5 answers
6
Questions
Asked
630 views
What class requirements do I need to become an electrical engineer?
#electrical-engineering #engineer
Login to comment
5 answers
Updated
Bill’s Answer
Hi Nason, I agree with the other answers that math, physics, and programming are important skills to have. In addition, being inquisitive, a problem solver, a critical thinker, and able to learn from your mistakes are important traits to possess in the Engineering field. One other skill that is frequently overlooked is being a good writer and having a solid understanding of the English language / grammar. You must be able to succinctly and clearly communicate your thoughts, methods, findings, and results to your supervisors, peers, and customers. Finally, for many of the same reasons, I suggest that you take public speaking classes whenever you have the opportunity. Communication is an essential skill and will ultimately enable you to be an effective communicator in Engineering or any career that you seek. Keep asking those good questions!
Updated
Daniel’s Answer
hi Nason - you didn't mention whether you are asking about what college classes one would need to take, or what high school classes. Others have already posted answers about how to find the classes required by colleges for someone to earn an electrical engineering degree, and I don't have much else to add to their already informative answers.
But in the case that you are asking about what high school classes would help prepare you to pursue an engineering degree (for EE or other engineering specializations), I would recommend focusing on core tools central to almost all engineering curriculum: math and physics. Plus one not so obvious one: written communications (usually that would be English in the US, but could be any writing class).
Math and physics (or chemistry or biology) provide the analysis techniques used in pretty much any engineering curriculum. Lab classes in basic sciences also provide useful practical skills such as: making measurements of real physical systems, use of statistical methods to reveal information in those measurements, and assessing differences between simplified models and real systems.
Written communications skills are also crucial to the success of anyone's engineering career, and I suspect it will be even more true in the future as technology makes remote work and virtual teams even more commonplace. It used to be that engineers working on a project would be co-located in one (or a few) physical offices, so they can easily collaborate in person. But the trend seems to be for more folks to collaborate while not being physically in the same place - which means they need to communicate more with each other via written and other non-verbal methods. It isn't enough to just have great innovative ideas or insights; you need to be able to communicate those ideas to other people, many of whom may speak a different language (which can add another layer of complexity to how you communicate your ideas). So being a clear, effective communicator, who can use multiple means of explaining their idea(s) - e.g. written, graphically, using demonstrations, via code - becomes an incredibly useful tool for any engineer to have.
Definitely check online to see if the schools/engineering programs of interest to you have published their course requirements for various degree programs.
But in the case that you are asking about what high school classes would help prepare you to pursue an engineering degree (for EE or other engineering specializations), I would recommend focusing on core tools central to almost all engineering curriculum: math and physics. Plus one not so obvious one: written communications (usually that would be English in the US, but could be any writing class).
Math and physics (or chemistry or biology) provide the analysis techniques used in pretty much any engineering curriculum. Lab classes in basic sciences also provide useful practical skills such as: making measurements of real physical systems, use of statistical methods to reveal information in those measurements, and assessing differences between simplified models and real systems.
Written communications skills are also crucial to the success of anyone's engineering career, and I suspect it will be even more true in the future as technology makes remote work and virtual teams even more commonplace. It used to be that engineers working on a project would be co-located in one (or a few) physical offices, so they can easily collaborate in person. But the trend seems to be for more folks to collaborate while not being physically in the same place - which means they need to communicate more with each other via written and other non-verbal methods. It isn't enough to just have great innovative ideas or insights; you need to be able to communicate those ideas to other people, many of whom may speak a different language (which can add another layer of complexity to how you communicate your ideas). So being a clear, effective communicator, who can use multiple means of explaining their idea(s) - e.g. written, graphically, using demonstrations, via code - becomes an incredibly useful tool for any engineer to have.
Daniel recommends the following next steps:
Updated
Sungmo David’s Answer
There is a curriculum that the college should have that would apply to being an electrical engineer, but your core classes that includes you calculus, differential equations, advanced mathematics, and all your calculus based physics. Once you start getting to junior year there are electrical engineering classes that get more practical from your electric and magnetism portion of you physics classes. It might sound overwhelming, but tenacity will overcome brilliance so just stick with it and you will be just fine.
thank you!
Nason
Updated
Luciano’s Answer
Dear Nason P.,
The technical requirements of the profession are linked to physics, mathematics, logic, computing, etc.
But perhaps the most important thing is the passion, the anxiety to solve a problem, to create something, not to be satisfied with just one answer and to question and fully communicate your perception of the facts.
I know that this is not just a privilege of Engineering, as it could be advice to any profession.
But, especially in engineering, it makes all the difference in the performance of a good and an excellent engineer.
Best Regards,
Luciano Gehrke
The technical requirements of the profession are linked to physics, mathematics, logic, computing, etc.
But perhaps the most important thing is the passion, the anxiety to solve a problem, to create something, not to be satisfied with just one answer and to question and fully communicate your perception of the facts.
I know that this is not just a privilege of Engineering, as it could be advice to any profession.
But, especially in engineering, it makes all the difference in the performance of a good and an excellent engineer.
Best Regards,
Luciano Gehrke
Updated
Joe’s Answer
As an Electrical engineer, analog&digit circuit knowledge is the basic, while you'll also need capability more than Electricity itself, which include but not limited to:
1. Physical
2. Basic Chemistry
3. Advanced Mathematics
4. Computing engineering
And since nowadays engineer requires more capability on coding, so I would also suggest you to take course of programming.
1. Physical
2. Basic Chemistry
3. Advanced Mathematics
4. Computing engineering
And since nowadays engineer requires more capability on coding, so I would also suggest you to take course of programming.