Future Students

• Why Should I Be an Engineer?
• What is Electrical Engineering?
• What is Engineering Physics?

Why Should I Be an Engineer?

Engineering is a highly marketable field that virtually guarantees one a secure and lucrative future. But engineering is much more than that. It's the excitement of understanding how things work. And it's the reward of making things better, and in the process, helping others improve their lives. Engineering is a powerful creative outlet where the engineer's "creations" may be a safer car, a cleaner engine, a more efficient workstation, or a home entertainment system that can access any movie ever made at any time over a microscopic strand of fiber optic cable.

What is Electrical Engineering?

In Electrical Engineering, you learn about electric circuits, how to design and build them, and how to test and analyze what you've built. You learn about all kinds of electronic devices, from power supplies to control systems. You learn about all kinds of components, from transistors and capacitors to inductors and superconductors. You learn about electromagnetics, which provide the foundation for the microwave devices used in everything from radar speed guns to cellular phones. You learn about integrated circuitswhat goes in them, how they're designed, and how they're fabricated. You learn about programming computers to do electronic design, and you learn about a whole range of fascinating subjects, from thermodynamics to communications.

You also learn how to function in a team environment, working with fellow students designing electronic devices to solve problems. By the way, once you've perfected your design, you continue to work together in the design sequence of courses to actually build and analyze your "creation." As an alternative, you can substitute design clinic experience with industry, where you work in small teams of students under the guidance of a faculty advisor to solve real world problems for a sponsoring company.

All Electrical Engineering students study basic computer programming and computer literacy. However, students desiring to complement their electrical engineering skills with an increased emphasis on computers may minor in Computer Science for Engineers and Scientists. If you choose this option, you'll focus on programming theory, C and C++ programming, data structures, and an area that you select from operating systems, software engineering, or database management systems.

What is Engineering Physics?

Engineering physicists are not just lurking behind virtually all the great advances in electronics today—they're actually out in front leading the effort. That's because engineering physicists create, design, build, and improve the theories and technologies that electrical engineers use. For example, an electrical engineer might design an integrated circuit chip, but the chip itself has to be fabricated from special materials developed and perfected by engineering physicists. Electrical engineers might develop high speed data networks that switch and transmit computerized information using beams of laser light. But for that to happen, the lasers, prisms, lenses, mirrors, and transducers used in those optical systems have to be designed and engineered first by engineering physicists.

Engineering physics, therefore, involves a wide range of highly theoretical activities, from designing lasers and semiconductors to creating magnetic sensors and superconductorsfrom engineering gas plasma technologies and exotic lenses, to inventing new types of optical discs and circuit board materials.

In Engineering Physics, you basically have the best of two worlds: the world of the physicist and the world of the engineer. You study thermodynamics in depth, as well as lasers and applied optics. You study not only the semiconductors that engineers use, but also the materials they're made of and the actual physics behind their operation. You study various kinds of electrical systems, and you become familiar with all kinds of digital instruments. You also develop a fundamental understanding of mechanics, electricity, and magnetism, and like Electrical Engineers, you study communication theory and control systems.

Like Electrical Engineering students, you also learn how to function in a team environment, working with others designing electronic devices to solve problems. By the way, once you've perfected your design, you continue to work together in the design sequence of courses to actually build and analyze your "creation."