Moving from electrical engineering to applied physics.

[arbrixv]

I have completed a bachelor in electrical engineering. Because of my interest in physics I have decided to move to applied physics and I have been accepted for a Master program ''Physical Energy and measurement engineering'' from a prestigious technical university in Europe, of course with some equivalence courses to take in addition.

I had good results on my Physics classes but the thing is that I feel that I need a deeper physics and mathematics foundation to follow the given program which normally requires a bachelor in ''applied physics''. This is also because the University I want to go is a very higher class compared to my first one. I have a 6 month period of free time before my master prog begins to prepare and I want to construct an intensive physics and mathematics self study program to follow.

Any help and suggestions is welcomed an appreciated.

Thank you!

 

[X89codered89X]

What types of courses are involved in a Masters in "Physical Energy and Measurement Engineering"? That would help in determining what to work on.

 

[badri89]

Well, you can enroll in courses from coursera and edx. Generally as far as I have seen, a Masters in applied physics covers subjects like fluid mechanics(advanced), Quantum Mechanics, Solid State Physics and nanosciences. As you are saying a masters in measurement it should be having courses like real time analysis and sometimes embedded computing a bit.

As you are a bachelors from EE (like me), we would not have read much about Fluid Mechanics or Quantum Mechanics(we read only the applications like tunneling phenomenon as in Diodes). So its better to get your fundamentals clear.

There is a course offered in Coursera starting in October 7, (Quantum Mechanics) and another running now from Stanford edx(Quantum Mechanics for Scientists and Engineers). You can enroll in both of these.

Also start reading a bit about sensors (nano sensors).

Btw, I'm also in the same track as of you. While you have secured your admission, I'm in the process of applying :)

 

[arbrixv]

X89codered89X, thanks for your reply. Some of the courses in my master prog are: atomic collisions, high temperature superconductors, nuclear engineering, sustainable energy supply, plasma physics, etc

 

[X89codered89X]

Well arbrixv I don't know what to tell you. I'd get some lecture notes either from OCW (mit's open courseware) and/or cheap (text?)books from amazon and start learning. Or perhaps if there is a particular common mathematical background that is common to all those course (e.g. stochastic processes), maybe start studying the mathematical pre/co-requisites.

For myself, an EE grad student, I which I had a chance to take real/complex analysis as I do a lot of analytical sutdy now, and analysis courses weren't required by my ugrad engineering degree. I wish I would have beefed up on this. It wouldn't have directly cut the workload shorter on one class but rather every course just a little bit easier.

-x89