I'm joining College this year and thinking to opt ECE .... is the future in ECE Branch bright? Or dull?

Specifically, I am interested in the following:

• Audio/Speech processing
• Wireless Communications
• Radar related stuff intrigues me, though I do not have much background
• Graph signal processing somewhat, though I don't know about industry applications

What steps should I take to improve my chances at such admissions? What universities should I be looking at for these topics? And what are additional subfields/topics in signal processing that could also be of interest to me? I considered Georgia Tech, Carnegie Mellon, Rice, University of Maryland, UT Austin, UIUC, UCLA as some possible options. I don't think my profile would be good enough for some of the very elite schools like MIT, Stanford, etc (it's probably already a bit of a reach for some of the schools I listed).

I'll be honest in that, initially, I wanted to pursue a PhD in computer vision as opposed to signal processing. However, my chances at a computer vision PhD aren't that good (only 1 computer vision publication in IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, and another in one not super prestigious conference) and I was thinking of pivoting to signal processing -- which absolutely is still a strong interest of mine, not just some halfhearted backup option.

Background:

• BS EE from a mid-tier UC
• Took fair number of signal processing courses in my undergrad (basic foundational courses, one that talked about multirate stuff, filterbanks, little bit about wavelets) and a digital communications course
• Took even more signal processing classes in my Masters in ECE at CMU (one focused on very modern ML based techniques, another was a standard wireless communications class)
• Did courses on computer vision which exposed me to deep learning related stuff
• GPA is 3.8+ for both undergrad, masters
• Current internship will be in signal processing, specifically more so on the algorithmic side at a fairly big, well known company

Has anyone recently given DV interview at Apple SEG. The recruiter informed, I have technical round followed by 7 panel rounds. Wondering what all questions are usually asked in panel rounds

title

Hey there, I am hoping that I can gain some new perspectives by making this post and I welcome any advice that can be given. I also apologize as this may be a slight rant.

I graduated with an electrical engineering degree about a year ago. When I was looking for jobs in my senior year frankly I was willing to take anything that would pay the bills.

I am currently working as a product development engineer at a major appliance company on the east coast. My salary with bonus was around 80k this year and I am in a medium cost of living city. Also for added information I am 23 and I have around 30k in student loans.

I don't hate my job because frankly there is almost no stress. However, I find it very boring. It's not what I want to be doing and I struggle to get excited about most of the things I do at work.

The things I have enjoyed the most through school and independent learning have been coding and digital design.

I know I am overthinking things and I know I am young but I feel like I just don't know what to do with myself most of the time. I am afraid of stagnating and I feel like I am just drifting through life right now. I know it sounds cliché but I want some amount of adventure. I am single and don't feel attached to living in any one place. I feel like there is so much out there to see and I have been trapped in a very small bubble for most of my life.

I am lucky to have parents that have loved and supported me a lot as I have grown up. Although I did not grow up with a lot of money and they could not support me much financially they have been there for me in so many ways emotionally.

In school all I could think about was graduating and finally making "adult money" but I have realized pretty quickly that money does not go as far as I would like it to. After taxes and living expenses I am really not living it up that much. I am grateful that I have the luxury to be able to save money each month but it means that without being irresponsible I don't have that much to spend on hobbies.

I don't know if it's because I have never had a job I really enjoy but honestly every time I think about money I just want to be able to put enough away so that I can retire early and spend time on the things I do enjoy.

I really don't know what to do with my career I just know I am not where I want to be. I have been heavily looking into digital design and FPGA jobs and have sent some applications. Unfortunately, I have not had much luck as I either don't hear anything or I don't even get an interview. My current job is not very helpful to breaking into this field. Therefore, I have been trying to refresh myself on digital design and got a FPGA development kit to mess around with. My thought process for going into digital design is that it is something I enjoyed and is a code adjacent field if I am working with a hardware descriptive language which I also enjoy. In addition, from doing research it seems to be a very niche and well payed field of electrical engineering making 200k or more seems pretty easy to swing with experience.

On the other hand I have looked into two other options. I have considered taking a government job with an overseas contract just so I could get the chance to travel. Though I would probably want to go back to private after I finished my contract. I also looked into trying to internally transfer to a different division. I am not sure how to make something like this happen. My hope would be that I could find something closer to what I want with a lower barrier to entry and still get a pay bump. I don't even know who to ask about this. It seems that you usually have to be at a company for a certain amount of time before you can transfer.

I am kind of at a point where I don't know what to do. But I know I need to do something. It feels like I don't have many people to talk to about my situation because I don't know many people in my industry.

