Elec Eng Fourth Year Modules

Knifey Spoony

Hoping that there are a few here that can give me a hand with this. Just looking for some advice on the modules that can be taken in fourth year. Ones to avoid, ones to definatly do. Any advice would be very much appreciated.

I am definitely going to do mechatronics and John Hayes' power and not going to touch DSP. Any insight on the assignments in Control, RF and Biomedical (if that even has one) would also be welcome. I would love to do all three of them, but not sure if I would be making a huge mistaken taking on all that extra work, given that I'll have the final year project to do as well.

Anyway, thanks for reading. Hope to here from a few people.

Pi^2

Check this out - http://www.zimtok5.com/eee/year4.html

...specifically the " Module Choice Guide 2007/8"

Knifey Spoony

Pi^2 wrote: »

Check this out - http://www.zimtok5.com/eee/year4.html

...specifically the " Module Choice Guide 2007/8"

Thanks for that Pi^2. I've seen that link before alright, but it's a bit out of date.

Anyone else got any more info?

podgemonster

Advice 1: STAY AWAY FROM MEDICAL, I know what you are thinking, it'l be really interesting, i could have a future in it, the biology bit is grand, No! It is taught by 6 lecturers who each think that there section is the most important and will have more notes so you end up with folders of information. The year in which you should be aiming high in an exam most ppl in the class found them self trying to scrap past the exam. They fúcked us in 2009./Rant over

2: Do Dr. John Hayes power
3. If Hayes interests you then Dr. Egans is great also once you understand it you can do well.
4. Production Eng is a fair subject, i would recommend it.
5. Do Prodcution of IC, this one is the easiest modules out there. Cons are you will have a 6 labs on a Friday evening from 3-6 (i think) but you WILL score high in them (20%) and the notes are brief to the point. The exam questions are simply calucations and 1-2 sentence answers. Honestly you could cram the course now and pass the exam in the morning.
6. Dr. Kavanaghs Mechatronics, some of the questions are minature puzzles where you use perspective, logic and solve matrices, its grand and kinda cool.
7. Optoelectronic: Probably a new lecuturer now but the exams consists of several derivatives followed by a problem using the formula you just derived, might be different now tho. If you like Lazers, do it!
8: Engineering Managment: A full set exam solutions could get you +90 on this though you will never use it again.
9. Digital Integrated Design, have exams solution and you are sorted for the year.

I didnt do Control but a good number did and assignment may distract you from your FYP for a week or 2 max you should have a nice cushion entering the exam.

A number of lads did more Micro subjects and faired pretty well though they will have a few more labs. You have to factor going for a high grade or doing the subjects that interest you and what you want a future in. Even though Dr. Egan power was hard and I got like 60% or so I wouldn't be in the job I am in today without the knowledge I learned.

z0oT

Knifey Spoony wrote: »

Hoping that there are a few here that can give me a hand with this. Just looking for some advice on the modules that can be taken in fourth year. Ones to avoid, ones to definatly do. Any advice would be very much appreciated.

I am definitely going to do mechatronics and John Hayes' power and not going to touch DSP. Any insight on the assignments in Control, RF and Biomedical (if that even has one) would also be welcome.

Medical, I can't comment on for I didn't do it, however I did do both RF and Control in 4th year. The Assignments aren't really something to be worried about taking up a huge chunk of the entire year, both will occupy you for probably a week, or a crammed weekend.

The RF assignment, (if it hasn't been changed since 2010) you'll get a technical research paper and be expected to delve into detail on one particular aspect (such as the PLL or the VCO of a bigger system) and write something like a 10 (I think) or so page report on it. RF is quite a good subject to do, particularly if you go into anything to do with Analogue electronics afterwards for the reason that he covers a lot of the building blocks used in bigger analogue systems in detail.

The Control assignment is similiar enough to the 3rd year one. I think mine was state-space control of a 4th/5th order system, and a 7/8 page report on it, so it wasn't a huge operation by any means. Control in 4th year isn't as important as Control in 3rd year as the control methods are more abstract and you're probably unlikely to actually see them in detail again, unless you go down quite a specialized route there afterwards. Nonetheless I found it interesting and enjoyable, but if you found the 3rd year course difficult (quite a proportion of my class did), then I'd probably avoid it, as the most important Control is in 3rd year.

