THE DIGITAL INFORMATION AGE SECOND EDITION by bestselling author Roman Kuc is designed for students considering electrical engineering as a major, and non-engineering majors interested in understanding digital communication systems. Communication between humans and smart devices takes place through sensors and actuators, with logic circuits manipulating binary data to implement useful tasks. The text then examines the basic problem of communicating audio and video data over a network connecting computers and smart devices. System operation is described from analog-to-digital conversion, signals that encode data, through the processing that extracts data from noise-corrupted signals and error correction techniques, to data packet transmission over wired and wireless networks. Basic topics from probability and digital signal processing are presented as needed and illustrated with relevant examples. Ideas are illustrated and extended by problems and projects completed in Excel, with sophistication that evolves along with the course, starting with spreadsheet formulas and graphs, through macros, to simple Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) programming that produces animations that simulate system operation. The accrued facility with Excel techniques is a course outcome valued by students in all majors.
