of several queuing models including M/M/1, M/M/c, M/M/c/c, M/D/1, etc…. Little's theorem, trunking theory including Erlang B and Erlang C models

EE 477: MOS VLSI Circuit Design

Recommended Textbooks

• Principles of CMOS VLSI Design by Weste and Eshroghian

Course description

• Analysis and design of digital MOS VLSI circuits including area, delay and power minimization. Laboratory assignments including design, layout, extraction, simulation and automatic synthesis.

Brief Syllabus

• Static characteristics: structure and (V-I) characteristics of MOSFETs, operation as a switch (including weak values), example CMOS and pass transistor circuits, static characteristics of CMOS and pseudo-nMOS inverters.
• Layout preliminaries: Introduction to semiconductor processing, layout, and design rules.
• Parasitics and performance: Estimation of parasitics from layout, analytical as well as empirical delay models for gates, wires, and pass transistors. Estimation of power dissipation.
• Design of complementary CMOS, pass-transistor and dynamic logic circuits.
• Design optimizations: Preferred gate types for various logic styles; buffer design for high fan-out, buffering long wires; transistor level optimizations --- body effect, charge sharing, diffusion capacitance minimization, and transistor sizing; custom layout optimization.
• Clocking; latch and flip-flop designs, clocking strategies.  

 To view an online module of EE-477 concepts please visit the following link:  http://mapp.usc.edu/mastersprograms/currentstudents/MOSVLSICircuitDesign.htm

EE 479: Introduction to Integrated Circuit Design

Recommended Textbooks 

• Analysis & Design of Analog Integrated Circuits, P. Grey, R. Meyer, et al., 4th Ed., John Wiley & Sons, 2001.
• Design of Analog CMOS Integrated Circuits, B. Razavi, McGraw Hill, 2001. 

Brief Syllabus (required material for the EE 536a placement exam) 

• Active devices principles of operation and modeling
  • Large signal and small signal models for MOS and BJT
• Single- and multi-stage transistor level amplifier design
  • Common source/emitter, common gate/base, source/emitter follower, cascode, etc.
• Differential circuits
  • Differential pairs, common-mode and differential-mode analysis, half circuit concept, etc.
• Current mirrors and active loads
• Biasing and voltage/current references
  • Voltage and temperature insensitive biasing, etc.
• Frequency response of amplifiers
  • Dominant pole, open circuit time constant analysis, short circuit time constant analysis, associating poles to nodes, etc.
• Noise in integrated circuits
  • Noise models in passive and active devices, circuit noise analysis, input referred noise sources, etc.
• Feedback
  • Basic concepts, circuit feedback models, etc.
• Frequency response and stability of feedback amplifiers

Note 1. In addition to the aforementioned syllabus, prospective EE 536a students are expected to have complete knowledge of EE 348L and EE 202 material. 

Note 2. Students who don’t pass the EE 479 placement exam, should enroll in EE 479. A minimum letter grade of “B” in EE 479 is required to allow for EE 536a registration without another placement exam. Students who pass EE 479 with a letter grade lower than “B” must pass the EE 479 placement exam as well.

Financial Engineering Placement Exam

Recommended Textbooks - Probabilty & Statistics

• Probability & Statistics for Engineers & Scientists, Walpole, Myers & Ye, 8th Ed., Prentice Hall.
• Probability, Statistics, and Random Processes for Electrical Engineering,Alberto Leon Garcia, Prentice Hall.
• Stochastic Processes, Sheldon Ross, 2nd Ed., John Wiley & Sons.

Recommended Textbooks - Linear Algebra

• Linear Algebra, B.Kolman, 7th Ed.

Brief Syllabus (required material for the MS FINE placement exam) 

Probability & Statistics

• Basic Probability
  
  •  sample space, axioms, additive rules, multiplicative rules, Bayes' rule, independent events, conditional probability, etc
• Random Variables
  
  • concept, discrete/continuous/joint probability distributions, mean, variance, covariance, linear combinations, functions of random variables
• Discrete Probability Distributions
  • uniform, binomial, hypergeometric, negative, geometric, binomial, Poisson
• Continuous Probability Distributions
  
  • uniform, normal, gamma and exponential, Chi-squared, lognormal, Student-t
• Fundamental Sampling Distributions
  • random sampling, sample mean/variance sampling distributions, Central limit theorem and its applications, normal approximations
• Estimation
  • unbiased estimators, interval estimation, estimation of the mean, confidence intervals, estimating a proportion, estimating the variance, maximum likelihood
• Hypothesis Testing
  • Null and Alternative hypothesis, type I and II errors, one and two tailed tests, significance levels, p-value, tests concerning mean with known and unknown variance
• Markov Chains
  • Invariant distributions, Reccurence and Transience, Chapman Kolmogorov equations, Limit Theorems, Random walks, basics of Brownian motion
• Frequency response and stability of feedback amplifiers

Linear Algebra

• Linear system of equations, method of elimination
• Matrices
  
  • addition, transpose, and product. Matrix frorm of a linear system of equations
• Solving a linear system of equations
  
  • Reduced low echelon form, Gauss-Jordan method, Homogeneous systems
• Determinants
  
  • Permutations. Properties of determinant. Geometric significance of determinant. Expansion in cofactors. Inverse of a matrix. Determinants from a computational point of view.
• Vectors in Rn
  • Norm. Angle between vectors. Definition of Group. Vector addition and scalar multiplication. Schwartz inequality. Triangle inequality Linear transformations. Coss product in R3
• Lines & Planes in R3
  • Real vector spaces. Linear combinations. Spanning. Linear independence. Basis. Dimension. Row space. Column space. Rank. Coordinates and change of Basis.
• Transition matrix
  
  • Orthonormal Bases. Gram-Schmidt Orthogonalization. Intersection, union, and sum of subspaces. Projections
• Eigenvalues and Eigenvectors
  
  • Characteristic equation. Similar matrices. The diagonal form of a matrix.