Electrical Engineering Ohio University

Overview

Program Overview

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.

Key facts:

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.

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, 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 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 and Lockheed Martin.