Electrical & Computer Engineering
College of Engineering
Engineering is a very large profession. Almost two
million people are employed in this country as engineers, and the field will continue
to expand as long as there are technical problems to solve. Engineers are
people who invent new products and make things work better, more efficiently,
quicker and less expensively. They turn ideas into reality.
Engineers have a variety of career possibilities
from which to choose and may specialize in research, consulting, planning, design,
manufacturing, construction, management, teaching, writing, or sales. Engineering
graduates have excellent prospects for finding employment in private industry,
government, military service, or academia.
Engineers receive rigorous training in the basic
sciences, mathematics, and the engineering disciplines. Students choose to major
in chemical, civil, computer, electrical, environmental, or mechanical engineering.
While pursuing their undergraduate degrees, students also have opportunities to
participate in undergraduate research with the faculty or to gain work experience
through engineering internships and cooperative employment with industry.
Electrical and Computer Engineering
The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
offers its undergraduates the option of earning the degree of Bachelor of Electrical
Engineering or the degree of Bachelor of Computer Engineering. Electrical engineers
apply the basic sciences of physics, chemistry, and materials science to control
and transform energy and information. They design huge power-generating systems
in dams as well as tiny electronic circuits that keep spacecraft on correct trajectory
a billion miles from Earth. They create the electronic components that run computers,
digital recording and entertainment systems, automated factories, and improve
the transmission of messages by laser light through fiber optics. Although traditionally
part of electrical engineering, computer engineering has now come to be recognized
as a separate engineering field. Computer engineers apply engineering principles
to the design of computers, networks of computers, or sometimes systems that include
computers. They work to develop computers that mimic the functions of some biological
systems. Computer engineering also overlaps the areas of computer information
systems and computer science. Most electrical and computer engineers are employed
by industries that manufacture electrical and electronic equipment, especially
equipment related to computer production. There are also opportunities with consulting
and research firms and with power and communications companies.
One of the frequent tendencies that students in
technical disciplines have is to inextricably link their career possibilities
with their academic major. They seldom realize that a major is largely an administratively
convenient tool used by a college or university to categorize students.
There is not always an obvious parallel between
your engineering major and an occupational field. In the same way that accountants
are used as computer information systems analysts along with those having computer
science backgrounds, engineers work in capacities other than hands-on engineering.
Said in another way, just as the same job can be filled with individuals from
a variety of academic backgrounds, so individuals with the same major can qualify
for many different jobs.
While the realization that more career options are
open to you as a technical major than you previously were aware of can be uplifting,
it also poses the dilemma of identifying and narrowing down the appropriate options.
To remedy this confusion, it is helpful to approach your career selection in terms
of the types of functions you wish to perform within an organization. An example
might be a mechanical engineer who determines that he/she would like to function
in a sales or marketing capacity instead of in a manufacturing role due to his/her
interests, persuasive skills, and outgoing personality.
Job titles differ from industry to industry
and company to company. Because job classifications are not standardized,
trying to determine your fit among seemingly endless lists of titles can
be very confusing and frustrating. Thinking of jobs in functional terms
provides a way of organizing the multitude of job titles you will encounter
in company literature and employment ads. Thinking in terms of functions
will, therefore, allow you to clearly indicate to potential employers exactly
what you want to do regardless of what the job title is.
Power Distribution Engineer: Plans and coordinates
the construction and operation of facilities for transmitting power from distribution
plants to the customer. Lays out substations and both underground and overhead
lines in urban and in rural areas. Prepares specifications and estimates the costs
Communication Engineer: Designs systems that
receive, transmit, and deliver information in both audio and video form.
Electronics Engineer: Designs and develops
integrated circuits, electrical components and equipment, and systems for
testing electronic equipment.
Controls Project Engineers: Analyzes the
design of automatic regulators, guidance systems, numerical control of machines,
computer control of industrial processes and robotics.
Computer Engineer: Designs improvements to
existing computer systems and networks in order to increase speed, capacity, reliability,
and reduce size. Designs and develops new computer systems and systems which depend
upon computers. Does research to discover novel ways to design computers and computer
networks to gain dramatic increases in capability.