electrical or energy engineering

Stinkypinkerton

I'm a qualified electrician and i really want to get a course in either electrical or energy engineering as a mature student. I'm currently studying higher level maths and applied maths for this years leaving cert. I have also completed a course in programmable logic controllers and autocad. What else can i do to increase my chnces of getting the course? Which college would be the best for my chosen degree's?

bnt

Have you thought about whether you want to do an Ordinary Degree (Level 7) or an Honours Degree (Level 8)?

For example, the UCD Electrical/Electronic Engineering degree (DN077) is a Level 8 degree, and though I'm not doing Electrical, we all do the same Maths courses. By the time you get to 3rd year, and have to deal with Differential Equations and Fourier analysis, you start wondering whether you weren't switched to a Maths degree by some clerical error.

An alternative might be DIT, where you could do Electrical Services Engineering (DT010) - 3y, Level 7 - then optionally do another year to obtain the Level 8 qualification Electrical Services & Energy Management (DT712).

I don't think we can really tell you what is best, since no-one's done them all to make a comparison, and other factors come in to play, such as money and location. The universities usually have open days/evenings in January when you can go along and talk to staff about what they can offer mature students - why not try that?

Stinkypinkerton

I dont mind the maths. I would like to know which course covers the most modules and has the most variety or are they all the same?

Pembily

Hi I am in 4th year Mechanical Engineering doing the Energy stream and as far as I know the maths isnt much different as one of our subjects is being taught by an Electronic Engineering Lecturer - so its much of a muchness!!!!

It is hard though - I am in 4th year and breezed through 1st - 3rd year and now find 4th year is quite hard maths wise!!!

Best of luck...

Stinkypinkerton

I love a challenge! I bet it will feel rewarding when you finish the degree.

Pembily

Stinkypinkerton wrote: »

I love a challenge! I bet it will feel rewarding when you finish the degree.

In the middle of doing a Life Cycle Analysis and comparing a Start Delta Connecttion to a VSD connection so don't really know if I ever will - but yeah it will be rewarding and I already got a Ordinary Degree last year and it felt great graduating :)

Stinkypinkerton

I use to use a lot of vsd's in my last job. They cut out a good bit of the hardwiring. I suppose they do offer more options regards speed than a star delta circuit.

2011

With DIT (and many other 3rd level colleges I would guess) once you are a "mature student" (over 25) the requirements to be accepted onto an engineering course are different. Acceptance is based mainly on an interview. "Advanced entry" also comes into play, so being an electrician would help a great deal, as would honours maths.

For many (including me) maths is the hardest subject, so you are going about it the right way IMHO.

Stinkypinkerton

I was kind of hoping to get into UCC because it would be cheaper to live. I went to the open night and it seems like a nice place. Got talking to 1 of the lecturers and he offered to show me around someday for half an hour. It seems to have everything that is needed and they also have a research department. Has anyone heard anything about UCC?

pljudge321

Just had a quick look at the UCC modules for the E&E course. Looks good, bit more focused on practical applications then my course (UCD). They also do a five month placement in third year if that will factor into your decision.

Can't say I've ever heard anything bad about UCC, or anything good for that matter, head on over to the UCC forum and see if you can get anyone currently in the course to give you some info.

If you want some more info bout the UCD course I'd be happy to oblige.

Edit: Might be worth your while looking at Queens in Belfast, they have an Electrical Engineering course as well.

Good look with wherever you get into.

Captain Chaos

2011 wrote: »

With DIT (and many other 3rd level colleges I would guess) once you are a "mature student" (over 25) the requirements to be accepted onto an engineering course are different. Acceptance is based mainly on an interview. "Advanced entry" also comes into play, so being an electrician would help a great deal, as would honours maths.

For many (including me) maths is the hardest subject, so you are going about it the right way IMHO.