DSP, Control, RF, Optical Electronics, Micro System Design, Digital IC Design, IC Processing, and Telecomms were the subjects I did. The only regret I had was doing Optics instead of the Analogue IC Design course because I think it would have tied in nicely with RF. I also probably wouldn't do the Micro systems course were I to back again, interesting as it was, it was quite vague and I didn't really pick up anything from it that I wouldn't have done so from a quick review of a relevent book or two. Other than that however, I was happy enough with the other subjects.

Knifey Spoony

z0oT wrote: »

The RF assignment, (if it hasn't been changed since 2010) you'll get a technical research paper and be expected to delve into detail on one particular aspect (such as the PLL or the VCO of a bigger system) and write something like a 10 (I think) or so page report on it. RF is quite a good subject to do, particularly if you go into anything to do with Analogue electronics afterwards for the reason that he covers a lot of the building blocks used in bigger analogue systems in detail.

The Control assignment is similiar enough to the 3rd year one. I think mine was state-space control of a 4th/5th order system, and a 7/8 page report on it, so it wasn't a huge operation by any means. Control in 4th year isn't as important as Control in 3rd year as the control methods are more abstract and you're probably unlikely to actually see them in detail again, unless you go down quite a specialized route there afterwards. Nonetheless I found it interesting and enjoyable, but if you found the 3rd year course difficult (quite a proportion of my class did), then I'd probably avoid it, as the most important Control is in 3rd year.

Thanks for that zOot. Glad to hear that the assignments don't take that long to do. I'm doing RF stuff on work placement now, so I think it would be a shame to give up that area of the course. Anyway, working on VCO's now so that assignment should be no problem for me. I found Control really interesting as well last year, and would hate to give it up.

Thanks for the help so far.

catiny

Hi,

I'm just out of elec this year!

Although I didn't do it, stay away from optics, new lecturer was very cruel in the final year exam this year.

And as for john hayes, he threw a wobbler this year!! but his course is interesting and he's fair with marking papers/class tests.

If you got on okay with control I would recommend it for final year.

Production is a fair subject too and is interesting, has a possibility of a continuous assessment element this year.

Renewables is okay, a lot of content but if you're interested in power eng it's a must along with the power systems course (this also has a lot of material!).

Mechatronics is good, the lectures are entertaining with Dr. Kavanagh and he's a good help should you get confused.

Do telecomms, it has the highest 1H rate of all the final year courses, and if you're into computers and the internet McCarthy's bit is grand.

Eng management is grand, a lot of common sense and looks great on a CV!

If you have any other questions let me know!

ilikesleeves

Does anyone know what the story with applying to do some of the masters modules is?

I heard that since they cut some of the 4th year modules we're allowed to take masters modules so long as there are no conflicts with timetables or pre requisets?

Knifey Spoony

Just a bump to let people who are thinking of doing the Biomedical Engineering course know that it has been totally changed this year. There are no elec design elements anymore. They have been replaced by intellectual property, markek research and TRIZ stuff and there is alot more continuous assessment this year in it. Just a warning if people were going to pick this and expect something more engineering rather than business orientated.7

http://www.ucc.ie/modules/descriptions/page018.html#EE4012

ilikesleeves wrote: »

Does anyone know what the story with applying to do some of the masters modules is?

I heard that since they cut some of the 4th year modules we're allowed to take masters modules so long as there are no conflicts with timetables or pre requisets?

We got an email about how to apply for these courses last week.

Knifey Spoony

Can anyone tell me is it easy to change modules after you have registered your choices? I'm stuck between two modules at the moment and just wondering if I pick one of them, don't like and want to switch to the other, is it hard to do? Assuming that there is space in the other module.

podgemonster

Knifey Spoony wrote: »

Can anyone tell me is it easy to change modules after you have registered your choices? I'm stuck between two modules at the moment and just wondering if I pick one of them, don't like and want to switch to the other, is it hard to do? Assuming that there is space in the other module.

You require a letter from the head of engineering to change to a different module and i think you take that letter to the student services office and they make the switch. Its a fairly simple process.

I changed from Production to PIC right before Christmas, went into Prof. Murphy, told him I would like to switch, he didn't even ask why just wrote out the letter and then told me what to do.

There was no problem just don't wait around and make sure that the office has switched you to the correct course.