Civil & Environmental and Electrical Engineers Needed...

[CanOWorms]

Originally posted by: BehindEnemyLines
Realistically, what kind of job positions would an Electrical Engineer get with a Bachelor rather than Master or PhD? I'm more interested in designing of electronic circuits (which branch of EE would do this?), but honestly I think it would require at least a Master Degree to do design and research. What are the possible branches of EE and how do they compare to each other?

If I go into Civil, then Transportation/Construction is first choice.

You can be a design engineer with a BS, MS, or PhD.

 

[alphatarget1]

Originally posted by: BlueWeasel
I'm a CE graduate (2001, structural emphasis) who just passed the PE exam. For all the CE haters thinking CE is easy, you've obviously never had to do advanced structural design for wind/earthquake loads on multi-story buildings that meet all the current codes. 😉

I think the hardest Civil Engineering disclipine is Geotechnical. You never exactly know what's underground... Structures have been studied for a long time, but Geotech is still a relatively young disclipine and lots of stuff are still unknown. Probably had to do a dynamic analysis (buildings taller than 5 in the CBC + some other irregular buildings) on one of those buildings.

I took soil mechanics in Germany, in German and I just passed my exam, weeeeee!

 

[thepd7]

Originally posted by: Omegachi

Originally posted by: BlueWeasel
I'm a CE graduate (2001, structural emphasis) who just passed the PE exam. For all the CE haters thinking CE is easy, you've obviously never had to do advanced structural design for wind/earthquake loads on multi-story buildings that meet all the current codes. 😉

guess who make those simulation programs.

LOL you are such a dumb ass. I know some of EE majors that couldn't do CE if their life depended on it. Its not like its exactly the same but ones harder, they are completely different.

And the people who made the programs would be computer scientists working with civil engineers, not EE. Now if you said "who made the computer" then you would be right, but you are still a moron.


OP, sounds like you want to do analog circuits, if I am understanding correctly. If all you want to do is design circuits all day then that would be the right field. However, you are can get a job designing circuits in digital (although its a little different), or in systems and controls, or somewhat in the devices field.

Honestly I would recommend EE unless you are going to hate being in an office/lab 9-10 hours a day. I personally think I should have gone Civil Engr or Architecture because I have recently realized that 40 hours a week behind a desk will suck but thats me. There are so many different things you can do with EE that you are bound to find something you like. Just take all the basic classes, find out what you like best, then use upper level electives to specialize. You don't have to have a masters but depending on how specialized you want to be it might be beneficial.

 

[thepd7]

Originally posted by: CanOWorms

Originally posted by: esun

Originally posted by: JohnCU

Originally posted by: CanOWorms

Originally posted by: thepd7
I am an EE major, let me make sure I understand what you mean when you say devices. Devices has a lot to do with chemistry. Its transistors, not microprocesses. Has a lot to do with JFET, MOSFET, and you talk about silicon A LOT. But this is just one out of maybe 6 or 7 ways you could go with EE. Personally, I enjoy digital more and will probably try and find a job designing chips. Also, realize if you want to make sure you get into that field specifically there is a high likelyhood you will need a masters, as in undergrad you don't go into enough detail to specialize without further school or training. If you have any other questions about EE you can PM me.

As far as I know, the civil (no ideal about env) will be more design of structures, you will study materials and all that fun stuff.

No, devices would deal more with physics than chemistry. It would only deal with chemistry if you're talking about some of the fabrication processes, but I would be surprised if you go into chemistry in an undergraduate EE semiconductor fabrication course beyond just general talk of chemistry involved.

I'm guessing that a Devices specialization at the undergraduate level would be all the usual courses plus semiconductor physics, fabrication, and a basic VLSI design course.

QFT, we only talked about holes and electrons, not the chemistry involved in fabrication.

It'll depend on what courses are offered. For example, we have a course specifically designed for device fabrication in which students will fabricate a chip of their own design. That means they will talk extensively about the chemistry of fabrication. There is also a more theoretical device course, which is more physics-oriented, talking about majority and minority carriers, band gaps, tunneling, and so on.

The guy claimed that the device side is chemistry based when it isn't. I took a course like that when I was in grad school, and I would still be surprised if an undergrad fabrication course geared towards EEs has in depth chemistry involved.

If you didn't have at least an intro talking about silicon and its crystalline structure then your devices teacher was incompetent. Devices are made up of what? Oh yeah, semiconductors. You need to know how to dope, how much to dope, what to dope with, what element/material to dope. Right or wrong, EEs?

 

[CanOWorms]

Originally posted by: thepd7

If you didn't have at least an intro talking about silicon and its crystalline structure then your devices teacher was incompetent. Devices are made up of what? Oh yeah, semiconductors. You need to know how to dope, how much to dope, what to dope with, what element/material to dope. Right or wrong, EEs?

Right. It's essentially physics-based.

The Solid-State Device side of EE is basically where EE meets with physics/material science.

