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My self-study plan for electrical engineering

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Re: My self-study plan for electrical engineering

#101

Post by rramadass »

mikewarot wrote: post #94

Radio - Get an RTL-SDR dongle kit, and install GNU radio. Being able to get signals from the real world, and manipulate them via a flowgraph lets you do far more hands on than years of labs used to. I've implemented all the standard things, AM, FM, SSB radios, etc.. I had a lot of fun figuring out how to decode and display the local VOR beacon near my house. You can also play with audio frequencies, and your micropho…

Neat idea. I have been wanting to do something like this for a long time to really understand Wireless RF.

But i find Gnu Radio somewhat intimidating (not having a Signals/DSP background). Are there any books/articles/videos etc. which will ease my learning curve? Note that i already know of Michael Ossmann's course with HackRF (https://greatscottgadgets.com/sdr/)

Re: My self-study plan for electrical engineering

#103

Post by BeetleB »

dboreham wrote: post #88
CalChris wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, it is too broad. You should look at a school like Berkeley and look at their concentrations. Maybe RF isn’t important if you’re doing systems (unless you’re interested in RF). https://m.box.com/shared_item/https%3A%2F%2Fberkeley.box.com...

I don't think you can call yourself an EE if you don't know anything about RF.

RF is not a required course in most universities. Some don't even have it as an elective. Were you thinking of electromagnetics? RF is a very specific subfield.

Re: My self-study plan for electrical engineering

#104

Post by BeetleB »

madengr wrote: post #21
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…

Why is it to broad to be accomplished? It seems to cover your typical BSEE, and you need an exposure to all of it. Razavis RFIC is a good one too, but that’s really getting too specialized. Pozar is good for undergrad microwave.

> It seems to cover your typical BSEE, and you need an exposure to all of it.

Hard disagree. Much of the page involves what normally would be electives. You need exposure to some subset, but not all of it.

To give you an idea, my undergrad in EE did not require a course on materials (although it was an elective).

Everything in "Phase 2" was an elective - none was required (although many universities do require the "electronic devices" course).

Needless to say, if everything in Phase 2 was an elective, so was everything in Phase 3.

Also, when I look at pretty much any job requiring EE, and intersect it with the courses I took as an EE undergrad, I find that most courses are not needed. EE (and an EE curriculum) is often quite broad. For any given course, there are plenty of jobs that will need that course, but most EE jobs will not. If the submitter has some specific goal in mind, he won't lose much by skipping courses not related to that goal.

To give you an idea, when I worked as an EE, I had to use basic circuit theory 2 or 3 times, digital logic only once, and the physics of electronic devices a lot. The level of EM I needed was satisfied by high school physics, so I won't even count EM. Everything else I took: Control theory, communications, electronic circuits, power/machines: Never used it.

Re: My self-study plan for electrical engineering

#105

Post by mikewarot »

rramadass wrote: post #101
mikewarot wrote: post #94

Radio - Get an RTL-SDR dongle kit, and install GNU radio. Being able to get signals from the real world, and manipulate them via a flowgraph lets you do far more hands on than years of labs used to. I've implemented all the standard things, AM, FM, SSB radios, etc.. I had a lot of fun figuring out how to decode and display the local VOR beacon near my house. You can also play with audio frequencies, and your micropho…

Neat idea. I have been wanting to do something like this for a long time to really understand Wireless RF. But i find Gnu Radio somewhat intimidating (not having a Signals/DSP background). Are there any books/articles/videos etc. which will ease my learning curve? Note that i already know of Michael Ossmann's course with HackRF ( https://greatscottgadgets.com/sdr/ )

Everything in GNU radio is a flowgraph (a fancy flowchart, actually a directed acyclic graph).

The thing is you can take an existing flowgraph, modify it, and see what happens in about 30 seconds.

This video seems to be a good starting point: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufxBX_uNCa0

Re: My self-study plan for electrical engineering

#106

Post by BeetleB »

krapht wrote: post #14
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…

> (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…

> but there is a humongous overlap between your typical undergraduate physics and electrical engineering degree

As someone who has a degree in both: Hard disagree. The physics curriculum had one course on circuits/electronics combined, and they covered almost nothing practical when it came to tools like oscilloscopes, etc. Few physicists I know have heard of "3db point". No statistics in the physics curriculum (no, quantum mechanics and stat mechanics don't count). Absolutely nothing with regards to digital, communications, or control theory.

The only real overlap was math, EM and semiconductors. Most people who get an EE degree are not targeting that world.

Re: My self-study plan for electrical engineering

#107

Post by nyanpasu64 »

exmadscientist wrote: post #91
billfruit wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Gaussian units seem to be on their way out. I, for one, won't miss them. (Or cgs.) The Z-transform is much more related to the others than is clear at first glance. This post on transforms [0] from the The n-Category Café is fascinating, and my go-to for understanding what the Laplace transform really is , even if I don't quite grasp many things in the post. (And I also have a math degree! But not a graduate one in a…

> the Laplace transform is really just a generalization of the familiar Laurent series representation of complex analytic functions, but where the exponents are allowed to be non-integers and to “vary continuously” rather than discretely.

I understand some of these words... they're very familiar to me...

I'm saying this as someone who's dealt with the discrete and continuous time Fourier transforms, and Z-transform, and wants to get into Laplace transforms.

Re: My self-study plan for electrical engineering

#110

Post by hvasilev »

Given that you already have a job and a family to support (at some point?), I would say that this is realistically a 15+ year plan that you've built yourself.

I also had a hardware interest later my career and my approach was slightly different. I found an embedded systems job that pays about 3 times less than what I used to get paid (since I have no experience). It is definitely fun and I learn a lot, but I definitely don't have the financial freedoms that I used to have. I'm not sure which is the correct approach, but surely there is no "easy" way of getting there.

Please have in mind that this is a very serious time (and financial in my case) commitment that you are about to make.

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