Electrical and Computer
Engineering Major

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Electrical Engineering Curriculum

The electrical engineering educational experience starts in the freshman introductory courses, ELEC 104 and ELEC 105, with team case studies that require the communication of creative ideas. The study of electrical engineering topics in the sophomore year has 6 credit hours of electric circuit analysis, 1 credit hour of electrical laboratory, and 3 credit hours of computer applications for electrical engineers. Theory is combined with application, demonstration, and experimental verification. In addition to these credit hours, the first two years include 16 hours of mathematics, 8 credit hours of chemistry, 8 credit hours of physics, and 18 credit hours of English and history—which constitute the foundation of an engineering education.

The electrical engineering courses in the junior year are all required; they total 24 credits. Breadth of coverage is provided by these courses in linear circuit analysis, electronics, systems (automatic controls), digital circuits and systems, electromagnetics, and electromechanical energy conversion. Engineering design emphasis among these courses has been determined by the experience and best judgment of the department faculty. The student's fifth mathematics course, MATH 335 (Applied Mathematics II), provides coverage of mathematical topics required in upper division electrical engineering courses. This course is scheduled in the first semester of the junior year. There is only one elective in the junior year; it is technical in nature and outside the mainstream of electrical engineering.

The senior year provides depth in electrical engineering by requiring five out of an available ten 400-level electrical engineering elective courses taught within the department. The elective courses are: ELEC 401 (Electronics II), ELEC 403 (Electric Power Systems), ELEC 405 (Electrical Measurements) and ELEC 415

(Electrical Measurements Laboratory), ELEC 407 (Systems II), ELEC 413 (Advanced Topics in Electrical Engineering), ELEC 414 (System Simulation), ELEC 416 (Communications Engineering), ELEC 418 (Advanced Digital Systems), ELEC 419 (Computer Network Architecture), ELEC 423 (Digital Signal Processing), ELEC 424 (Solid-State Devices), and ELEC 426 (Antennas and Propagation). These electives provide the student the opportunity to pursue an area of interest. Narrow specialization is not possible. These three-credit electives provide depth in both design and theory in their specialized areas. (Note: ELEC 413 [Advanced Topics], is offered only occasionally.)

Electrical Engineering Design Experience

Engineering design is distributed throughout the electrical engineering curriculum. Introduction to the design process and the initial design experience occur in the freshman courses, ELEC 104 and ELEC 105. The engineering profession and the ethical responsibilities of professional engineers are discussed. Design problems are posed that require little or no in-depth engineering knowledge. For example, a first design problem might ask the student to design a dormitory room workplace. Functionality, aesthetics, and cost of implementation are a few of the issues to be considered. Case studies are assigned that provide an opportunity for the students to work in teams. The emphasis is on the synthesis of a product that meets broad requirements. The students are introduced to the concept of design in which there is no single right answer and where there are relatively few limits placed on the creative process.

Techniques of analysis, synthesis, iteration, and approximations are studied in the sophomore and junior electrical engineering courses. Specialized design exercises are used to illustrate the use of these techniques in the areas of circuits, systems, electronics, and digital circuits and systems.

The senior year provides the opportunity for the student to begin to focus on a particular area of interest through the choice of at least five senior electrical engineering elective courses. Within these electives, design techniques appropriate to the area of study are taught. Examples range from the use of a load flow program to determine operational conditions of a small power system in a contingency situation (ELEC 403), to the design of a state estimator (ELEC 407), to the design and implementation of digital filters (ELEC 423).

The design experience culminates in the required senior design courses, ELEC 421 and ELEC 422. This two-semester design sequence provides the students the opportunity to work on a project of interest and provides the faculty the opportunity to guide the students in their first major design experiences and emphasize once more the various constraints that may come in to play in a design. The students are taught several different structured design approaches. Project definition and documentation are stressed. Design teams of two to four students are formed at the beginning of the first semester, and one or two design projects are assigned requiring the construction of working prototypes. Students are instructed on various practical aspects of design, such as layout considerations, safety, functionality, and neatness of design. About mid-term of the first semester the student design teams select or propose a major design project to be completed by the end of second semester. They are responsible for obtaining a faculty project advisor to guide their project. At the end of the first semester the design teams present their design proposals (written and oral) that include their preliminary design (block diagram level), a schedule for the following semester, and a cost estimate. In the second semester, the teams design, build, test, refine, demonstrate and document their design projects. In addition to the technical aspects, project management and presentation techniques are taught and applied. A list of project specifications not subject to arbitrary change is kept, and financial and scheduling aspects of the project are tracked. A final presentation in both written and oral form is required at the end of the semester, along with a working demonstration.