A lot of people I have vented to always say that money is not that important. To be fair I know money will not make me happy. I really believe that especially once your basic needs are met happiness comes from within. I have been trying to work on being more comfortable with myself and enjoying life (though I am not always the best at it). That being said, money is a barrier to entry for a lot of things in life. I feel like there are so many things I want to try that require money. Like building a house, getting to travel, racing cars, karts, or motorcycles. I want to be able to have fun projects.

Currently in my free time, if I am not doing some productive like working out or trying to find jobs. I feel like I am not getting to enjoy myself. I usually just end up watching shows or playing video games which I honestly hate. It just feels like I am throwing time away into things that don't matter. I want to learn things see things and meet new people. It certainly does not help that there are basically no young people where I live.

The honest truth is I am lonely, bored, and I don't really know what I am doing with my life. This has made me pretty depressed for awhile especially after I graduated as I don't feel like I have some big goal I am aiming towards.

I apologize for this being such a long post but I really would appreciate any advice or thoughts that

Hi everyone. I am a chip design engineer and I need help in downloading some softwares from the chinese forum EETOP.

If someone has the account then please let me know. I would be grateful.

Test script management

Hi everyone, I’m currently working as a validation engineer/software developer in an ems company.

We’re using a test program built in visual basic which run tests by loading a set of sequences from our Oracle SQL database and executed by using functions from our test program This set of sequences contains what test parameters we’re using which describes what test stage, range of test values (rf,gps,current,voltage) that we expected.

These set of sequences also contain what serial commands to send to the electronic device we’re testing and also the expected return of these serial commands.

So these test sequences are then saved as a csv file and sent to customer for their approval to run for mass production product testing.

My question is how do we keep track of changes in these test sequences which are basically just rows of data in our Oracle SQL table. Is there a way to do change tracking for these rows of data and how do I use bitbucket (to upload test sequences approved by customer) and jira (issues tracking for test sequences or if there are changes that occur) in this situation or is there a more appropriate pipeline for change tracking for these test sequences.

Hi there, I’m looking for a bit of technical help surrounding key words!

I am a specialist recruiter who recently got moved from recruiting Project and Program Managers into RF/Hardware/FPGA/Electronic engineering (board/system level) and I am getting a little confused.

I understand the general difference between system, board and chip level design however, I don’t know how to tell if a candidate designs on system, board or chip level unless they specifically say those words (which most people don’t)

Are there specific key words I can look out for that will let me know straight away what level an engineer works on?  For example, I know if an Analog engineer say they are working with CMOS, that won’t be System or board level. However, I am recruiting for a ‘senior analog engineer’ and the only reason I know it is a board level job is because it was given to me instead of my colleague who recruits on the chip level. I don’t know what key words leads to the conclusion that it is board level.

(Also, how can I tell if someone is an RF System engineer compared to other types of RF engineers without their work title being ‘RF System Engineer’?)

Any help would be much appreciated!!

(P.S I have never posted on Reddit so I don't really know how this works)

In my country, we mainly use Caneco BT for low voltage and ETAP/Caneco HT for medium to high voltage. In addition to AutoCAD and Revit for drawings and BIM. For lighting, we use Dialux.

I am making a CdS/CdTe heterojunction photovoltaic, so CdS first and then CdTe. Has it been done before? If yes, can I get some references?
I have only seen papers using it for deposition of TiO2 and we aren't doing that. All the papers just ised CBD and only before that spin coating for TiO2. Also what binders to be used for it? Is PVA recommendable for it?

I am a mechanical engineering student that is having trouble to understand electronic devices (though I understand diodes, I am really confused at transistors). I want to learn them thoroughly and understand them better because I want to learn mechatronics, controls, and robotics.

I am finding a textbook that is good for introductory electronics course, here I am choosing between three:

Electronic Devices and Circuit Theory - Boylestad

Electronic Devices - Floyd

Electronic Principles - Malvino

Which one is the best?

Thank you in advance!!!

I have a 5 year integrated masters in the uk in CS

I then have 3 years work experience as a software engineer post graduation

I kind of don’t like software engineering that much because I feel I am spending lots of time on high level problems, looking at stack overflow, fixing errors, always feel im blocked, it doesnt feel theoretical which I like, while I like leetcodes I don’t feel any resemblance of it, i dont think I am doing well and feel unmotivated by work and on a low pay.

When I looked back at uni, my favourite courses were Parallel Architectures which is stuff on cache coherence and cpu architecture, i found that very fun. I really liked the assembly coursework, I really liked computation and logic which was my masters project. I also like C and I found playing with Arduinos pretty fun. My whole life I loved maths, logical thinking and problem solving.

