Engineering Electrical Engineering
Description
Website: http://engineering.unl.edu/ece/
The Electrical and Computer Engineering Department offers a complete electrical engineering undergraduate program to students on the City (Lincoln) and Scott (Omaha) campuses of the University of Nebraska. Curriculum requirements are nearly identical on both campuses and students can complete all degree requirements on either campus.
Electrical engineering is concerned with the production, transmission, and utilization of electrical energy and the creation, transmission and processing of information. This includes power generation and transmission systems, renewable energy, electric transportation, automated vehicle systems, control systems, and power electronics, as well as radio frequency (RF) systems, telecommunications, remote sensing, bioinformatics, computer vision, biomedical engineering, signal processing, analog and digital circuits, instrumentation, audio, video and opto-electronics. Employment opportunities for electrical engineers cover a wide spectrum of activities including design, development, research, sales, and management. These activities are carried on in industrial organizations, public and private utilities, the communications and computer industry, governmental and educational institutions, and consulting engineering firms. The objective of this major is to offer students an education to become productive electrical engineers and be active, contributing citizens of the nation and the world.
This department has over 40 faculty involved in research related to electronic materials, nanotechnology, optical systems, communications, biomedical applications, signal processing, integrated circuit design, energy systems, and electromagnetics. Students are encouraged to participate in research activities, and have opportunities to travel and present their research results.
The department has extensive research facilities for all areas including state of the art computing facilities, integrated circuits and systems research facilities, communications and signal processing laboratories, applied electromagnetics research, solid state laboratories, nanostructures research, electro-optics research and energy systems laboratories.
The curriculum is designed to provide a broad education in fundamental principles and laboratory applications and an awareness of the socioeconomic impact of technology. Technical electives are normally selected from advanced courses in electrical engineering to provide for specialization in selected areas. However, technical electives can also be selected from courses offered by other departments of the College of Engineering or from appropriate physics, chemistry, mathematics, and biological sciences courses.
Accreditation
The Electrical Engineering (BS) program is accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET, https://www.abet.org, under the commission's General Criteria and Program Criteria for Electrical, Computer, Communications, Telecommunication(s) and Similarly Named Engineering Programs.
Program Educational Objectives
The Program Educational Objectives (PEOs) for the electrical engineering program are a statement of what its graduates are doing three to five years after graduation. Electrical engineering is concerned with the production, transmission, and utilization of electrical energy and the transmission and processing of information. Employment opportunities for electrical engineers cover a wide spectrum of activities including design, development, research, sales, and management. These activities are carried on in industrial organizations, public and private utilities, the communications and computer industry, governmental and educational institutions, and consulting engineering firms. Careers may encompass electronic materials, nanotechnology, optical systems, communications, biomedical applications, signal processing, integrated circuit design, energy systems, and electromagnetics. The objective of this program is to offer students an education to become productive electrical engineers and be active, contributing citizens of the nation and the world.
The Program Educational Objectives for the Electrical Engineering program are that graduates will be:
- Employed in business, academia or government.
- Successful engineers who have established productive careers in their field and have contributed to improve and provide innovative and effective solutions in electrical engineering or related fields.
- Demonstrating technical and decision-making processes and the human interactions necessary to provide viable, responsible, and sustainable technological solutions.
- Engaging in lifelong learning, which may include postgraduate education, to successfully adapt to technological, industry specific, and cultural changes and to foster adept functioning in society.
- Performing engineering practice in a context that reflects awareness of the ethics of their profession and of the impacts of their work on the profession and society at large.
These Program Educational Objectives were developed with input from the program's educational objectives constituency, consisting of employers (including the Industry Advisory Board), graduates of the program, and faculty of the department.
Major Department Admission
Admittance to the Degree Program
Students are required to achieve admission into the electrical engineering major. Students are eligible to be reviewed for professional admission after completion of 43 credit hours applicable to their electrical engineering degree and completion of both ECEN 215 Electronics and Circuits I and ECEN 216 Electronics and Circuits II. Transfer students must have completed 12 credit hours of degree applicable upper-level electrical engineering coursework at UNL prior to being reviewed.
After meeting the requirements for review, the appointed faculty committee will review students to see if they are meeting the following criteria:
- Completion of both ECEN 215 and ECEN 216 with a C or better
- Cumulative GPA of 2.40 or higher
- No more than seven retakes and withdrawals, excluding ACE elective coursework
Those who are not admitted to the degree program the first time are advised of the outcome and will be reviewed again after they have retaken the appropriate coursework and/or after the next semester. If after two reviews a student is not admitted to the degree program, the student is advised of other majors, in engineering or elsewhere, in which they may be likely to find success.
Other
EE Resource Room/Tutoring
The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering has a resource room staffed by upper class undergraduates and graduate students. Students can get help with their homework, get answers to technical questions, etc. The room is open approximately 20 hours per week. Open hours for each semester are posted outside the room.
A list of tutors is available from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. At the beginning of each semester students are invited to offer their services through these lists.
College Requirements
College Admission
College Entrance Requirements
Students must meet both the University and College of Engineering entrance requirements. The following includes both the University and College of Engineering entrance requirements.
