The main objective of this workshop is to design a hardware/software system that processes an audio signal (music) for the detection of notes and produces the corresponding music sheet. The Workshop has a duration of 2 years (4 semesters). The competencies required for carrying out the project will be acquired during the five courses this workshop is based on. Students will work independently in teams and will be supported by the respective course teachers during the various phases of the project through dedicated tutoring hours. Only 5 teams will be accepted; the selection of the teams will be based on first year scores.

Ability to collect and organize competencies acquired in BSc academic courses for carrying out a specific project.
Ability to retrieve, understand and proficiently use learning material from external sources.
Ability to make appropriate and sensible decisions on realization strategies and technology solutions.
Ability to mount a circuit prototype and to measure its performance in the lab.
Ability to work in a team, by organizing, allocating, scheduling and managing different project tasks.
Ability to organize the results of a project in a written report, and to deliver an effective presentation.

Prerequisites consist in the full syllabus of the five courses:
- Circuit Theory and Applications
- Electronic Circuits
- Applied Electronics
- Signals and Systems
- Digital Transmission

The Workshop contents, as well as the different project phases, follow the program of the five courses listed above. In particular:

- Circuit Theory and Applications: fundamentals of time and frequency analysis of circuits and systems. Filters. Numerical analysis of circuits, systems and in particular filters using SPICE and Matlab. Project task 1: design an antialiasing filter for music. Setup filter specifications, choose filter topology and component values, verify (through simulation) the performance of the filter, address performance sensitivity vs component values, test on a set of template music signals.

- Electronic Circuits: fundamentals of electronic measurements and knowledge of basic instrumentation in the lab. Project task 2: realize and test a hardware prototype of the filter designed during task 1; measure filter performance. Project task 3: design and realize a sampling circuit for analog to digital conversion.

- Applied Electronics: Operational amplifiers; data acquisition systems, A/D and D/A conversion, sampling theory and quantization. Project task 4: finalize a hardware prototype for data acquisition, including the parts developed during previous tasks.


- Signals and Systems: Time-frequency analysis, FFT, correlators. Project task 5: perform time-frequency analysis of template music signals, design correlators for separating individual notes.

- Digital Transmission: decision theory. Project task 6: design suitable algorithms for classification and note detection in simple cases. Project task 7: generate music scores in these simple cases through appropriate open-source software (LaTeX/MusiXTeX or similar). Integrate all task deliverables into a single fully automated working prototype. Project task 8: write a coincise report documenting all project tasks and all achieved results. Perform a final presentation.

Most of the project work will be carried out independently by each team (formed by 3-4 students). Course instructors will be available for tutoring hours. A set of informal lectures (in form of tutoring open to all teams) will be organized on an as needed basis, for complementing institutional course programs with additional advanced topics required for carrying out the project. At the end of each semester, informal presentations by each team will be organized, to discuss results, problems, and opportunities.

See reference textbooks of the five courses

- Circuit Theory and Applications
- Electronic Circuits
- Applied Electronics
- Signals and Systems
- Digital Transmission

The objective of this workshop is acquisition of both hard and soft multidisciplinary skills required for the completion of a specific project. The results will be evaluated by the team of course instructors that will support the students during the development of the project. The project is very ambitious and students will be evaluated on a best effort basis. The evaluation will consider both the partial results achieved for each separate task and the final deliverable, in terms of the following criteria:

- effort
- autonomous work
- quality and performance of the realized system
- quality of final report and presentation