Information for future Electrical and Electronic Engineering students
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What is Electrical and Electronic Engineering?
"Become part of the world’s techno and eco revolution with a degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering"
How many things in your daily life use power – either mains, batteries, petrol, motors or even solar power? There was an Electrical Engineer behind the creation of every one of those items! Electrical and Electronic Engineering involves the generation, storage and use of power.
Areas of Electrical and Electronic Engineering include:
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Electronics
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Software
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Hardware
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Signal Processing
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Communications
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Computer Engineering
- Power Electronics
- Power Systems Engineering (including renewable energy)
- Nanotechnology
- Biomedical Imaging
- Embedded Systems
- Control
Electrical and Electronic Engineering (EEE) covers the generation, storage and use of power. Think about how many items in your daily life use power (mains, batteries, petrol/ motors or even solar panels).
EEE is a very important part of your everyday life. The study of EEE can involve large amounts of power (eg power and control engineering) and large devices (eg power stations and electric vehicles) or small amounts of power (eg computer, communications and information engineering) and small devices (eg MP3 players and cell phones).
Electrical and Electronic engineers are involved in the analysis of existing systems (whether electrical, electronic or computer systems) and they are often involved in creating and designing new products and systems for manufacturing industries.
But there is more to Electrical engineering than just that. Many advances in biomedicine were pioneered by electrical engineers, many software houses such as Microsoft employ electrical engineers and so do airplane manufacturers such as Boeing and Airbus. Most astronomical observatories employ Electrical engineers to design their telescopes, other optical instruments and do advanced signal processing. Graduates from this department are doing these things.
How do Electrical and Electronic Engineers make an impact in the world?
Electrical and Electronic Engineers MAKE A DIFFERENCE in.....
| Area | How? | Examples |
|---|---|---|
Environment and Sustainability
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Helping the environment through improved energy efficiency, electric vehicles, electricity transmission, distribution and generation |
- renewable energy e.g, solar, wind, hydro, tidal |
Bio-medical and Signal Processing
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Helping keep people healthy by building better scanners and medical instruments and helping medical staff to make better use of data measured.
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- Improved signal processing for MRI scans developed in this department (shorter scans required on patients with motion problems.) |
Telecommunication
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Tragedy such as 9/11 World Trade Center showed a major problem with emergency services communications. As an Electrical and Electronic Engineer, we constantly try to keep everyday people and emergency services connected with higher data rates and reliability using the Internet, radios, cellphones, satellites and other devices. |
- Cognitive radio systems to allow emergency services (Fire, Ambulance and Police) to communicate easily with each other.
|
Nantechnology
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Developing future nano-devices and materials for electronics, medical applications and renewable energy. |
- solar cells - electronic devices |
Everyday devices
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Everything that involves the generation, use or storage of electricity has had an electrical engineer involved. In fact, most modern devices now incorporate a microprocessor (the core of a computer), which electrical engineers design and program. |
iPods, TV, microwave, watch, computer, etc. |
Where do Electrical and Electronic Engineers work?
The demand for environmentally friendly power generation, more sophisticated electronic devices, and cheaper and smarter products mean there is a lot of work for Electrical Engineers!
Some of our graduates are working on developing new ipod technology, life-saving medical equipment and alternative power generation. One of our graduates has even had their engineering work sent to another planet by developing some of the systems used on the Mars Rover.
Electrical and Electronics Engineers have many types of jobs...
- Design
- Consulting
- Research and development
- Teaching
- Management
- Computer software development
- Entrepeneur - start your own company
Electrical and Electronic Engineers can work as...
- Electronic/ electrical engineers
- Telecommunication engineers
- Biomedical engineers
- Computer engineers
- Software engineers
- Power engineers
- Project managers
- Engineering consultants
Our graduates work for Microsoft, IBM, Vodafone, Qualcomm, Opus, Tait Electronics, Navman, Trimble Navigation, Meridian Energy…and many more well known companies.
Electrical and Electronic Engineers are needed in New Zealand, Australia and all over the world. Our graduates are well prepared to work anywhere and their degree from UC is well respected wherever they go.
An engineering career is well paid, well respected, varied and offers extensive opportunities to travel.
Read the Graduate Profiles webpage to see where some of our Electrical and Electronics Engineering graduates are working.
Structure of BE (Hons) degree
At the University of Canterbury the Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) degree involves four years of study: the first year of study is called the Engineering Intermediate Year, and the remaining three years are called the First, Second and Third Professional Years of study. Entry to the First Professional Year is limited and is normally based on performance in the Engineering Intermediate Year courses.
The Intermediate Year
This link takes you to a College of Engineering web page.
The courses you take as part of your Intermediate Year depend on the type of engineering you intend to study. There are a number of options - both for students who are certain of the type of engineering they wish to study, and for those that are not certain.
Three Professional Years
Click on a link below to view the courses for each of the Three Professional Years of study in Electrical and Electronic Engineering.
Direct Entry Students
Interesting projects
The Electrical and Electronics Engineering students are required to carry out some fun yet challenging projects during their studies (currently being updated).
Scholarships
There is a variety of scholarships available to Electrical and Electronic Engineering students throughout their four years of study.
These scholarships are listed on the Department’s Scholarships and Prizes webpage and the main UC Scholarships Office webpage.
Course Advice
Information about Intermediate Year and the three Professional Years of study for Electrical and Electronics Engineering can be found on the Course Advice web pages.
Alternatively if you require information about entry requirements and pathways into Intermediate Year, you need to visit the Entry to BE Hons web page on the College of Engineering website.
If you want to discuss whether you are eligible to begin a Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) degree you need to contact our 1st Professional Year Coordinator, Assoc Prof Maan Alkaisi.
Electrical and Electronic Engineering links
College of Engineering BE(Hons)
Try Engineering
Engineer Girl
Futureintech
Ieee TV
What's Out There: Careers for Electrical Engineers & Computer Scientists (Beware video - large file size). There are also TV segments on information technology, telecommunications, wind power, biomedical engineering and power engineering.