General Notes for Electrical Engineering Majors
EE Advising
Official program advisors are now posted for all Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering students after each student's name in the people section of the EE website. Special advising sessions are also held during each registration period. At these sessions, the chairman of the undergraduate committee and other faculty can help answer questions about course requirements.
New Requirement: EE Practice
Beginning with the class of 2011, all Electrical Engineering majors will be required to take a new one-point course, ELEN E3399, generally in the fall of their senior year. This course is a complement to the capstone lab. For most students, this should not represent an increase in workload, but rather a spreading out of the material that was formerly in the capstone course ELEN E3390. It will insure that students in all capstone tracks will cover certain common material. Students in the class of 2010 are encouraged to take ELEN E3399 too, since it should contain material that is useful for completing the capstone lab, as well as for career planning.
ELEN E3043 Point Change
The course ELEN E3043 was recently increased to 3 pts., without any significant change in course content. This change, along with a similar change in the capstone lab (the addition of ELEN E3399) increases the total points obtained from required EE courses so that Electrical Engineering majors will generally reach the minimum school requirement of 128 total points without having to take any "extra" courses (see the EE checklist for a summary of requirements).
Computer Science Requirements
The Electrical Engineering program requires both Programming and Data Structures, but no longer requires the same versions required for Computer Science majors (i.e., COMS W1003, W1004, W1007, or W1009 and COMS W3133, W3134, W3137, or W3139). And the two courses do not need to be taken using the same language, although switching languages may require some extra preparation for Data Structures. Students who may be interested in taking technical electives in CS, however, may still wish to take the versions required for Computer Science Majors to better prepare. More information about the Computer Science sequence can be found in the FAQ for CS majors.
Probability Requirement
The Electrical Engineering program requires a full course in probability such as IEOR E3658 (formerly SIEO W3658). There is a 4000-level course offered by the Statistics Dept. that is also acceptable, STAT W4105 (formerly SIEO W4105).
Technical Electives
Remember that Electrical Engineering majors need to take 5-6 technical elective courses. Two must be in one of four depth areas, and two others must be breadth courses, i.e., engineering courses from outside the chosen depth area. A summary of the rules can be found in the EE checklist, and further discussion can be found in the curriculum section.