Book excerpt: This innovative textbook provides a solid foundation in both signal processing and systems modeling using a building block approach. The authors show how to construct signals from fundamental building blocks, and demonstrate a range of powerful design and simulation techniques in Matlab, recognizing that signal data are usually received in discrete samples, regardless of whether the underlying system is discrete or continuous in nature.Containing many worked examples, homework exercises, and a range of Matlab laboratory exercises, this is an ideal textbook for undergraduate students of engineering, and related disciplines.