I'm a qualified electrician just this year. I applied to do the advanced entry DIT DT010 course Electrical Services Engineering. It does not matter what age you are. You are technically a mature student at 23 though. All you need is to be qualified or just passed phase 6, an ECDL cert and a basic Auto CAD course of about 10 weeks. I just filled in the form in June and was accepted into the course in September. No interview and I had no CAD experience but I was accepted anyway.

Advanced entry lets you enter into the 2nd year of the course. Some subjects are very easy like phase 4, some are a step further than phase 6. There are over 120 of us in the course, around 100 electricians and 20 that came in from first year CAO, have never worked on site as a sparks. Some of them don't know what a PIR or ballast is:eek:, I don't know what they were doing in the first year of the course.

There are guys in my class of 16 ranging from 22-35 so its a mixed bag. No need for higher level or applied maths, they treat you with kid gloves.

The course is changing to include more energy management modules which is a good thing and will prepare you for the fourth year of the course if you want to got that far into the higher degree energy management.

Turbulent Bill

Stinkypinkerton wrote: »

I dont mind the maths. I would like to know which course covers the most modules and has the most variety or are they all the same?

Most courses cover a range of material, but the scope and focus tends to differ between universities and ITs. In my experience, most unis cover a very wide course (electromagnetics, digital design etc.) but not in much detail. The idea is that you have a really solid idea of the fundamentals, which are then built on in your career. By contrast ITs usually give more detail, but with a narrower scope - essentially you're specialising at an earlier stage. Which route you choose depends on what you want to do after the degree.

Given that you already have practical experience as an electrician, you might be better going the university route to improve your theoretical background. I'd look at the various courses and find the best fit for you.

pljudge321

I'd agree with Turbulent Bill in that with the current industry experience you have you would be better off aiming for a more theoretical degree instead of learning about skills you already possess in a different course. You would still cover the theory, just not in as much detail.

D-Generate

I graduated from Elec Eng in UCC last year. In our class there was 4 mature students and as far as I know they were all electricians in the ESB and I think the ESB has some return to education scheme.
Whilst they found the maths tough initially it was only because they were out of practice I imagine. If you spent time just doing the Leaving Cert maths, physics and applied maths courses for the next 9 months or so then you will be well prepared for the course. The maths in first year is basically a review of Leaving Cert maths and applied maths and then goes in to a bit more depth in to Calc and also functions and limits and linear algebra. It isn't too difficult at all and if you don't spend your year out on hte booze it is easy enough to pass. First year is a very general course with only two modules or so being exclusive to Elec Engineers as opposed to Civil Engineers and Chemical Engineers.

In second year the fun starts with the maths and the course Signals and Systems is probably one of the more difficult courses over the 4 years. It is full of Fourier Transforms, Z-Transforms and Laplacian Transforms. Its all a bit more abstract compared to the Leaving Cert course. In this year you also have more modules where its just Elec Eng and you also do a Power Engineering course.

In third year its no more difficult than second year except that a years material is condensed down in to a shorter period due to the work placement. In terms of maths the course with the most difficulty would be Analog Integrated Circuits or DSP. You also get to select modules in this year besides the core ones and some decide to take mechanical engineering and a power engineering course. Basically at this stage the class begins to split in to two. Some people like myself focus on micro-electronics and DSP fields and others focus on power engineering and electrical engineering.

In fourth year if you have decided to follow the power engineering path then basically your days of tough maths are numbered! However if you have chosen DSP related modules than I think the maths difficulty level is a good bit higher but still completely manageable.
The big part of this year is the final year project. Last year some of the projects involved tidal power, solar power, etc. Since UCC now has an Energy Engineering Degree now I imagine there will also be the option to take renewable energy courses. That being said I don't advise going for the Energy Engineering degree. I am not sure that it is accredited with any body and seems like a general mish mash of Civil Engineering and Elec Eng with no real focus.

By the end of the four years the class fared well enough in terms of getting jobs. Between the ESB, Eirgrid and ESBI a total of around 12 students were employed including the original 4 electricians from the ESB. Some others went to work in Electronics based companies. The rest pursued post-grads of some form or another.