Through its presentation of the essentials, this text is briefer than some and has been carefully edited and designed to meet the specific needs of a one-semester course at the appropriate level for a Senior.

Following extensive student testing for readability and understandability, examples have been intermixed with the theory throughout the book to introduce, motivate, and extend the main text. Although readability is emphasized, proofs are provided to promote logical thinking. Finally, the author's conversational style holds the reader's interest while exploring several important topics that traditionally have been reserved for graduate courses. The result is that students can apply theory that is sometimes a sterile subject in other courses, and can hit the ground running in advanced courses in feedback control design, dynamics of power systems, communications, and signal processing.