Major code BS7245*

Russ College of Engineering and Technology
School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
329 Stocker Center
Ohio University
Athens, OH 45701
Phone: 740.593.1568
www.ohio.edu/engineering/eecs

Costas Vasiliadis, contact person
vassilia@ohio.edu

Program Overview

The electrical engineering program is administered by the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS). The School is the beneficiary of a major endowment from the late Dr. C. Paul Stocker, an electrical engineering alumnus. This endowment provides support for facilities and a level of excellence surpassed by few other electrical engineering and computer science schools in the nation.

The School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science is located in Stocker Center, a modern facility housing undergraduate, graduate, and research activities. The program offers a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree in Electrical Engineering, which is accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET, https://www.abet.org , under the commission’s General Criteria and Program Criteria for Electrical and Electronics Engineering.

The electrical engineering program offers two curriculum tracks leading to a B.S. degree. The electrical engineering (EE) track is intended for students who want to work in one of the many areas of electrical engineering. A computer engineering (CpE) track is available for students who intend to work in the area of computers. Students who are undecided as to which area they want to pursue should follow the electrical engineering track until they decide.

Electrical engineering addresses the wide application of electrical and electronic phenomena to real-world needs, from consumer goods to space exploration. It encompasses such diverse areas as research, development, design, sales, and operation of electrical and electronic systems. Areas of specialization include such varied fields as circuit design, communications, computers and automata, control systems, electromagnetics, energy sources and systems, power electronics, power system planning, electronics, and instrumentation. Students interested in digital computers may choose from courses in the School on programming, digital circuits, computer design, and software engineering.

Electrical engineering graduates hold challenging positions in such nonelectrical industries as chemical, nuclear, automotive, medical, textile, petroleum, and transportation, as well as in electronics, communications, power, control, and other electrical industries. The jobs performed by electrical engineering graduates include such diverse activities as research, development, design, production and manufacturing, and consulting.

The electrical engineering program has three major objectives for its undergraduate students (Program Educational objectives are broad statements that describe the career and professional accomplishments that the program is preparing the graduates to achieve):

1. They use their technical acumen to improve the human condition.
2. They exhibit and promote in others: integrity, ethical behavior, multi-cultural awareness, and continuous self-development.
3. They apply and grow their technical, interpersonal, and collaborative strengths to successfully lead and inspire others toward effective innovation

All electrical engineering students must fulfill the University’s General Education requirements. Students will select elective courses in conjunction with their advisors. To develop the general knowledge and skills necessary to support the study and practice of engineering, students will take 8 courses in mathematics and the basic sciences. The purpose of the five general engineering courses is to give students an understanding of engineering fundamentals outside of electrical engineering.

The electrical engineering portion of the curriculum consists of several blocks of courses. The introductory block is intended to promote the students interested in electrical engineering, while introducing physical and logical concepts necessary for future studies. The goal of the foundations block is to develop the fundamental knowledge and analytical skills necessary for the study and practice of electrical engineering. The intermediate breadth block prepares the student to study the various areas of electrical engineering and computer engineering at the advanced level. EECS electives allow students to develop specialized knowledge and skills in one of the areas of electrical and computer engineering or explore other topics at the advanced level.

Because the ability to solve problems is critical for engineers, students will develop engineering design skills as they progress through the curriculum. Engineering design is addressed in most E E courses. In the intermediate design block, students will develop experience in experimental design and analysis. The design experience culminates in the senior year with the capstone design sequence of courses, where students complete a design project that simulates work found in professional practice.

*This program was previously BS7253 which awarded the Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering degree. Pending Board of Trustees approval (anticipated June 2024), the new program code will be BS7245 and will award the Bachelor of Science degree effective the 2024-25 catalog year.

Admissions Information

Freshman/First-Year Admission

To best prepare for the demands of the academic programs in Russ College, four years of college preparatory math, one year of chemistry, and one year of physics are necessary. Students ranked in the top 30 percent of their classes who score at least 24 on the ACT or comparable SAT are most likely to be successful in Russ College of Engineering and Technology.  

