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What study regime does a electrical/electronic engineer go through compared to other disciplines?

Doodski

Doodski

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My electronics technician study was very strict and the instructors where so concerned about us covering all the textbooks and lab books that they never wasted a minute. We where in theory study from 8am till lunch and then labs till 3:30pm. Every Monday we had a test for the previous week's theory and labs. 70% is a pass. 8am tests where being handed to each of us personally and off we went. For some of the studies there where so many formulas or some of them where huge and so we received formula sheets.

What does a engineer's study method look like?
 
The electronics is a little less "intense". Usually 3 hours of electronics lecture and 3 hours of lab per week. And you'd take 4 years of math, and variety of science courses (physics, biology, chemistry, etc.). Oh, some computer science. Typically, there is 2-3 hours of reading, homework, and outside study for every hour of lecture. A lot of my electronics classes were mostly "self study" and then most of the lecture was reviewing the homework to make sure we "got everything". A lot of times the professor would start the class with, "any questions on the homework?"

Then you've got your general education classes - English, history, philosophy, psychology, some kind of humanities, etc.



P.S.
I liked the "pace" of college better than high-school (and before). In high school you spend the most of everyday in class and every class meets everyday. Usually you have to do your homework overnight, due the next day. Most college classes meet 2 or 3 times a week so there's usually a day or more before the class meets again. It still ends-up being "full time" but you aren't in-class all day so there's plenty of time to schedule your homework & study.
 
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DVDdoug said:
The electronics is a little less "intense".
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You have that right. My instructors gave it everything they had and sometimes more. I swore I was getting brain damage from the pace... LoL.
 
Lucky you: I chose one of the most boring degree courses, law. just books, books, books, codes, and more books….nothing practical just study and that's it! Do you know what the Italian legislative system is??!! ;)
I would never do it again....
 
Doodski said:
My electronics technician study was very strict and the instructors where so concerned about us covering all the textbooks and lab books that they never wasted a minute. We where in theory study from 8am till lunch and then labs till 3:30pm. Every Monday we had a test for the previous week's theory and labs. 70% is a pass. 8am tests where being handed to each of us personally and off we went. For some of the studies there where so many formulas or some of them where huge and so we received formula sheets.

What does a engineer's study method look like?
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My EE degree was a packed out week (except, ISTR for some Wednesday afternoons). This was about 60% lectures (with a very heavy load on mathematics), seminars and tutorials. The rest was lab work. There was rarely time during the day to write labs up or handle assignments, so most of that was evening and weekend work.
 
I think @DVDdoug summed it up pretty well in post #2. A BSEE program is a broader education whereas it sounds like yoiur program was much more focused. I think these days many if not most engineering students also get some experience doing internships.

I wonder how many students who get a BS in engineering end up working as engineers. Half or less? They might choose to work in sales or management. Some would even go on to law school or even med school. So the broader education gives these kinds of options.
 
I have a BEE and MSEE that I got from 1974-1981. About ten years ago I tutored a transistors and amplifier class at our local college. I was surprised at how much the curriculum had changed, less analog more digital and integrated circuit fabrication.
 
Schools vary.

To areas of study: Circuits would be analog electronics and the analog part of digital. Logic and digital circuits, computer organization. Solid state physics and chip design. Fields and waves would be radio and antennas. Digital signal processing is the math for much of what goes on today. Power grid engineering started to fall out of favor in the '70s, and we need those people now.

There would be significant programming, data science, modeling software, and machine learning.

There would likely be specialties, like biomedical engineering, electro-optics/photonics, robotics, and quantum systems.

A year of inorganic chemistry, a year of physics, 2 years of math. Statistics. Then choices of humanities and language.

The mechanics: It is a lot of note taking and weekly mathematical problem sets for each class, plus lab projects. One fun lab was protoboard briefcases we took home where over a semester, we built a CPU from low level logic chips.

Coursework that was influential for me: I was very lucky to take one of the Mead and Conway design your own chip classes. I did take a course using the book This Business of Music: The Definitive Guide to the Music Industry by M. William Krasilovsky and Sidney Shemel which I would recommend. I think it was last updated on 2007, so there are probably new books. I was also fortunate to take a law class. All my college years, I had paid jobs at the school that were EE related.
 
dguillor said:
I have a BEE and MSEE that I got from 1974-1981. About ten years ago I tutored a transistors and amplifier class at our local college. I was surprised at how much the curriculum had changed, less analog more digital and integrated circuit fabrication.
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For a electronic technician study I did:
2 months Principles of Electricity, Floyd.
2 months Semi-conductor fundamentals, Floyd.
2 months of Digital Fundamentals, Floyd.
2 months of RF theory.
 
EERecordist said:
Schools vary.

To areas of study: Circuits would be analog electronics and the analog part of digital. Logic and digital circuits, computer organization. Solid state physics and chip design. Fields and waves would be radio and antennas. Digital signal processing is the math for much of what goes on today. Power grid engineering started to fall out of favor in the '70s, and we need those people now.

There would be significant programming, data science, modeling software, and machine learning.

There would likely be specialties, like biomedical engineering, electro-optics/photonics, robotics, and quantum systems.

A year of inorganic chemistry, a year of physics, 2 years of math. Statistics. Then choices of humanities and language.

The mechanics: It is a lot of note taking and weekly mathematical problem sets for each class, plus lab projects. One fun lab was protoboard briefcases we took home where over a semester, we built a CPU from low level logic chips.

Coursework that was influential for me: I was very lucky to take one of the Mead and Conway design your own chip classes. I did take a course using the book This Business of Music: The Definitive Guide to the Music Industry by M. William Krasilovsky and Sidney Shemel which I would recommend. I think it was last updated on 2007, so there are probably new books. I was also fortunate to take a law class. All my college years, I had paid jobs at the school that were EE related.
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That sounds like some very cool study stuff.
 
Learning to keep your weaker hand in your pocket, hopefully not the hard way. :cool:
 
Timcognito said:
Learning to keep your weaker hand in your pocket, hopefully not the hard way. :cool:
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Hahaha... Too true. I smoked at the time and when working on more electrocution oriented gear I lit a ciggy and held it with my left hand and worked with the right.
 
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Expect at least 2 years of calculus, at least up through Differential Calc. (After all that, I used it in a mathematical context maybe 3 times in 27 years. But the concepts are vital to a lot of non-numeric work, i.e., theoretical understanding.)
 
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