Network Analysis (EET3716C)

Course Description

Network Analysis is the transition course of an electronics engineering technology bachelor's programme: the point where circuit analysis moves from steady-state phasor methods into transient analysis, Laplace transform techniques, transfer functions, frequency response, and Bode plots. Daytona State's published description for the number names exactly that content — "transient analysis of first- and second-order circuits, circuit analysis using Laplace transforms, transfer function, frequency response analysis, and Bode plots."

Within the SCNS taxonomy, EET is the Electronic Engineering Technology prefix and the C suffix marks an integrated lecture-and-laboratory course. Miami Dade College publishes EET3716C at 4 credits under the title "Advanced System Analysis," with prerequisites EET1025C and MAC2312. Contact hours are given here as 80, matching the published 4-credit EET4158C that sits immediately downstream of it in the same programme.

This course earns its position. It is where the tools that make the rest of an electronics curriculum possible are installed — the transfer function is the object that signal processing, control systems, communications, and filter design are all built on, and every one of those courses assumes it without reteaching it.

Learning Outcomes

Required Outcomes

• Analyze the transient response of first-order RL and RC circuits.
• Determine time constants and initial and final conditions.
• Analyze the transient response of second-order RLC circuits.
• Distinguish overdamped, critically damped, and underdamped response and calculate the damping ratio.
• Describe natural and forced response and the complete response of a network.
• Apply the Laplace transform to circuit elements and to circuit analysis.
• Transform circuits into the s-domain and analyze them there.
• Apply the inverse Laplace transform, including partial fraction expansion.
• Account for initial conditions in s-domain analysis.
• Derive transfer functions for networks.
• Determine poles and zeros and relate them to circuit behaviour and stability.
• Determine and sketch frequency response magnitude and phase.
• Construct and interpret Bode plots, including asymptotic construction.
• Apply decibel notation correctly to voltage, current, and power ratios.
• Analyze passive and active filters and determine cutoff frequencies.
• Describe resonance, bandwidth, and quality factor in analytical terms.
• Apply network theorems to networks containing dependent sources.
• Simulate transient and frequency response and interpret the results.
• Measure step response and frequency response in the laboratory.
• Reconcile analytical, simulated, and measured results and explain discrepancies.
• Report analysis and experimental work to professional technical standard.

Optional Outcomes

• Describe two-port network parameters.
• Introduce the Fourier series and non-sinusoidal excitation.
• Describe filter design methods and approximations.
• Introduce state-variable formulation.
• Describe stability criteria for networks and systems.
• Use MATLAB or an equivalent for symbolic and numerical analysis.

Major Topics

Required Topics

• First-order transient analysis
• Time constants; initial and final conditions
• Second-order transient analysis
• Damping and response classification
• Natural, forced, and complete response
• The Laplace transform and transformed circuit elements
• s-domain circuit analysis
• Inverse transforms and partial fractions
• Initial conditions in the s-domain
• Transfer functions
• Poles, zeros, and stability
• Frequency response: magnitude and phase
• Bode plots
• Decibels
• Passive and active filters
• Resonance, bandwidth, and Q
• Dependent sources
• Simulation of transient and frequency response
• Laboratory measurement of step and frequency response
• Reconciliation of theory, simulation, and measurement
• Technical reporting

Optional Topics

• Two-port parameters
• Fourier series
• Filter design and approximations
• State-variable methods
• Stability criteria
• MATLAB or equivalent tooling

Resources & Tools

• Fundamentals of Electric Circuits (Alexander & Sadiku) — the best match for this course's Laplace and frequency-response content.
• Electric Circuits (Nilsson & Riedel) — the other standard; excellent on transient analysis.
• Introductory Circuit Analysis (Boylestad) — carried forward from the lower-division sequence.
• Schaum's Outline of Electric Circuits — inexpensive and dense with worked problems, which is what this course needs.
• LTspice — free from Analog Devices, the industry-standard free SPICE simulator, and worth learning properly.
• NI Multisim — used in many Florida programmes; check whether your college provides a student licence before buying one.
• Falstad Circuit Simulator — free, browser-based, and unmatched for building intuition because it animates current flow.
• All About Circuits (allaboutcircuits.com) — free textbook-quality reference from DC fundamentals through AC analysis.
• MIT OpenCourseWare and Khan Academy — free, and the circuit-analysis material is genuinely good.
• MATLAB (check your college's licence) or Octave / Python with SciPy and control — free alternatives that do Bode plots, pole-zero maps, and step response perfectly well. Learning the free stack is the more portable skill.
• A calculator with symbolic capability helps with partial fractions, though doing them by hand is the point early on.
• Brian Douglas on YouTube — free, and outstanding on transfer functions, poles and zeros, and Bode plots. The single best supplementary resource for this material.

