Electrical Engineering (B.S.E.E.)

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Major code BS7253

Russ College of Engineering and Technology
School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
329 Stocker Center
Ohio University
Athens, OH 45701
Phone: 740.593.1568
Fax: 740.593.0007
http://www.ohio.edu/engineering/eecs/

Costas Vassiliadis, contact person
vassilia@ohio.edu

Program Overview

The electrical engineering program is administered by the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS). The School is the beneficiary of a major endowment from the late Dr. C. Paul Stocker, an electrical engineering alumnus. This endowment provides support for facilities and a level of excellence surpassed by few other electrical engineering and computer science schools in the nation.

The School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science is located in Stocker Center, a modern facility housing undergraduate, graduate, and research activities. The program offers a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering (B.S.E.E.) degree, which is accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of the Accreditation Board of Engineering and Technology, 111 Market Place, Suite 1050, Baltimore MD 21202-4012–telephone: 410.347.7700.

The electrical engineering program offers two curriculum tracks leading to a B.S.E.E. degree. The electrical engineering (EE) track is intended for students who want to work in one of the many areas of electrical engineering. A computer engineering (CpE) track is available for students who intend to work in the area of computers. Students who are undecided as to which area they want to pursue should follow the electrical engineering track until they decide.

Electrical engineering addresses the wide application of electrical and electronic phenomena to real-world needs, from consumer goods to space exploration. It encompasses such diverse areas as research, development, design, sales, and operation of electrical and electronic systems. Areas of specialization include such varied fields as circuit design, communications, computers and automata, control systems, electromagnetics, energy sources and systems, power electronics, power system planning, electronics, and instrumentation. Students interested in digital computers may choose from courses in the School on programming, digital circuits, computer design, and software engineering.

Electrical engineering graduates hold challenging positions in such nonelectrical industries as chemical, nuclear, automotive, medical, textile, petroleum, and transportation, as well as in electronics, communications, power, control, and other electrical industries. The jobs performed by electrical engineering graduates include such diverse activities as research, development, design, production and manufacturing, and consulting.

The electrical engineering program has three major objectives for its undergraduate students (Program Educational objectives are broad statements that describe the career and professional accomplishments that the program is preparing the graduates to achieve):

Depth and Breadth: Produce graduates that will have the theoretical, practical, and professional knowledge necessary to be productive upon entering the workforce or successful in advanced study;
Staying Current: Produce graduates that will maintain and develop the knowledge and the skills needed to identify, formulate, and solve problems throughout their career; and
Professionalism: Produce graduates that exhibit an understanding of the necessity for professional integrity, ethical behavior, and multicultural awareness.

All electrical engineering students must fulfill the University’s General Education requirements. Students will select elective courses in conjunction with their advisors. To develop the general knowledge and skills necessary to support the study and practice of engineering, students will take 8 courses in mathematics and the basic sciences. The purpose of the five general engineering courses is to give students an understanding of engineering fundamentals outside of electrical engineering.

The electrical engineering portion of the curriculum consists of several blocks of courses. The introductory block is intended to promote the students interested in electrical engineering, while introducing physical and logical concepts necessary for future studies. The goal of the foundations block is to develop the fundamental knowledge and analytical skills necessary for the study and practice of electrical engineering. The intermediate breadth block prepares the student to study the various areas of electrical engineering and computer engineering at the advanced level. EECS electives allow students to develop specialized knowledge and skills in one of the areas of electrical and computer engineering or explore other topics at the advanced level.

Because the ability to solve problems is critical for engineers, students will develop engineering design skills as they progress through the curriculum. Engineering design is addressed in most E E courses. In the intermediate design block, students will develop experience in experimental design and analysis. The design experience culminates in the senior year with the capstone design sequence of courses, where students complete a design project that simulates work found in professional practice.

Admissions Information

Freshman/First-Year Admission

No requirements beyond University admission requirements. Students are expected to take four years of mathematics, and a year of chemistry and physics in high school if possible.

Change of Program Policy

Students who wish to transfer into an engineering or computer science program must have earned a C or better in a math course and a science course. The math course must be equivalent to MATH 1200 or higher. The science course must be required for the program or preparatory for a required course such as CHEM 1210, 1500, 1510, PHYS 2001, 2051 or BIOS 1700. Students must have an overall GPA greater than 2.0 at Ohio University, for all courses in Russ College, and for all courses in Chemical Engineering. Students must have succeeded in all required courses taken previously in three or fewer attempts. For some courses, success means a grade of at least a C or C-.

External Transfer Admission

In addition to University guidelines, students should have earned a C (2.0) or better grade in a college math course equivalent to MATH 1200 or higher and a C (2.0) or better grade in a chemistry course equivalent to CHEM 1210 or higher or a physics course equivalent to PHYS 2001 or higher.

Opportunities Upon Graduation

Electrical engineering (EE), the largest engineering branch, deals with the study of electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism and the way these theories are applied to sub-disciplines such as: Generation, Transmission and Distribution of Electric Power, Telecommunication systems including Wireless Communications, Automatic Control Systems and Robotics, Aviation Electronic (Avionics) Systems, Aerospace and Electronics Systems, Computers and Microprocessors, Lasers, Optoelectronic and Superconductor Devices, Microelectronic Devices and Integrated Circuit Technology, Signal Processing, Microwave Systems and Electromagnetic Wave Propagation and Antennas, Audio, Speech, Video and Image Processing, Automotive Electronics, Industrial Sensors and Instrumentation, Power Electronics, Fuel Cells, Renewable Energy, Nanoelectronics and Nanofabrication, Ultrasonic Imaging, Bio-Engineering and Medical Electronics.

Electrical engineers design products affecting everything from public health to safety, and ranging from huge electric power generators to miniature microprocessor chips. These products include: devices for the generation and delivery of electric power to consumers: (homes/businesses/industry), electronic instruments to measure temperature, speed, pressure and flow rate, computers embedded into systems enriched with methods of data processing and storage, communications systems; radio, tv, satellite systems, telephones and fiber-optic systems, aircraft flight control and collision-avoidance systems, systems used in medical electronics, medical lasers, systems that education and entertain, computers and computer networks, compact-disk players, and multimedia systems.

Most electrical engineering jobs are in the following places: Engineering and Business Consulting Companies, Government Agencies, Manufacturers of Electrical and Electronic Equipment, Manufacturers of Computer and/or Industrial Equipment, Transportation, Communications and Utility Companies, Computer and Data Processing Services Companies.

Sample of companies that hire electrical engineers: AT&T, Microsoft, Ericsson, Inc., Milliken, General Electric, Procter and Gamble, IBM, Sprint Corporation, Intel Corporation, Texas Instruments, International Paper, Hewlett-Packard, Honeywell, Verizon, Walt Disney, AEP, Electronic Arts, Sun Microsystems, Qualcomm, Cisco Systems, 3Com, Nortel Networks, Audiovox, Johnson Controls, Raytheon, TRW, Silicon Graphics, Lucent, Kimberly-Clark, NASA, NSA, Rocwell, RoviSys, Ford Motor, Boeing, General Motors, Honda, and Lockheed Martin.