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My self-study plan for electrical engineering

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Re: My self-study plan for electrical engineering

#71

Post by Junk_Collector »

sleavey wrote: post #51
someguydave wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It definitely depends on what you want to do. If you really want to design RF or analog circuits, having a mastery of undergrad EE signals and systems courses would be helpful. But if you only want to make digital logic work, you only need some basic knowledge of circuitry. EE is a vast field that encompasses everything from high power transmission to designing semiconductors. Even full course work from undergrad to…

> analog circuits Can you expand on how analog electronics benefits in particular from a formal EE education? I build analog circuits (amplifiers, filters, power supplies mostly) very frequently in my job as a physicist. We have to care about noise so I've picked up a knowledge of how to deal with it in analog circuits. Is there some other area of analog electronics that "hackers" like me might not get exposed to, co…

Physics and EE have a lot of overlap and exposure to analog circuits in undergrad is pretty shallow. There will typically be a class that covers RLC and switched circuits in time and frequency domain and the basic uses of amplifiers and filters. After that it's theory applied from Fourier analysis and control theory and then they'll have a class on semiconductor physics and another that covers basic amplifier design. These days a lot of focus is on integrated chip design instead of board design. As far as most board level design these days, someone coming from a physics background will pick it up just fine on the job or in the lab as long as you have solid fundamentals.

More advanced stuff that you probably lack vs a practicing EE or an EE graduate education is going to be edge cases, advanced stability analysis, translinear logic and exposure to all the different types of component design. There are tons of different types of say amplifiers used in specific applications whereas most people working in a lab just slap opAmps on everything. A lot of advanced analog design is just applied control theory. Also keep in mind that these days Digital, RF, and Analog all blur a lot in a cutting edge design environment.

Quick Edit: A lot of the more traditional EE design companies will consider someone with a physics degree to be equivalent to someone with an EE degree unless they are looking for a very specific niche.

Re: My self-study plan for electrical engineering

#72

Post by madengr »

krapht wrote: post #65
aj7 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. I disagree, and I’m a Physics SB and PhD (lasers). EE is a discipline unto itself. A stack of physicstextbooks and coursework is useless when you need to build a circuit that does what you need. Indeed, even writing down the desired circuit specs in a reasonably professional manner has zero overlap with physics.

If it's just circuit design, the difference between an EE and a physicist is 6-9 credit hours of courses. You will both share all the necessary prerequisites in mathematics (mostly Fourier analysis, linear algebra, basic statistics, and differential equations) and electromagnetics. New graduates in EE also can't do the things you listed :)

Ha ha, no way there is only a 9 credit difference. I’m an EE, and had 6 specific physics courses in undergrad.

Engineering Physics 1 & 2 EM 1 & 2 Thermo Modern Physics

That in no way takes me near a physics BA, in the same way it takes a physics BA a BSEE.

Re: My self-study plan for electrical engineering

#73

Post by exmadscientist »

krapht wrote: post #65
aj7 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. I disagree, and I’m a Physics SB and PhD (lasers). EE is a discipline unto itself. A stack of physicstextbooks and coursework is useless when you need to build a circuit that does what you need. Indeed, even writing down the desired circuit specs in a reasonably professional manner has zero overlap with physics.

If it's just circuit design, the difference between an EE and a physicist is 6-9 credit hours of courses. You will both share all the necessary prerequisites in mathematics (mostly Fourier analysis, linear algebra, basic statistics, and differential equations) and electromagnetics. New graduates in EE also can't do the things you listed :)

> New graduates in EE also can't do the things you listed :)

That was the spirit of my point, yes :)

More than once I've heard a coworker complain that "I wish I had learned about that in school instead of [filler course so useless that I forgot what they said]."

Re: My self-study plan for electrical engineering

#74

Post by ci5er »

Nicely written. For certain.

Would it be cruel to suggest that you might want to advance a bit more before weighng in ?

I'd say that semiconductor physics, real math, control systems, real mixed signal and a couple of others should get a go ... but my eldest child didn't get much past this, so maybe the state of the art today?

Again- I mean no cruelty in my comments, but seems as if modern curricula are not teaching a person what a person needs to know to go into any related industry job...

