Starting my EE degree next fall, help me plan my summer

[tamtam402]

I come from Quebec, which means I had to go to Cegep (it's a post-secondary school required to attend Universities). There's 2 main "branches" to go to electrical engineering at uni here:

1) Complete a "general sciences" 2 years course at Cegep, which is what I did. It's the normal path to attend university in something sciences related. I'll have completed Calculus I, II, III, Linear Algebra, a basic statistics course, as well as physics I, II and III.

2) Complete a "technical electrical engineering" 3 years course at Cegep. Most people doing this end up on the job market (as opposed to the first choice - it's only a general education program that is pretty much the continuity of high school), but people are allowed to attend university also.

Is there a must-read book that could give me a jump start?? I'd say my math is above average, considering I worked hard and ended up with 90-100 grades in every course listed above. I also took the optional Calculus III course covering ODE's, double and triple integrals, etc.

What I'd like to do is start reading on Electrical Engineering related stuff, since the guys coming from the technical cegep course will have much more experience than me and it's kinda scary to think I'll have 0 practical knowledge. On the other hand, I only have 1 summer to "prepare" myself so I don't want to read very specific stuff, which will probably be covered again at university anyway. I also started teaching myself C++ programmation, and I plan to keep doing that this summer.

With what I said above, could you guys please recommend me 1-2 books that would be good for me??
Also, is there any hobbyist kit geared toward newbies like me?? Something that would get me some very basic yet structured hands-on experience would be good.

Thanks in advance!

 

[tamtam402]

No answers? :(

 

[0xDEADBEEF]

I would recommend having a good time in the sun... Anyhow if your masochism needs to be satisfied, the two books that seem to get recommended over and over are:

"The Art of Electronics" by Horowitz and Hill
It has a very nice writing style that is fun to read, but there is a lot of knowledge pressed between the two covers so it goes too fast for some people.

The other book is
"The ARRL Handbook for Radio Amateurs (ARRL Handbook for Radio Communications)"
which I have never read.

 

[jasonRF]

I would echo the other poster -have a nice summer, and be prepared to work hard when school starts in the Fall.

If you want a "fun" book that teaches some core EE stuff while being entertaining (and including some great history, and some problems to solve if you wish), I highly recommend "the science of radio" by Nahin. Truly excellent. Will teach you basic stuff about radio, basic circuits, and Fourier analysis - perhaps the most important mathematical tool you will learn during your engineering training. Is written for folks with your kind of background - if anything you have more background than you need.

Kits ... Some people have fun with nerdkits - google them and browse their site to see if it looks interesting. They are also sold through amazon now, I think. I have never worked with them, so who knows ...

 

[Bob S]

I would suggest your finding a summer job working in an electronics-oriented company that would give you hands-on experience. I worked summers and part time at Hewlett Packard from 1954 to 1958 while attending college. Very good experience using lots of test equipment. Better than just reading books.

Bob S

 

[tamtam402]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone! I ordered a nerdkit, after reading some reviews.