Change of Program Policy

Students who wish to transfer into an engineering or computer science program must have earned a C or better in a math course and a science course. The math course must be equivalent to  MATH 1200  or higher. The science course must be equivalent to  CHEM 1210  or higher, or  PHYS 2051 / PHYS 2054  &  PHYS 2055  or higher. Students enrolled at any Ohio University campus who wish to transfer into any program in the Russ College cannot do so if they would be on academic probation after transferring into that major. The probation rules for Russ College are stricter than those for the University as a whole. In order not to be on probation, a student must have a GPA of 2.0 or higher for all courses taken, for all courses taken in the Russ College, and for all courses taken in the intended major. Students must also have successfully completed all required courses in three attempts and have no required course they have attempted twice without success. For some courses, success means a grade of at least a C or C-.

External Transfer Admission

Transfer students who have earned fewer than 20 semester hours of credit at another accredited collegiate institution may be admitted directly to an engineering or computer science program, if they meet the general requirements for admission to Ohio University and have completed four years of college-prep math and one year each of chemistry and physics and have scored at least a 24 on the ACT or comparable SAT.

Transfer students who have earned more than 20 semester hours of credit at another accredited collegiate institution may be admitted directly to an engineering or computer science program, if they meet the general requirements for transfer students, including a GPA greater than 2.5.Students who wish to transfer into an engineering or computer science program must have earned a C or better in a math course and a science course. The math course must be equivalent to  MATH 1200  or higher. The science course must be equivalent to  CHEM 1210  or higher, or  PHYS 2051 / PHYS 2054  &  PHYS 2055  or higher.

Opportunities Upon Graduation

Electrical engineering (EE), the largest engineering branch, deals with the study of electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism and the way these theories are applied to sub-disciplines such as: Generation, Transmission and Distribution of Electric Power, Telecommunication systems including Wireless Communications, Automatic Control Systems and Robotics, Aviation Electronic (Avionics) Systems, Aerospace and Electronics Systems, Computers and Microprocessors, Lasers, Optoelectronic and Superconductor Devices, Microelectronic Devices and Integrated Circuit Technology, Signal Processing, Microwave Systems and Electromagnetic Wave Propagation and Antennas, Audio, Speech, Video and Image Processing, Automotive Electronics, Industrial Sensors and Instrumentation, Power Electronics, Fuel Cells, Renewable Energy, Nanoelectronics and Nanofabrication, Ultrasonic Imaging, Bio-Engineering and Medical Electronics.

Electrical engineers design products affecting everything from public health to safety, and ranging from huge electric power generators to miniature microprocessor chips. These products include: devices for the generation and delivery of electric power to consumers: (homes/businesses/industry), electronic instruments to measure temperature, speed, pressure and flow rate, computers embedded into systems enriched with methods of data processing and storage, communications systems; radio, tv, satellite systems, telephones and fiber-optic systems, aircraft flight control and collision-avoidance systems, systems used in medical electronics, medical lasers, systems that education and entertain, computers and computer networks, compact-disk players, and multimedia systems.

Most electrical engineering jobs are in the following places: Engineering and Business Consulting Companies, Government Agencies, Manufacturers of Electrical and Electronic Equipment, Manufacturers of Computer and/or Industrial Equipment, Transportation, Communications and Utility Companies, Computer and Data Processing Services Companies.

Sample of companies that hire electrical engineers: AT&T, Microsoft, Ericsson, Inc., Milliken, General Electric, Procter and Gamble, IBM, Intel, Sprint Corporation, Intel Corporation, Texas Instruments, International Paper, Hewlett-Packard, Honeywell, Verizon, Walt Disney, AEP, Qualcomm, Cisco Systems, 3Com, Nortel Networks, Audiovox, Johnson Controls, Raytheon, TRW, Kimberly-Clark, NASA, NSA, Rocwell, RoviSys, Ford Motor, Boeing, General Motors, Honda, and Lockheed Martin.

Requirements