(And I could be wrong - as I often am)

Re: My self-study plan for electrical engineering

#75

Post by bsder »

WillSlim95 wrote: post #13

I have some recommendations for you as an EE graduate, you can club Digital Circuits and Systems, Embedded Systems and Digital Hardware with one book in one continuous course with the book Digital Design and Computer Architecture by Harris and Harris (A RISC V Edition will release soon in 2-3 months, buy that one) For Electronic circuits choose Microelectronics by Behzad Razavi. Instead of Purcell go for "Engineering…

The one problem I see is "The Art of Electronics".

I Horowitz and Hill is a LOUSY textbook. And, personally, I find its usefulness as a cookbook overrated.

Going through the Forrest Mims notebooks/cookbooks/etc. for a solution to your problem is generally a way better idea than Horowitz and Hill. The Mims stuff does a really good job of pointing out the pitfalls you're likely to hit as well as the basic pedagogy.

Re: My self-study plan for electrical engineering

#76

Post by billfruit »

aj7 wrote: post #41
krapht wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> (I'm a physicist who transitioned to working as an EE. I have never had a single EE course, and yet I find myself with no obvious deficits compared to my colleagues who have.) Not to dunk on the rest of your reply, which I agree with, but there is a humongous overlap between your typical undergraduate physics and electrical engineering degree, and I think you're able to be successful because they're so similar. Aca…

No. I disagree, and I’m a Physics SB and PhD (lasers). EE is a discipline unto itself. A stack of physicstextbooks and coursework is useless when you need to build a circuit that does what you need. Indeed, even writing down the desired circuit specs in a reasonably professional manner has zero overlap with physics.

Also perhaps units conventions etc may be different in EE and Physics, like use of Gaussian units in electrodynamics in Physics, and also things like the mysterious 'Z'-transform that seems to pervade much of EE.

Re: My self-study plan for electrical engineering

#77

Post by Junk_Collector »

The core of EE is Fourier analysis and BCI is no exception but you should be strong there because you've studied applied math. Most of your target books are good after your HN update, but one thing you are missing that will probably make a big difference are some books on measurement science. You'll want to get some focused both on EE and biomed/biology because they will focus on different things and both are relevant to your interests. Eventually you'll also want to touch on some non-linear and statistical control which play into the implementation of the more modern cutting edge BCIs. DSP overlaps a lot with this but still has some uniqueness you'll need to learn to put things into practice.

Just an FYI, a lot of BCI companies are running stuff like repurposed audio analyzers ala the U8903B for lab work and bench testing their designs. Parallelism is the name of the game, and analog performance requirements aren't super strict so you won't be designing custom ICs any time soon unless you want to work on the probe interfaces themselves (which are more MEMS than circuit design but need a little of both).

Something like Medical Instrumentation: Application and Design by Webster is a great place for a beginner who wants to toy with human interfacing circuits. Back it up with something like The Art of Electronics and that will get you to professional lab tech territory.

Re: My self-study plan for electrical engineering

#78

Post by panda88888 »

cushychicken wrote: post #68
someguydave wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I have run into plenty of EE's who don't understand how to model a simple filter, for instance.

The first interview question is always an RC filter. It's an easy leading indicator of who has their shit together.

RC filter is like fizzbuzz for EE.

Re: My self-study plan for electrical engineering

#79

Post by rasz »

exmadscientist wrote: post #8

Why push yourself through a degree-style path? So much of what EEs learn in their coursework is of low utility. (I'm a physicist who transitioned to working as an EE. I have never had a single EE course, and yet I find myself with no obvious deficits compared to my colleagues who have.) There are two ways to learn an existing technical-ish subject: you can spend a lot of time reading textbooks, then do some projects…

>or you can dive in to projects and refer to textbooks when you get stuck

You dont know what you dont know. Its better to at least read all of the coursework even fast and without understanding than go green and make basic I didnt know that existed mistakes.

Re: My self-study plan for electrical engineering

#80

Post by rasz »

panda88888 wrote: post #78
cushychicken wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The first interview question is always an RC filter. It's an easy leading indicator of who has their shit together.

RC filter is like fizzbuzz for EE.

One of those is a basic building block used in pretty much everything, the other is software bullshit.
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