Career Pathways

• Electronics engineering technologist — SOC 17-3023; this course is the analytical core of the degree.
• Test and measurement engineering — characterizing frequency and step response is literally the job.
• Filter and analog design support.
• Control and automation — the transfer-function machinery here is the direct prerequisite for control systems.
• Communications and RF — frequency response and Bode analysis underpin it.
• Signal processing support roles — the continuous-time foundation for digital signal processing.
• Aerospace and defence — L3Harris (Palm Bay/Melbourne), Lockheed Martin (Orlando), Northrop Grumman, and Space Coast launch providers; systems analysis skills are directly recruited.
• Power electronics and utilities — FPL, Duke Energy Florida, Siemens Energy (Orlando).
• Instrumentation and medical devices.

Special Information

⚠⚠ The same number carries different titles, credits, and scope across Florida

A pronounced example of SCNS variation, and it matters because this course is a prerequisite gate everywhere it appears.

• Miami Dade College: EET3716C "Advanced System Analysis," 4 credits, prerequisites EET1025C and MAC2312.
• Daytona State: EET3716 "Network Analysis," 3 credits (unsuffixed — a different course number under SCNS).
• Some published prerequisite listings give MAC2311C or EGN2045 together with EET1021C — a different mathematics entry point and a different circuits prerequisite.
• Three things vary at once: title, credit value, and prerequisite chain. That combination makes "I took the equivalent course" an unreliable claim.
• Calculus is the real gate. Whether your catalog says MAC2311, MAC2312, or EGN2045, this course uses differential equations in disguise — the Laplace transform exists to turn them into algebra — and arriving without calculus fluency is the most common way to fail it.
• The suffix is part of the number. EET3716C and EET3716 do not articulate to each other automatically. Get any transfer determination in writing.
• It gates the rest of the degree. At Miami Dade, EET3716C is the prerequisite for EET4158C, EET4730C, and EET4732C — three separate downstream courses. A delay here delays everything.

⚠ Laplace is a tool, not a ritual — learn what it is doing

The conceptual advice that most changes outcomes in this course.

• The transform exists to turn calculus into algebra. A circuit with inductors and capacitors is described by differential equations; the Laplace transform converts them into algebraic equations in s, which you already know how to solve. That is the whole idea, and students who grasp it stop treating the tables as magic.
• Impedance generalizes. You already accepted that a capacitor has impedance 1/(jωC) in steady state. In the s-domain it is 1/(sC). The methods you learned — series/parallel, mesh, nodal, Thevenin — all still work, unchanged. Very little is new; the algebra is just over a different field.
• Partial fractions are where the marks are lost. The technique is mechanical but unforgiving, especially with repeated and complex poles. Practise until it is boring.
• Poles are physically meaningful. A pole's real part is a decay rate; its imaginary part is an oscillation frequency; a pole in the right half-plane means the thing blows up. Learn to read a pole-zero plot as a prediction of behaviour, and the rest of the course becomes intuitive.
• Bode plots should be sketched before they are computed. Asymptotic construction by hand — corner frequencies, slopes of ±20 dB per decade — is the skill; the software plot is the check.
• Decibels are a constant source of errors. 20 log for voltage and current ratios, 10 log for power. Getting this wrong by a factor of two is routine and always costly.
• Verify on the bench. A measured step response and a swept frequency response make the mathematics concrete in a way no amount of problem-solving does.

⚠ The mathematics is the course — do not treat it as background

The single most common reason students struggle in circuits courses, and it is almost never the electronics.

