Circuits II

Course Description

Circuits II is a continuation of EEL3111 with emphasis on circuit applications of convolution, the Fourier series, and the Laplace and Fourier transforms.

Within the SCNS taxonomy, EEL is the Electrical Engineering prefix. The University of West Florida publishes this at 3 semester hours through the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, College of Science and Engineering. It is offered at approximately 7 Florida institutions.

This is the course where circuit analysis stops being algebra and becomes transform methods, and it is the pivot of the electrical engineering major. Circuits I teaches a student to solve a circuit; Circuits II teaches them to solve a system. Once a network is written as an impedance in the s-domain, differential equations become polynomial algebra, and the same apparatus then carries forward into signals and systems, control, communications, and power. Nearly everything downstream in the major assumes fluency in what is taught here, which is why the prerequisite chain into it is the most tightly specified in the prefix.

⚠ The mathematical maturity requirement is real and is enforced by the prerequisite structure. UWF requires differential equations (MAP2302) and an engineering analysis course alongside, which is an unusually explicit statement that the mathematics is not incidental. Students who arrive shaky on differential equations do not struggle with the circuits here — they struggle with the transforms, and the two are hard to tell apart from inside the course.

⚠ The contact-hour figure is derived — the University of West Florida publishes none

UWF's catalog publishes a credit value in semester hours, the college and department, prerequisites, and a description. It does not publish contact hours, a lecture and laboratory split, or terms of offering for any course. It does publish a material and supply fee notice on the minority of courses that carry one — and maintains a separate Material & Supply and Equipment Fees section of the catalog — so the absence of a fee notice on this entry is meaningful, while the fee amount is not published here. Every contact-hour value in a UWF guide in this repository is therefore derived. The figure here applies the standard lecture convention of 15 contact hours per credit, giving 45 hours for a 3-semester-hour course. Confirm the meeting schedule with the department.

Learning Outcomes

Required Outcomes

• Analyse first- and second-order circuit transients in the time domain.
• Apply the convolution integral to determine circuit response.
• Relate the impulse response to the transfer function of a network.
• Represent a periodic signal using the trigonometric and exponential Fourier series.
• Compute the Fourier series coefficients of common waveforms.
• Apply the Fourier series to determine steady-state response to periodic excitation.
• Compute and interpret the Fourier transform of aperiodic signals.
• Apply Parseval's theorem to energy and power calculations.
• Compute the Laplace transform and inverse Laplace transform of standard functions.
• Apply partial fraction expansion to invert rational transforms.
• Analyse circuits in the s-domain using transformed element models.
• Incorporate initial conditions directly into s-domain circuit models.
• Determine and interpret network transfer functions.
• Locate poles and zeros and relate their placement to time-domain behaviour.
• Assess stability from pole locations.
• Construct and interpret Bode magnitude and phase plots.
• Analyse frequency-selective networks and determine bandwidth and quality factor.
• Analyse resonance in series and parallel circuits.
• Analyse two-port networks using impedance, admittance, and hybrid parameters.
• Analyse magnetically coupled circuits and ideal transformers.
• Verify analytical results using circuit simulation software.

Optional Outcomes

• Analyse three-phase circuits and balanced power calculations.
• Design a passive filter to a specified frequency response.
• Describe the relationship between the Laplace and Fourier transforms.
• Apply state-variable formulation to circuit analysis.
• Analyse transmission-line behaviour at circuit level.

Major Topics

Required Topics

• Review of first- and second-order transients
• Impulse response and convolution
• Trigonometric and exponential Fourier series
• Fourier series response to periodic excitation
• The Fourier transform and its properties
• Parseval's theorem and signal energy
• The Laplace transform and its properties
• Inverse transforms and partial fraction expansion
• s-domain circuit models and initial conditions
• Transfer functions
• Poles, zeros, and time-domain correspondence
• Stability from pole location
• Frequency response and Bode plots
• Filters, bandwidth, and quality factor
• Series and parallel resonance
• Two-port network parameters
• Magnetically coupled circuits and transformers
• Circuit simulation as verification

Optional Topics

• Three-phase circuits
• Passive filter design
• Laplace and Fourier transform relationships
• State-variable circuit formulation
• Transmission lines at circuit level

Resources & Tools

• Nilsson and Riedel, Electric Circuits — the most widely adopted text for this sequence in the United States, and the one most Florida programmes use.
• Irwin and Nelms, Basic Engineering Circuit Analysis and Alexander and Sadiku, Fundamentals of Electric Circuits — the common alternatives; all three cover the same ground.
• LTspice (Analog Devices) — free; the industry-standard SPICE simulator, and the one most worth learning because practising engineers actually use it.
• Multisim or PSpice — frequently the department's licensed tool; check what UWF provides before buying anything.
• MATLAB — UWF holds a campus-wide licence at most Florida public universities; confirm and use it rather than purchasing. The Symbolic Math and Control System toolboxes are the relevant ones here.
• Python with SymPy, NumPy and SciPy — free, and a complete substitute for the symbolic transform work if MATLAB access is a problem.
• MIT OpenCourseWare 6.003 Signals and Systems — free; the transform material overlaps heavily and the lectures are excellent.
• IEEE (ieee.org) — student membership is inexpensive and includes society membership; the professional home for everything downstream of this course.
• A table of Laplace transform pairs and properties — free everywhere. Learn to derive the common pairs rather than only looking them up; exams frequently permit the table and test the application.

