Cochlear Signal Processing: A Platform for Learning the Fundamentals of Digital Signal Processing

The first digital signal processing course in most electrical engineering programmes around the world tends to be a significant jump in abstraction for most students. This is a consequence of them being introduced to a large number of mathematical concepts with insufficient time to consolidate the ideas with practical examples. In this paper we propose that cochlear signal processing is an excellent platform that brings together almost all the fundamental DSP concepts taught in an introductory course and also lends itself as a suitable candidate for project-based learning. The paper provides details on how such a project was setup and run in the introductory 3rd year DSP course at UNSW Sydney. In addition, we also provide measure of student interest and engagement with the project as well as their feedback on its impact on their learning patterns and effectiveness at reinforcing theoretical concepts.