• AC analysis runs on complex numbers, and students who are shaky on rectangular-to-polar conversion, complex arithmetic, and phasor notation experience the whole course as impossible. It is not the circuits; it is the algebra.
• Trigonometry must be fluent, not merely passed. The prerequisite is typically MAC1114 or higher for a reason — sinusoids, phase angles, and phasor diagrams are trigonometry with electrical units attached.
• Simultaneous equations are the working tool. Mesh and nodal analysis produce systems of equations, and solving three or four unknowns by hand — and by calculator matrix functions — must be routine.
• Learn your calculator properly. Complex-number mode, polar/rectangular conversion, and matrix solving on your specific calculator will save hours across the term. Learn them in week one, not the night before the exam.
• Units and prefixes cause more wrong answers than concepts do. Milli, micro, nano, and pico errors are the classic silent failure; carry units through every calculation and check that the answer is physically plausible.
• Sanity-check every result. A resistor dissipating 400 watts in a circuit powered by a 9-volt battery is wrong, and noticing that is a skill worth deliberately building.

⚠ Laboratory practice: safety, and the habits that make measurements mean something

• Low voltage is not zero risk. Bench supplies are usually survivable, but line voltage, charged capacitors, and inductive kick are not — a large electrolytic capacitor holds a dangerous charge after the supply is off, and an inductor interrupted under current produces a voltage spike far above the source.
• One hand in the pocket is the old rule for a reason: it keeps current from crossing the chest.
• Power down before rewiring, and verify with a meter rather than with the switch position.
• Meter loading changes the circuit. A voltmeter in parallel and an ammeter in series both perturb what they measure, and an ammeter placed across a source is how meters and fuses die.
• Ground references matter on an oscilloscope. The probe ground clip is tied to earth on most bench scopes — clipping it to a node that is not at ground potential creates a short through the instrument. Differential measurements need a differential probe or a proper technique.
• Component ratings are real. A quarter-watt resistor asked to dissipate a watt will fail, sometimes dramatically, and electrolytic capacitors installed backwards vent.
• Record what you actually measured, not what you expected. A lab notebook whose numbers match theory exactly is usually a notebook that was not kept honestly, and the discrepancies are where the learning is — component tolerance, meter loading, source impedance, and lead resistance all show up in real data.
• Simulate and measure both. LTspice and Multisim predict; the bench tells you what the world did. Where they disagree, something in your model is missing, and finding out what is the entire point.

⚠ Only about two Florida institutions carry this number — hedge accordingly

This course number appears at roughly two institutions statewide, and — as the sections above document — they do not agree on title, credit value, or scope. Content varies far more than it would for a widely taught course. Read your own institution's catalog description and syllabus rather than assuming this guide describes your section, and have any transfer evaluated in writing before you rely on it.

⚠ Engineering technology is not engineering — the articulation asymmetry

The transfer fact that costs students the most time when they learn it late.

• B.S. and B.A.S. engineering technology degrees are applied degrees, distinct from A.B.E.T.-accredited engineering programmes, and the credit does not flow freely between them.
• Engineering technology mathematics does not substitute for the engineering sequence. EGN2045 / EGN3046 ("Engineering and Technology Calculus") typically does not satisfy MAC2311 / MAC2312 for an engineering major. The asymmetry runs one way: the engineering sequence will satisfy the technology requirement, not the reverse.
• The FE exam pathway differs. Florida's PE licensure route under Chapter 471, F.S. is built around an A.B.E.T.-EAC accredited engineering degree. Graduates of engineering technology programmes face additional experience requirements, and the rules have changed over time. Rule 11 applies — verify with the Florida Board of Professional Engineers and FBPE/NCEES directly, not from a programme brochure.
• This does not make the degree lesser. Engineering technology graduates are hired as engineers in fact if not in title across Florida's aerospace, defence, power, and manufacturing sectors — Space Coast contractors, L3Harris, Lockheed, Siemens Energy, and the utilities all recruit them. The point is only that the two paths are not interchangeable, and switching later is expensive.
• Decide early and confirm in writing. If there is any chance you will pursue an A.B.E.T.-EAC engineering degree, take the engineering mathematics and physics sequence from the start.

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.

EET3716C is 4 credits and approximately 80 contact hours — the value used by the published 4-credit EET4158C that follows it in the same Miami Dade programme. Expect a mathematically demanding lecture with an integrated laboratory and formal reports. Budget serious weekly problem time; this is one of the two or three hardest courses in an electronics engineering technology degree, and it is worth the effort because everything after it assumes it.