Only thing is I am 3 years out of uni and feel I cant change fields unless i do a masters

I also want to make as much money as possible, the us seems like the place to be to earn that and also doing something i enjoy would help too.

I have an offer from USc which is in LA to study MS Computer Engineering and I have till tonight to pay the deposit, should I?

An alternative would be Ai, ML, quant stuff but no idea if ill get into those fields

Please vote and comment, thank you

View Poll

Does anyone have any recommendations on txtbooks for power engineering? Thank you in advance

Hi! I’m looking to finally go back to school and start over at a community college and get my degree in either Electrical or Computer Engineering.

I’ve been doing some reading on whats the right path to take and which school might be better for me(SDSU vs UCSD) as Community College Counselors want people to have their minds made up on which Uni they want to get into. Trying to figure this out since there’s different classes I’d need to take for both Uni’s

I haven’t decided on which CC I’ll be going to yet, as I want to figure out which Uni I want to transfer into first.

Another thing I’m also trying to figure out is if I should choose EE or CE. I’ve been reading on the differences, so far I have been leaning towards CE.

Any input would be greatly appreciated on what path I should take. TIA!!

Some notes about myself: -23yo and will be commuting -My dream job is to work on computer hardware/circuit design role for consumer electronics(Qualcomm/Apple/etc) -Interested in software development as well but I’m much more of a hands-on person. -Tuition will mostly be paid by Financial Aid

So I'll be graduating in a week from BSc Computer Engineering, which was very hardware focused, with like four purely CS courses in my degree plan (Programming concepts - python, OOP - Java, DS - Java, OS). Other stuff included, RTL/Computer Architecture, Embedded Systems, DSP and Electronics domains.

I honestly have no clue what to pursue.

Honestly I just wanna do whatever brings in the most money as I'm tired of being broke af. Idt I'm competent in any domain since I just barely passed uni due to wayy too many family issues.

As a teenager I'd have said I wanna be a rich man owning an estate and live a calm life. I realised I'm interested in Finance (I think cuz lots of money, like in stock trading,etc) or organising/managing things. But I'm a CE major😅

Any suggestions on what Fundamentals I need to restudy to make myself competent?

That being said, any guidance would really be great. Thanks.

I am a mechanical engineering student currently doing an internship as a controls intern. Whilst doing my internship I have realised that whilst I do enjoy control systems all of the cutting edge work I was interested in is overkill in most systems and most control problems get solved by slapping on a PID or often just a PI controller and altering the gains till it works. I also didn't enjoy that all of the logic was created in simulink and then C code was generated to be compiled and flashed onto controllers.

The jist of this post is that I am looking for a field of work that involves maths and programming. I do enjoy working with embedded systems and writing C and C++ code also. If DSP is also similar to controls where the heavy mathematical work is pretty much non-existent and all the code is generated, then I would be interested in some other recommendations that, even if they don't involve embedded systems, involve some fun math and complex programming.

Dentistry vs. Electrical Engineering which would be the best fit for me?

Hello. I'm currently 25 years old army veteran and I currently am A office manager at an orthodontics practice in LA. I’ve always dreamed of being a dentist / Orthodontist but recently I got the rude awakening that no matter how good my grades are or how good of an assistant I am, I don’t have the credit worthiness or co-signer to be able to take out the 300K+ in required loans for dental school as much as that’s what I want to do with my life. Electrical engineering on the other hand while lower in salary a lot less in student loans and a lot shorter duration of schooling but also no my dream for more context I don’t have very many college credits but here’s a little about me

1. Enjoy math
2. Great problem solver
3. Eloquent speaker - no problem speaking in front of people (though I would prefer to work behind a desk)
4. Not squeamish
5. Paranoid about being laid off or fired (job security in general)
6. Student debt concerns - dentistry is gonna cost like 400k+ in loans after graduating vs engineering 40-60K in debt

Edit: for more contextI don’t have GiBill or anyone in my life to cosign

I guess I’m looking for options on being able to actually afford / Be able to finance dental school and if it’s not possible, I will then pursue engineering but not looking to waste more time grinding dream that can’t come true

In your opinion, and from your own experiences, which career would you advise someone to pursue. I'm interested in hearing your personal takes on this since, obviously, there is no single answer to which is best. Thanks all, and yes I realize how insane this question is, given how divergent these fields are. I've always had a problem in not know what I wanted in life. Though once I start on something, I set myself to it 300%. Thanks again folks.

Hi ya'll, I don't know if I added the correct flair but I wanted to ask for Laptop recommendations. I'll be a third year Engineering student and will be starting my major courses soon. I currently have a desktop.

