Course Introduction — Applied Programming at FAU
Daniel Fenzel, Annika Ritter · 6 concepts · 5 questions
Concept 1 / 6
What Is Applied Programming?
Applied Programming sits at the intersection of neuroscience, signal processing, and software engineering. The course follows a four-pillar pipeline that mirrors any real biomedical system:
| Pillar | What happens | Typical tools |
|---|---|---|
| Physiology / Signal Generation | Biological source — motor neurons fire, muscles contract, EMG is generated | Anatomy, neurophysiology |
| Signal Acquisition | Hardware interface — electrodes, ADC boards, Arduino / DFRobot sensors capture the signal | Electronics, microcontrollers |
| Signal Processing | Algorithms applied in software — filtering, feature extraction, FFT, ML | Python (NumPy, SciPy), MATLAB |
| Systems Control | Output — prosthetic hands, exoskeletons, rehabilitation devices respond | Robotics, closed-loop control |
The goal is to understand the full chain from muscle contraction to robot command — not just one stage in isolation. Every lecture maps to one or more of these four pillars.