Prof. Ian Roberts teaches courses on communication systems at the undergraduate and graduate levels within the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at UCLA.

Current and Upcoming Course Offerings

Prof. Ian Roberts recently taught, is currently teaching, or is expected to teach the following courses at UCLA.

  • 2025 Fall: ECE 239AS Wireless Communication Systems. This course highlights the underlying physical layer (PHY) techniques and technologies that are core to modern wireless networks like 5G and Wi-Fi.

  • 2026 Winter: ECE 132A Introduction to Communication Systems. This course combines foundational concepts in linear systems/signals, digital signal processing, and probability to establish the elegant techniques by which we communicate information and analyze the performance of such techniques. Students use software-defined radios (SDRs) to implement concepts learned in lecture through regular lab assignments.

  • 2026 Spring: ECE 230B Digital Communication Systems. This course introduces students to the fundamental theory and techniques by which we communicate digital information. An emphasis is placed on overcoming nonidealities of the real world and on practical implementations. Students use software-defined radios (SDRs) to implement concepts learned in lecture through regular lab assignments.

This list is subject to change. Please see the official list of course offerings for the most accurate information.

UCLA Course Catalog ↗

Communications Course Sequence at UCLA

UCLA offers an extremely well-rounded array of courses related to communications at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Most, if not all, of these courses are offered regularly, at least once per academic year.

Undergraduate

If you are an undergraduate student at UCLA interested in communications, the following sequence of courses have direct applications to modeling, analyzing, designing, and optimizing communication systems:

  • ECE 102 – Systems and Signals. This course provides the necessary foundations for understanding how to mathematically model communication signals and elements which affect them.
  • ECE 113 – Digital Signal Processing. This course teaches the essential tools and fundamentals needed to mathematically process and analyze communication signals.
  • ECE 113D + 113DW – Digital Signal Processing Design. These two courses provide the opportunity to implement concepts and tools learned in ECE 113 on actual hardware platforms.
  • ECE 131A – Probability and Statistics. This course introduces notions of randomness and statistical characterization, which are necessary to quantify uncertainty/imperfections and analyze communication system performance.
  • ECE 132A – Introduction to Communication Systems. This course combines concepts from all the foundational courses listed above to establish the elegant techniques by which we communicate information and analyze communication system performance.
  • ECE 132B – Data Communications and Telecommunication Networks. This course overviews architectures, flow control, medium access, error control, and queueing modeling/analysis of communication networks.
  • ECE 133A – Applied Numerical Computing. This course covers fundamentals of linear algebra from both an analytical and numerical perspective.

Graduate

If you are a graduate student at UCLA interested in communications, the following courses would be of interest, not necessarily taken in the order listed:

  • ECE 230A – Detection and Estimation in Communication
  • ECE 230B – Digital Communication Systems
  • ECE 231A – Information Theory
  • ECE 231E – Channel Coding Theory
  • ECE 233 – Wireless Communication Systems
  • ECE 236A – Linear Programming
  • ECE 236B – Convex Optimization
  • ECE 239AS – Special Topics in Signals and Systems
  • ECE 241A – Stochastic Processes
  • ECE C247 – Neural Networks and Deep Learning
  • ECE 262 – Antenna Theory and Design

A full list of UCLA’s ECE course offerings can be found at the link below.

UCLA Course Catalog ↗

Past Courses at UCLA

Past courses taught by Prof. Ian Roberts:

  • 2025 Spring: ECE 230B Digital Communication Systems. This course introduces students to the fundamental theory and techniques by which we communicate digital information. An emphasis is placed on overcoming nonidealities of the real world and on practical implementations. Students use software-defined radios (SDRs) to implement concepts learned in lecture through regular lab assignments.

  • 2025 Winter: ECE 132A Introduction to Communication Systems. This course combines foundational concepts in linear systems/signals, digital signal processing, and probability to establish the elegant techniques by which we communicate information and analyze the performance of such techniques. Students use software-defined radios (SDRs) to implement concepts learned in lecture through regular lab assignments.

  • 2024 Fall: ECE 239AS Wireless Communication Systems. This course highlights the underlying physical layer (PHY) techniques and technologies that are core to modern wireless networks like 5G and Wi-Fi.

  • 2024 Spring: ECE 132A Introduction to Communication Systems. This course combines foundational concepts in linear systems/signals, digital signal processing, and probability to establish the elegant techniques by which we communicate information and analyze the performance of such techniques.

  • 2024 Winter: ECE 239AS Wireless Communication Systems. This course highlights the underlying physical layer (PHY) techniques and technologies that are core to modern wireless networks like 5G and Wi-Fi.

For Those Interested in Wireless

If you are interested in wireless communications or wireless sensing, I would encourage you to deepen these interests through self-learning. To aid you in this effort, I have provided the following advice below on useful references and steps toward learning more about wireless.

Mathematical Tools

Engineers working in wireless span many sub-fields of electrical engineering and have unique specializations. A variety of mathematical tools are used on a daily basis by many of these engineers. These include but are not limited to:

  • linear systems
  • signal processing
  • probability and statistics
  • communication theory
  • information theory
  • coding theory
  • linear algebra
  • machine learning
  • convex optimization
  • antenna theory and design
  • radio frequency (RF) systems
  • electromagnetics
  • estimation and detection theory
  • random processes
  • queueing theory
  • simulation tools like ray-tracing and computational electromagnetics

Useful Textbooks

I would recommend the following textbooks:

  • Foundations of MIMO Communication by Heath and Lozano
  • Fundamentals of Wireless Communication by Tse and Viswanath
  • Wireless Communications by Goldsmith