Here's my current desktop specs:
RAM: 32 gb
CPU: Ryzen 7 7700x 4.5GHz 8-core
GPU: RX 6750XT

At this point since I have a desktop, would it really matter if I buy a Macbook pro instead? My university also offers vm's. What do you think?

I am a freshman in a college, and I have no experience relating to this field, I just want to ask how much does it a small project cost (inr), I know you need to have some level of understanding in coding and c++ for that so yes

The only internship offer this Summer I got was from a video game company in game development. I am pretty excited as its a big company, however I am worried it will pigeonhole me into game development. My true love is in embedded/firmware programming and it is what I would like to do when I graduate. This is also my final internship, which is why I am extra worried. The role is in C/C++ and involves gameplay physics which is a redeeming quality as I can try to spin it off as like C++ engineer on my resume to embedded companies. But what do you guys think? I am open to any and all advice!

Btw, I have only 1 other embedded experience on my resume so its not like I have a tons of embedded experience.

I'm a 3rd-year computer engineering student, and I've always loved computer architecture. I've wanted to learn more about it and design processors with the knowledge I've acquired. Recently, I've been trying to search for sources to learn how to design a RISC-V based processor and FPGA-related topics kept coming up, so I decided to search for where to study FPGAs online. Since my university program isn't that good, I've always searched for resources online to get a better learning quality and discover new topics.

I found Udemy and Coursera courses, but I didn't see many reviews on Reddit about them and couldn't tell if they would be a good starting point or not. Other recommendations that I read were practical learning and practical books, but it's a bit difficult for me since I'm Palestinian, and these chips are somewhat hard to get due to strict regulations on electronics. In the end, I was overwhelmed by the different resources and couldn't figure out where to begin.

So, what is a good roadmap to learn FPGA programming with the end goal of designing a RISC-V based processor? Or am I getting this all wrong? Is it even necessary to learn FPGAs for this purpose?
I have a good background in computer architecture, mainly from the P&H textbooks, and I also know slightly more than basic-level Verilog and VHDL.

So let's get this straight first. I don't know a damn about electronics, i know programming. I understand how a PC or how it's parts work, and basic theory from highschool, but basically that's all i know about hardware.

Ok, so, I have a nice subwoofer/sound sys brain that I've gotten basically for free. The thing is, It's main board that'd handle volume/bass/surround etc is just garbaggio broken. Now, my idea'd be that instead of trying to study electronics, I'd just take the cables that would normally go to the logic board, connect it to a PC and control the thing with custom software. Yk, since i know how to program stuff...

Now I don't know jackshit about how I should connect it to a PC or if even this is a good idea. So yea... I've been studyin the broken logic/control board of the sub so if anyone'd be so generous to give me some advice o where to start, I'd sshare the stuff I know happily :b

So I'm basically asking if this even is accomlishable, and if so, are there any ideas on where can I get started? ^-^ Thx

I recently just finished my first year as an electrical engineering major. I was able to land an internship this summer, but the role is in manufacturing engineering, so it isn't really related to ECE that much. I want to land a solid ECE internship for summer 2025. My interests are primarily in robotics/control, embedded systems, FPGAs, etc. What are some good projects to work on for this summer to prep me for next year? I was thinking about exploring computer vision and FPGA projects tbh. I'm open to any recommendations tbh.

Hello everyone, I’m a VLSI major pursuing my bachelors in engineering in India. Next semester, we have a course named signals and systems which is knows for being the bane of electronics students. Since I’m on a semester break for 3 months, I’m planning on getting ahead in this course (also partly cause it seems so interesting to me). We’re supposed to follow signals and systems by Alan oppenheim. How should I proceed, in the next 3 months, to master the subject to a degree where I’m able to do better than the majority of the class.

As an asic /soc/fpga design engineer , what can I expect to be working with on a day to day basis. Would it mainly just be working with verilog, writing testbenches, and such. Or is there much more to it

Iam pursuing electronics and communication engineering, and now iam in my 1st yr , 2nd sem , filled with lot of confusions, so I'm in my first year can someone please give me a roadmap to follow, like software side start with c , hardware side learning basics like what is a resistor, transistor like this , I want a roadmap for software side also hardware side please

i wanted to do mechanical initialy but now i think i may do ece but i dont have good colleges in my hands so how much would colleges really matter .........frm india btw

Hello! Good day to all of you!! I was hoping to have some opinions/ recommendation on what skills I should have that could help me land on a good company. I am a 4th year student and i would like to start having some skills that I could put on my resume when i apply for work.

P.S. I am leaning towards a career on communications. Thank you!