Curriculum Philosophy
To meet the program objectives, the curriculum is organized into a flexible 129 credit-hour structure that provides quality education in the fundamentals of engineering in addition to thorough coverage of the major specialties within electrical engineering.The faculty are working in concert to provide and to evolve a curriculum that is challenging to students, with depth in engineering science, design orientation, and modern laboratory experience. The curriculum objectives are accomplished via a three-tiered curriculum structure comprised of the lower-division courses (the first two years), the upper-division core (concentrated primarily in the third year), and the senior-level electives. These are briefly described below.
Lower-Division Core Courses - The lower-division courses provide the student with a basic background in mathematics, physics, and chemistry; computer hardware and software fundamentals; software programming (CS 2073); electric circuit fundamentals and electrical engineering laboratory experience; statics and dynamics; communication skills, humanities and social sciences. These relate to objectives 2, 3, and 4. The statics and dynamics course, EGR 2213, is a general engineering course taken with students from other disciplines.
Upper-Division Core Courses - The upper-division core for electrical engineering provides the student with a basic education in the fundamentals of electrical engineering. These fundamentals include fundamental circuits (3 credit hours), controls (3 credit hours), energy conversion (3 credit hours), electromagnetics (3 credit hours), electronics (6 credit hours), logic design (3 credit hours), microcomputer systems (3 credit hours) and probability and random processes (3 credit hours). Many of these fundamental courses include usage of modern software tools for design and analysis. The fundamentals are supplemented with a hands-on laboratory course (3 credit hours). Written and technical communication is further emphasized in the laboratory course. These relate to objectives 1, 2, 5, and 7.
Senior Level Courses - In the senior year the student enrolls in five technical electives (15 credit hours), a senior laboratory course (3 credit hours), and the capstone design sequence (4 credit hours). The technical elective courses involve modern software tools. The capstone sequence not only provides a major design experience, but also emphasizes teamwork, proposal development, communication skills, and professional and ethical responsibility. Students are required to choose one of the three technical areas and select a minimum of three technical electives (9 credit hours) from that single area. The remaining two technical electives (6 credit hours) may be selected either from the same area or from the other two areas, including one course at the graduate-level and/or three credit hours from the engineering co-op program. The engineering co-operative program provides opportunities for the students to obtain practical experience by enrolling in up to three semesters (one credit hour each semester) and working in industry. Students who want to pursue graduate studies are encouraged to enroll in a graduate class during their last semester, to be counted as one of the remaining technical electives. Undergraduate students enrolling in graduate courses must have at least a 3.00 in the electrical engineering major coursework. This relates to objectives 1, 6, 7, 8, and 9.