 

[thepd7]

Originally posted by: CanOWorms

Originally posted by: thepd7

If you didn't have at least an intro talking about silicon and its crystalline structure then your devices teacher was incompetent. Devices are made up of what? Oh yeah, semiconductors. You need to know how to dope, how much to dope, what to dope with, what element/material to dope. Right or wrong, EEs?

Right. It's essentially physics-based.

The Solid-State Device side of EE is basically where EE meets with physics/material science.

How is dealing with elements, crystal structures of elements, and doping physics?

 

[CanOWorms]

Originally posted by: thepd7

Originally posted by: CanOWorms

Originally posted by: thepd7

If you didn't have at least an intro talking about silicon and its crystalline structure then your devices teacher was incompetent. Devices are made up of what? Oh yeah, semiconductors. You need to know how to dope, how much to dope, what to dope with, what element/material to dope. Right or wrong, EEs?

Right. It's essentially physics-based.

The Solid-State Device side of EE is basically where EE meets with physics/material science.

How is dealing with elements, crystal structures of elements, and doping physics?

😕 You think that's chemistry? We must have completely different definitions. I don't know too much about chemistry, but I work and studied in this field.

One doesn't need to look beyond the titles of books on Amazon with a search for "semiconductor devices" to realize that. The books are titled things like Semiconductor Physics Fundamentals and so on. I have a book on my shelf here with the title Elementary Solid-State Physics which deals with that intro stuff in the first few chapters.

I don't really understand how one can claim that this area is more related to chemistry than physics. How does how a transistor work closer to chemistry than physics?

 

[thepd7]

I am not talking about the transistor part with JFET, MOSFET, and all the study of holes/electrons, etc. I am talking about the part of the class where you study doping, elements, properties of elements, electron mass, band diagrams, bonds, and crystalline structures. I have never seen a devices book say physics on it. The basis for all the transistors is some sort of semiconductor that you need to know how to fabricate. Semiconductor fabrication is most certainly chemistry (more specifically material science, which I would put under chemistry rather than physics).

 

[CanOWorms]

Originally posted by: thepd7
I am not talking about the transistor part with JFET, MOSFET, and all the study of holes/electrons, etc. I am talking about the part of the class where you study doping, elements, properties of elements, electron mass, band diagrams, bonds, and crystalline structures. I have never seen a devices book say physics on it. The basis for all the transistors is some sort of semiconductor that you need to know how to fabricate. Semiconductor fabrication is most certainly chemistry (more specifically material science, which I would put under chemistry rather than physics).

Sorry, but that stuff is still basic solid-state physics. In your first post you described Devices as having a lot to do with chemistry, including MOSFETs, etc. The only time you will even see chemistry mentioned would likely be when you talk about fabrication processes.

I just did a simple search on Amazon and obviously found tons of books with physics in the title:

Semiconductor Devices: Physics and Technology
Physics of Semiconductor Devices
Physics and Technology of Semiconductor Devices
Semiconductor Physics And Devices
Elementary Solid State Physics: Principles and Applications

Fabrication by itself is a mutli-disciplinary subject. It involves chemistry, material science (I would classify material science closer to physics myself), physics, etc. Lots of chemical engineers work as process engineers. However, the Device side of EE is most certainly physics-based, not chemistry-based.

 

[NaOH]

I'm EE because I love electronics and have been in love with it since I was a wee little ah heck. I got started in programming but wanted to study something on more of a hardware level so I became an electrical engineer. I never had any interests in civil stuff.

 

[habib89]

MechE is waaaaaaaaay cooler than any of the above... the hardest civil class (as i am told from some CE friends) is mechanics of materials (strength of materials for some schools) and that's just yoru regular sophmore/junior level clasa for an ME... not saying that ME is so much cooler cause it's harder, but because it offers so much more

i guess EE's pretty difficult too, but it's too abstract for me.. i want to build missiles to shoot down your stupid little buildings..

 

[CanOWorms]

Originally posted by: habib89
MechE is waaaaaaaaay cooler than any of the above... the hardest civil class (as i am told from some CE friends) is mechanics of materials (strength of materials for some schools) and that's just yoru regular sophmore/junior level clasa for an ME... not saying that ME is so much cooler cause it's harder, but because it offers so much more

i guess EE's pretty difficult too, but it's too abstract for me.. i want to build missiles to shoot down your stupid little buildings..

I think that the general belief is that Civil Engineering is the easiest of the traditional engineering fields.

 

[NaOH]

Originally posted by: CanOWorms

Originally posted by: habib89
MechE is waaaaaaaaay cooler than any of the above... the hardest civil class (as i am told from some CE friends) is mechanics of materials (strength of materials for some schools) and that's just yoru regular sophmore/junior level clasa for an ME... not saying that ME is so much cooler cause it's harder, but because it offers so much more

i guess EE's pretty difficult too, but it's too abstract for me.. i want to build missiles to shoot down your stupid little buildings..

I think that the general belief is that Civil Engineering is the easiest of the traditional engineering fields.

QFT......the engineers are my school mock the civils. 😀 No offense though.