GY414 Electrical & Electronic Engineering

BrianDug

Hey,

Has anyone done or is on either of this courses could they tell me what they think of it and is it a good and interesting course? Are there good facilities in NUIG such as labs?

Thanks

Brian

shruikan2553

I've just finished first year of Electronic and Computer Eng which is identical to EEE for first year and stays close for the rest so Ill tell you what I can from what I know.

The labs arent great, good facilities with this year being the first year to use the new engineering building but you'll probably spend most of your time dreading the lab. The relevant lectures are behind and are barely explained in the lab so you have to wait for the people who help with the labs go around to every team of two instead of a 5 minute talk at the start like they do in science. I found reading ahead of the lecture notes helped with the labs. If they just told us the basics of what we are doing and what we'll need to do it for a few mins we would all be happier and learning a bit more instead of just trying to get some results that make sense and leaving. Thats just the electronics labs, the only other "fun" lab is graphics which takes a long time to do, but you only do it for 1 semester.

I found the lecturers to be good, 1 or 2 lacking. You'll be mostly doing leaving cert stuff so its not too difficult. If you have done TG/DCG in secondary school I would recommend learning to use autocad. The lectures are painful if you know the subject already but need to go for the autocad parts.
Chemistry and physics were interesting, physics was very broad though, covering a wide range of topics instead of taking a few of them into a bit more detail but the physics department are trying to fix this and some of it is covered in applied maths.
I needed a book to learn programming properly, it helped me and others lot so I would get that early in the year and start reading it.

Most people in first year that I talk to dont find the course interesting but we are expecting it to improve, they are trying to get everyone up to the same level and give us the basics. 1 or 2 of the lectures had me trying to stay awake. The notes were good, except for 1 subject which also didnt have any recommended book which made things fun.

For me I think I'll like the course, but people shouldn't go into it unless they are willing to trek through first year. Hopefully someone can tell us about the later years.

GalwayFencer

Hello,

I have just finished Electronic and Computer Engineering (same course as shruikan2553 is doing) and am going on to do a PhD in the same Discipline.

The first year for any engineering at NUIG are nearly the same bar some minor module differences, Maths and Maths Physics are big in first and second year each with 3 hours a week, the labs I thought were good, off course you wont be making a microprocessor in first year but in forth year you do something close. Reading theory before labs is encouraged but as far as I can recall material was always covered in good time before the labs.

Facilities are absolutely excellent, fully equipped labs and 2 permanent technicians that look after everything and can answer any questions.

I didn't have any autoCAD before I came here and it was a short course and it won't be needed again in a big way so I think you can learn it as they do it in the labs.

Electronic and Electrical is a very electronics and power electronics centered course, basic software development but not to the extent of the electronic and computer engineering course; who do, I think, 5 more modules software related than the Electronic and Electrical.

Also employment for our year is through the roof, the lads (and girls) are being snapped up very quickly, some had a job shortly after their placement in third year.

First year: Maths, Maths Physics, Fundamentals of Electronic, Electrical Circuits, Programming 1 (C programming), Physics, Chemicals, Technical Drawing (basically drawing parts in autoCAD with lectures and a short theory exam), Electronic Labs (same in both courses), IT Labs (both courses), Fundamentals of Mechanical Engineering, Analogue Electronics

Second year: Maths, Maths Physics, Numerical Analysis (1 sem), Electrical Circuits and Systems, Statistics (1 sem), Programming 2 (java), Digital Systems 1, Analogue Electronics 1, Fundamentals of Electromagnetic Engineering, Electronic Labs (same in both courses), IT Labs (both courses),Microprocessor Systems (both),Operating systems (only ECE),

Third year: (different between ECE and EE (I don't know EE course completely)) Programming 3 (java ECE only), Signals and communications(both), Analogue Systems (both) , Third year group project (1 semester), Communication Systems (both), Engineering Electromagnetics (both), Business Management and Finance (both), Professional Skills (both 1 sem), Analogue Systems Design (both), Infrastructure for embedded Systems Programming (ECE only 1 sem), Embedded Systems application programming (1 sem), Electronic Labs (some are course specific), IT labs (ECE only)

Placement after third year for 5 months ( April to August) in the likes of Analogue Devices, valeo (imaging in automobiles), Intel, Fidelity Investments (software for banking sector etc.)


Forth Year: Applied Software engineering (both), Telecommunication Software Applications (both), Digital signal processing (both),Distributed Systems computing (ECE only), Image Processing and Graphics Manipulation (ECE only - very cool module), Semiconductor (both), Digital Systems and VHDL (both), Object Oriented Programming (ECE only)

If you have questions about the modules shoot, I can remember most of them, although year 1 and 2 are flaky, I had to look at my notes for that list. Also note the length of modules above may not be right and I think they introduced Database systems to the ECE course this year.

I really liked ECE, it really does what it says electronic and computer engineering, lots of accessible and good lecturers, of course there will be ones that you don't get along with or teach too fast or too slow for your liking.

Red_Wake

GalwayFencer, I'm in the year above you (graduated 2011).

AFAIK, everyone in my class who's looked for a job has got one. But I heard wth your class they all had jobs before the final exams had started! Is that true?

GalwayFencer

not quite, 3 got fidelity investment leap program offers after third year, they took them , a few got offers for interviews before they finished but now I think most of them have a job or PhD (all those that were looking) now just after final exams, some got multiple offers, one even got to choose from a couple of positions at one company.

But yeah situation is quite good and looking to stay like this for a few years, they are especially crying out for low level software engineers and microprocessor and PLC developers.

BrianDug

Thanks for info lads.