Students must have high school credit for (one unit is equal to one high school year):
- Mathematics – 4 units: 2 of algebra, 1 of geometry, and 1 of precalculus and trigonometry
- English – 4 units
- Natural sciences – 3 units that must include 1 unit of physics and 1 unit of chemistry (chemistry requirement waived for students in construction management or computer science)
- Foreign language – 2 units of a single foreign language
- Social studies – 3 units
- Students having a composite ACT score of 28 or greater (or equivalent SAT score) will be admitted to the College of Engineering even if they lack any one of the following: trigonometry, chemistry, or physics. Students without test scores who are missing a full unit of trigonometry/pre-calculus/calculus or chemistry or physics will be evaluated through College Review.
- Students having an ACT score of 19 or less in English (or equivalent SAT score) or a grade lower than B in high school English, must take ENGL 150 Writing and Inquiry or ENGL 151 Writing for Change.
A total of 16 units is required for admission.
Engineering requires that student performance meet one of the following standards: composite ACT of 24, SAT of 1180, ACT Math subscore of 24, SAT Math subscore of 580, or a 3.5 cumulative GPA.
Any domestic first-year student who does not gain admission to Engineering but does gain admission to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) will be reviewed through College Review. College Review is conducted through the College Review Committee which considers factors beyond standardized testing. Any first-year student who is not admitted through college review is placed in Pre-Engineering (PENG) with the Exploratory and Pre-Professional Advising Center (Explore Center). Students in the Explore Center can transfer to the College of Engineering once college admission requirements are met.
Students for whom English is not their language of nurture must meet the minimum English proficiency requirements of the University.
Students who lack entrance units may complete precollege training by Independent Study through the University of Nebraska–Lincoln Office of On-line and Distance Education, in summer courses, or as a part of their first or second semester course loads while in the Explore Center or other colleges at UNL.
Students should consult their advisor, their department chair, or Engineering Student Services (ESS) if they have questions on current policies.
Other Admission Requirements
Students who transfer to the University of Nebraska–Lincoln from other accredited colleges or universities and wish to be admitted to the College of Engineering (COE) must meet COE first-year student entrance requirements, have a minimum cumulative GPA of 2.5, and be calculus-ready. Students not meeting either of these requirements must enroll in the Explore Center or another University college until they meet COE admission requirements. Students transferring from UNO, UNL, or UNK to the College of Engineering must be in good academic standing with their institution.
The COE accepts courses for transfer for which a C or better grade was received. Although the University of Nebraska–Lincoln accepts D grades from the University of Nebraska Kearney and the University of Nebraska Omaha, not all majors in the COE accept such low grades. Students must conform to the requirements of their intended major and, in any case, are strongly encouraged to repeat courses with a grade of C- or less.
Students who were previously admitted to COE and are returning to the College of Engineering must demonstrate a cumulative GPA of 2.5 to be readmitted to COE.
College Degree Requirements
Grade Rules
Grade Appeals
In the event of a dispute involving any college policies or grades, the student should appeal to their instructor, and appropriate department chair or school director (in that order). If a satisfactory solution is not achieved, the student may appeal their case through the College Academic Appeals Subcommittee.
Catalog Rule
Students must fulfill the requirements stated in the catalog for the academic year in which they are first admitted at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. In consultation with advisors, a student may choose to follow a subsequent catalog for any academic year in which they are admitted to and enrolled as a degree-seeking student at Nebraska in the College of Engineering. Students must complete all degree requirements from a single catalog year. The catalog which a student follows for degree requirements may not be more than 10 years old at the time of graduation.
Students who have transferred from a community college may be eligible to fulfill the requirements as stated in the catalog for an academic year in which they were enrolled at the community college prior to attending the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. This decision should be made in consultation with the student’s College of Engineering academic advising team (e.g., ESS professional advisor and the chief faculty advisor for the student’s declared degree program). The chief faculty advisor has the final authority for this decision. Eligibility is based on a) enrollment in a community college during the catalog year the student wishes to utilize, b) maintaining continuous enrollment of at least 12 credit hours per semester at the previous institution for at least 2 semesters, and c) continuous enrollment at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln within 1 calendar year from the student’s last term at the previous institution. Students must complete all degree requirements from a single catalog year and within the timeframe allowable for that catalog year.
Student Outcomes
Student Outcomes are those abilities that a graduate of the Electrical Engineering Program will have attained so that he/she can meet the educational objectives established for the program.
At the time of graduation, students in the ECE Electrical Engineering Program will have:
- an ability to identify, formulate, and solve complex engineering problems by applying principles of engineering, science, and mathematics.
- an ability to apply engineering design to produce solutions that meet specified needs with consideration of public health, safety, and welfare, as well as global, cultural, social, environmental, and economic factors.
- an ability to communicate effectively with a range of audiences.
- an ability to recognize ethical and professional responsibilities in engineering situations and make informed judgments, which must consider the impact of engineering solutions in global, economic, environmental, and societal contexts.
- an ability to function effectively on a team whose members together provide leadership, create a collaborative and inclusive environment, establish goals, plan tasks, and meet objectives.
- an ability to develop and conduct appropriate experimentation, analyze and interpret data, and use engineering judgment to draw conclusions.
- an ability to acquire and apply new knowledge as needed, using appropriate learning strategies.
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