Career Pathways

• Electrical engineers — SOC 17-2071; this course is a gateway rather than a destination, and essentially every electrical engineering role assumes it.
• Electronics engineers, except computer — SOC 17-2072.
• Florida's defence and aerospace employers — L3Harris in Melbourne and Palm Bay, Lockheed Martin in Orlando, Northrop Grumman in Melbourne and St. Augustine, and Raytheon; RF, radar, and avionics work all sit directly on this material.
• Space Coast aerospace — Blue Origin, SpaceX and the launch support ecosystem around Cape Canaveral.
• Utilities and power — Florida Power & Light, Duke Energy Florida, TECO, JEA and Gulf Power in UWF's own region.
• Naval and defence engineering in Northwest Florida — NAS Pensacola, NSA Panama City, and Eglin Air Force Base employ engineers directly and through contractors, and this is UWF's immediate hiring region.
• Semiconductor and electronics manufacturing.
• Medical device engineering — a growing Florida sector.

Special Information

⚠⚠ The asterisk in a UWF prerequisite means the course may be taken at the same time

• UWF's catalog marks a concurrent course with an asterisk, defined on the catalog's Course Information page as: "This course may be taken prior to or during the same term."
• ⚠ This is the single most useful piece of notation in the UWF engineering catalog, and it is easy to miss. A prerequisite written without an asterisk must be completed first; one written with an asterisk may be taken in the same term.
• The practical effect is on time to degree. Reading an asterisked prerequisite as a hard prerequisite adds a term to the sequence for no reason, and in a tightly chained major like electrical engineering that error compounds down the whole plan.
• Confirm with an advisor before relying on it, and note that the registration system, not the catalog text, is what actually enforces the rule.

⚠⚠ The prerequisite structure is elaborate, and the grade conditions differ within it

• UWF publishes the requirement as: (EEL3111 AND MAP2302) AND (EGM4313* OR EGM3344*). Both branches must be satisfied.
• ⚠⚠ The grade conditions are not uniform, and this is unusual enough to state precisely. UWF requires a grade of C or better in the prerequisites, except MAP2302, which requires a C-minus or better. A student holding a C-minus in Circuits I does not meet the requirement; a C-minus in differential equations does.
• The second branch is asterisked, so the engineering analysis course (EGM4313 or EGM3344) may be taken in the same term as this one. That is a meaningful scheduling concession and students routinely miss it.
• ⚠ MAP2302 is not asterisked and must be completed first. Differential equations is the hard gate on this course.
• Verify against the registration system. Prerequisite text and what the system enforces can differ, and the catalog is not the enforcement mechanism.

⚠⚠ Where students actually lose this course

• Not on the circuits — on the mathematics. Students who can analyse any resistive network fail here because partial fraction expansion, complex arithmetic, and improper integrals are shaky.
• ⚠ Partial fraction expansion with repeated and complex poles is the single most common failure point, and it is a mechanical skill that rewards drilling. Practise it until it is boring.
• Complex numbers must be fluent in both rectangular and polar form, including division and roots. Hesitation here slows every problem in the course.
• ⚠⚠ Understand what the transform is doing, not just how to apply it. Students who treat Laplace as a lookup procedure pass this course and then fail control systems, where the pole-zero picture is the reasoning.
• Sign and units errors dominate exam losses. Carry units through the algebra rather than reattaching them at the end.
• Simulate to check, not to solve. SPICE confirms an answer and will not teach the method, and examinations do not permit it.

⚠ Workload and time commitment — be honest with yourself

• This is among the most demanding 3-credit courses in the electrical engineering curriculum, and 8 to 12 hours a week outside class is the realistic range. Students who budget the standard 6 fall behind in the transform unit and rarely recover.
• The material is strictly cumulative. A missed week compounds; there is no unit here that can be skipped and picked up later.
• ⚠ Do not take this in a term overloaded with other analysis-heavy courses if it can be avoided.
• Work problems by hand, in quantity. Reading worked solutions produces a strong and false sense of competence, which the first examination corrects expensively.

FE exam relevance

The Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) exam is the first step toward Professional Engineer licensure, and in Florida it is administered under the Florida Board of Professional Engineers. Most students take the FE Electrical and Computer exam in their final year. Licensure matters less in electrical engineering than in civil — the industrial exemption means most electrical engineers in manufacturing and product work never need a PE — but it is required for consulting practice, for sealing designs, and for power and building-systems work, which is exactly where Florida's utility and infrastructure employment sits.

Course format and position in the curriculum

• Lecture with problem sets and examinations. The laboratory component is carried separately by EEL3111L rather than being attached to this course.
• Typically taken in the second year or early third year, immediately after Circuits I, and it gates the upper-division sequence.
• ⚠ The queue title for this SCNS number is "Circuits 2"; UWF publishes it as "Circuits II." A trivial difference, noted only for completeness.
• UWF publishes no contact hours, lecture and laboratory split, or terms of offering for any course, and no material and supply fee is noted on this entry. Confirm the offering pattern with the department — a gating course in a small programme may run once a year, and UWF does not publish frequency either way.

How Florida course levels affect transfer

The first digit of an SCNS number denotes the year of offering, not transferability. Courses at the 1000 and 2000 levels transfer transparently between Florida public institutions, and 3000 to 4000 is unproblematic since both are upper division. The boundary that actually matters is 2000 to 3000, where lower-division credit generally cannot satisfy an upper-division requirement. ⚠ For engineering specifically, ABET-accredited programmes commonly require that upper-division engineering coursework be taken in residence, so transferability of the credit and applicability to the degree are separate questions.

EEL3112 is 3 semester hours at the University of West Florida.