A three day Quality Improvement Programme on“MATLAB 2016a– DSP Toolbox and RF Toolbox and Vivado Design Suite Tool “ was conducted at the Department of Electronics& Communication Engineering,initiated by the office of Centre for Research Project, CHRIST (Deemed to be University), on 23rd, 24th and 26th of May, 2016.
The QIP aims to provide opportunities to faculty members and research scholars to enrich theirteaching skills and researchin the fields of RF Engineering and Digital Signal Processing. The programme also intends to develop the knowledge of participants for simulation and analysis using these advanced software tools.
The QIP was attended by 16 participants from faculty members of ECE and a research scholar.The QIP program focussed on a hands-on approach to understanding these two specific tools selected from an array of tools available under the MATLAB umbrella of offerings. The upgraded MATLAB 2016a version was used in the program.
The Tool Boxes of MATLAB - Signal Processing, Image & Video Processing and Communications were introduced. The enhanced facilities in MATLAB  2016a with respect to filter design & spectral analysis, advanced wireless communications systems design, end-to-end simulations including RF and antenna models, software-defined radio (SDR) hardware, various apps for using all these were also explained. Details on how to enable project based learning with Low Cost FPGA boards was described. The extended features of MATLAB in Automatic C code Generation & Implementation on target boards such as Xilinx were mentioned.
A hands-on exposure to Software-Defined Radio using MATLAB and Simulink was carried out in the second session. It was learnt that the RTL-SDR is a popular, low cost hardware that can receive wireless signals. With Communications System Toolbox the support package for RTL-SDR Radio, MATLAB and Simulink can be used to design and make prototype systems that process real time wireless signals acquired using an RTL-SDR receiver. Reception and decoding of real-world radio signals using Communications System Toolbox and RTL-SDR hardware was learnt.