Electrical Engineering Curriculum for 2005-06 (and prior)
Electrical Engineering involves the development and application of electronic and optical technologies for generating, communicating, and processing information. Our EE curriculum includes courses in electronic circuits, solid-state electronics, electromagnetics, optics, lasers, controls, digital signal processing, communications and networks.
Individual engineers may work in one or more of a large number of functional capacities in support of a total engineering effort. For example, engineers may choose system design and specification, component design, research and development, university teaching and research, consulting, production and quality control, sales, cost analysis, or management.
Students may specialize in any of a number of areas, including:
- Circuits and Electronics
- Solid State Engineering
- Electromagnetics and Photonics
- Systems including Digital Signal Processing, Communications and Control
2.1 Mission Statement for our Undergraduate Program in Electrical Engineering
The Electrical Engineering (EE) program involves the design and analysis of electronic devices and circuits, photonics, electromagnetics, and analog and digital systems, including control, communication, and information systems. It encompasses several broad areas and a core of fundamental knowledge, as well as many subfields of specialization.
The goal of the EE undergraduate program is to educate electrical engineers in the fundamentals and applications of electrical engineering via a curriculum that allows sufficient flexibility to encompass graduates directly entering the work force and graduates pursuing graduate education. Graduates of the program should have a solid foundation in the theory underlying the field as it’s practiced, and be able to communicate effectively both in oral and written forms. A distinguishing feature of our program is the fact that the EE department at Northwestern is relatively small, which allows relatively small class sizes and close interaction between students and faculty.
Electrical Engineering Undergraduate Mission Statement: To educate undergraduates in the basic principles and modern practices of the field of electrical engineering and train our students to think independently, to master the systematic approach to problem solving, and to have a keen awareness of the role of engineering in a modern technological society.
Specific Educational Objectives are for all students to satisfy the following:
a. Students should have a firm foundation in the basic mathematics underlying electrical engineering design, including calculus, linear algebra, probability, and vector calculus, and be able to apply this.
b. Students should be able to design and conduct experiments, and analyze and interpret data.
c. Students should have a sufficient foundation in the fundamental areas of electrical engineering to understand problems very broadly. These fundamental areas are Physical Electronics and Devices, Electromagnetics, Electronic Circuits, and Signals and Systems. Students should also have a deep enough training in at least one of the fundamental areas to perform detailed design and analysis.
d. Students should have the interpersonal and other skills and general engineering knowledge necessary to function in a multi-disciplinary team.
e. Students should be able to identify, formulate, and solve electrical engineering problems.
f. Students should be exposed to the issues of professionalism and ethical responsibility through examples.
g. Students should be able to communicate effectively in written and oral forms.
h. Students should have a broad education that enables them to understand the impact of engineering in a social context.
i. Students should have recognition of the need for and an ability to engage in life-long learning.
j. Students should have knowledge of contemporary issues.
k. Students should be able to use the fundamental tools of Electrical Engineering, including computer simulation, design and analysis software, and laboratory tools.
2.2 Background on Electrical Engineering Curriculum
In response to feedback from our students, employers, and alumni, we designed a new electrical engineering curriculum for the year 2000.
The common themes in our EE curriculum are:
1) Reduced total number of required courses to allow more flexibility.
2) Freshman/Sophomore level courses which provide broad overviews of the fields of electrical engineering and computer engineering.
3) Several fundamentals courses to provide in-depth introductions to various sub-fields of electrical engineering; these courses would also form the pre-requisites for all subsequent advanced courses in those sub-fields.
4) Exciting hands-on labs and computer labs to complement all our lecture classes.
5) An exciting curriculum and courses relevant to current applications of electrical engineering.
6) Requiring students to do team-based design projects and encouraging students to do undergraduate research.
We offer two courses that are suitable for freshmen and sophomores and are required of both EE and CE majors and provide a one quarter overview of the fields of computer engineering and electrical engineering along with exciting labs involving the design of a robot and a CD player.
· ECE 202: Introduction to Electrical Engineering
· ECE 203: Introduction to Computer Engineering
We also offer five fundamentals courses:
· ECE 221: Fundamentals of Circuits
· ECE 222: Fundamentals of Signals and Systems
· ECE 223: Fundamentals of Solid-State Engineering
· ECE 224: Fundamentals of Electromagnetics and Photonics
· ECE 225: Fundamentals of Electronics
These five courses are required of all EE students and provide fundamental knowledge in each field of electrical engineering. Subsequently, students will be able to take the rest of the technical electives from a wide range of choices in each field.
In addition all EE students are required to take one of the capstone design class projects and encouraged to take two 399 independent research units.
· ECE 347 – Microprocessor Systems Design Projects
· ECE 392 – VLSI Systems Design Projects
· ECE 398 – Electrical Engineering Design
· ECE 399 – Project
An overview of the electrical engineering curricular concept is illustrated in Figure 1.
Figure 1. An Overview of our EE Curriculum.
