What tech electives do you think I should take this fall?

  • Thread starter Thread starter leright
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Electives Fall
Click For Summary
SUMMARY

The discussion centers on selecting a technical elective for a double major in electrical engineering and physics, with a focus on semiconductor physics research. The options include VLSI System Design, Engineering Analysis, Digital Image Processing, Digital Control Systems, and Engineering Optimization. Concerns were raised about the VLSI course's instructor qualifications and potential unavailability, while prerequisites hindered enrollment in Digital Control Systems and Engineering Optimization. The participant expresses a preference for VLSI due to its relevance to integrated circuit design.

PREREQUISITES
  • Understanding of VLSI system design principles
  • Familiarity with digital circuits and integrated circuit fabrication
  • Knowledge of linear equations and finite difference methods for Engineering Analysis
  • Basic concepts of image processing techniques for Digital Image Processing
NEXT STEPS
  • Research VLSI design methodologies and current industry practices
  • Explore advanced topics in digital image processing and its applications in computer vision
  • Investigate the prerequisites and content of Digital Control Systems for future enrollment
  • Learn about optimization techniques in engineering, focusing on the Simplex method and Lagrange multipliers
USEFUL FOR

Students pursuing degrees in electrical engineering and physics, particularly those interested in semiconductor physics, integrated circuit design, and advanced engineering analysis techniques.

leright
Messages
1,317
Reaction score
19
Hello, I am having some difficulty choosing a course to take for this fall. The course is to fill in my technical elective. I am already filling in my other tech electives with an advanced electronics class (with lab), advanced digital (with lab), and opto electronics (with lab). Now, I just need to choose one more tech elective (4 credits). I am a double major in electrical engineering and physics and I hope to get into semiconductor physics research (applied more at the EE end of things). So, I hope to become more of a physicist than an engineer, but I would like to take part in activities from both fields.

It is also possible for me to not take any tech elective and just take an EE class everyone is supposed to take. I could wait a couple of semesters to take the tech elective in hopes something else is offered.

My choices for tech electives are given below:

VLSI system design: Analysis and design of MOS and bipolar integrated circuits. Fabrication processes, device characteristics, digital circuits for logic and memory functions. Semi-custom and full custom design application. Specific integrated-circuit design, design rules, and case studies. (however, I talked to the prof that is supposed to teach this, and he said it was a mistake to have him teach it since he doesn't know much about the subject and someone else will likely end up teaching it...also, they might not even offer it.)

Engineering Analysis: Must have permission of Department. Theoretical analysis of typical engineering systems using linear equations, finite difference methods, perturbation, and asymptotic expansions. Discrete mathematics and probability theory including error correcting codes, interpolation, samples spaces, independence, and random variables. Lecture 4 hours.

Digital Image Processing: Image representation, image enhancement and restoration, image encoding, feature extraction and image interpretation. Image compression, Applications to HDTD Computer Vision and object Recognition design.

Digital Control systems: Must have departmental approval. Discrete time mathematics, Z-transforms, sampling rates, zero and first-order hold, time delays, system stability, continuous and discrete time systems, interfacing, computer control implementation concepts, state space realization. Lecture 4 hours. (might not be able to take this since control systems is a pre-req, and I haven't had it yet.)

Engineering Optimization: Linear optimization, constraints, slack variables, feasibility, basic solutions, the Simplex method, duality. Non-linear optimization, existence, feasible directions, unconstrained problems, convex and concave functions, basic descent methods, conjugate direction methods, quasi- Newton methods. Constrained minimization, Lagrange multipliers, Kuhn-Tucker conditions. (probably won't be able to take this as it is 600 level, and I probably don't have the proper pre-reqs.

So, what do you think?
 
Physics news on Phys.org
I would take the VLSI course, but that is just because I want to go into ic design.
 

Similar threads

  • · Replies 2 ·
Replies
2
Views
2K
  • · Replies 7 ·
Replies
7
Views
2K
  • · Replies 3 ·
Replies
3
Views
2K
  • · Replies 4 ·
Replies
4
Views
2K
  • · Replies 7 ·
Replies
7
Views
3K
  • · Replies 4 ·
Replies
4
Views
2K
Replies
2
Views
2K
  • · Replies 7 ·
Replies
7
Views
3K
  • · Replies 7 ·
Replies
7
Views
4K
Replies
10
Views
3K