2.3. Details of the Electrical Engineering Curriculum
Total Requirements - forty-eight courses
Engineering Analysis - four courses
GEN_ENG 205-1 Engineering Analysis 1 - Computational Methods and Linear Algebra
GEN_ENG 205-2 Engineering Analysis 2 - Linear Algebra and Mechanics
GEN_ENG 205-3 Engineering Analysis 3 - Dynamic System Modeling
GEN_ENG 205-4 Engineering Analysis 4 - Differential Equations
Engineering Design and Communications – three courses
IDEA 106-1/English 106-1 – Engineering Design and Communications I
IDEA 106-2/English 106-2 – Engineering Design and Communications II
GEN_CMN 102 or 103 – Public Speaking or Analysis and Performance of Literature
Mathematics - four courses
Math 220,224,230 - Calculus I, II, III
Math 234 - Multiple Integration and Vector Calculus
Basic Sciences - four courses
Physics 135-2,3 - General Physics
Two additional science courses (The courses selected must be consistent with the list of approved Basic Sciences for the McCormick school.)
Basic Engineering - five courses
Electrical Engineering:
ECE 202 – Introduction to Electrical Engineering
Computer Architecture and Numerical Methods:
ECE 203 - Introduction to Computer Engineering
Programming
ECE 230 – Programming for Engineers
or
ECE 231 – Advanced Programming for Computer Engineers
Probability, Statistics, and Quality Control:
ECE 302 - Probabilistic Systems and Random Signals
One course chosen from the following four categories:
(The courses selected must be consistent with the list of approved basic engineering courses for the McCormick school.)
Thermodynamics
Fluids and Solids
Systems Engineering and Analysis
Materials Science
Unrestricted Electives - five courses
Social Science - Humanities Requirement - seven courses
Electrical Engineering Departmental Program - five courses
ECE 221 - Fundamentals of Circuits
ECE 222 - Fundamentals of Signals and Systems
ECE 223 - Fundamentals of Solid State Engineering
ECE 224 - Fundamentals of Electromagnetics and Photonics
ECE 225 – Fundamentals of Electronics
Technical Electives - ten courses
Technical Electives can be used to tailor a program to a particular area of specialization. What follows are recommended courses for specialization in each of the four EE tracks. At least six of the ten technical electives must be chosen from the following list of courses. Two additional courses must be 300-level Technical elective courses from the ECE department or on the list of courses below. The remaining two courses can be 300-level Technical courses from science, mathematics, computer science or engineering courses and may include the following courses.
Circuits and Electronics
ECE 303 – Advanced Digital Logic Design
ECE 353 – Digital Microelectronics
ECE 391 – Introduction to VLSI Design
ECE 393 – Design and Analysis of High-Speed Integrated Circuits
ECE 394 – ASIC and FPGA Design
ECE 346 - Microprocessor System Design
Solid State Engineering
ECE 250 - Physical Electronics and Devices
ECE 381 – Electronic Properties of Materials
ECE 384 – Solid State Electronic Devices
ECE 385 - Optoelectronics
ECE 388– Microelectronic Technology
ME 381 - Introduction to Microelectromechanical Systems
Electromagnetics and Photonics
ECE 308 – Advanced Electromagnetics and Photonics
ECE 379 – Lasers and Coherent Optics
ECE 382 – Photonic Information Processing
ECE 383 – Fiber-Optic Communications
ECE 386 – Computational Electromagnetics and Photonics
Systems
§ Digital Signal Processing
ECE 332 – Digital Image Analysis
ECE 359 – Digital Signal Processing
ECE 363 – Digital Filters
§ Communications Systems
ECE 307 – Communications Systems
ECE 333 – Introduction to Communications Networks
ECE 378 – Digital Communications
ECE 380 – Wireless Communications
· Control
ECE 360 – Introduction to Feedback Systems
or
ME 391 – Fundamentals of Control Systems
ECE 374 – Introduction to Digital Control
ECE 390 – Introduction to Robotics
ME 333 – Introduction to Mechatronics
BME 325 – Medical Imaging
BME 383 – Cardiovascular Instrumentation
BME 327 – Magnetic Resource Imaging
BME 333 – Modern Optical Microscopy and Imaging
BME 317 – Biochemical Sensors
Electrical Design Requirement – one course
To satisfy the Department’s EE design capstone course requirements, students must elect to take at least one course from the following menu:
ECE 398 – Electrical Engineering Design
ECE 392 – VLSI Design Projects (391 is prerequisite)
ECE 347 – Microprocessor System Projects (346 is prerequisite)
ECE 399 – Project (where the 399 is structured as a design project)*
*Students must file a form, included in this handbook, for this 399 to be counted as the design requirement.
At most two units of 399 will be allowed as Technical electives and one as the design requirement in the Electrical Engineering curriculum. Additional units of 399 may be taken, but will be counted as an unrestricted elective.
ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING P/N POLICY STATEMENT:
Among the 16 departmental courses, the P/N option may only be used within the ten technical electives. In addition, students may only have two P or D grades in the 16 departmental courses.
REQUIREMENT FOR GRADUATION In addition to McCormick graduation requirements, a student must receive a C- or better in ECE 202 and 203 in order to continue in the EE program.
2.4 ECE 399 Design Requirement Form
2.5. Preferred Schedule for Electrical Engineering Curriculum
The following is a preferred schedule of courses for electrical engineering students.
2.6 Electrical Engineering Course Prerequisites
2.7 Electrical Engineering Study Plan
2.8 Conformance of the Electrical Engineering Curriculum with ABET 2000 Guidelines
The following table indicates how the Electrical Engineering curriculum conforms to the ABET 2000 guidelines.
Units of measurement are in semester hours.
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