Where do signal engineers go after Undergrad?

[icesalmon]

I'm going into my sr. year in EE and I want to focus as much as I can on signal engineering for my technical electives(digital filter deisgn, digital signal processing, comm. systems, antenna theory etc.) and I was curious where a path in that field would take me if i decided to go to graduate school in the future? In terms of the types of subjects I could read up on to better familiarize myself with more and more information in that area. What else could I be studying in my free time to learn more about the field? I just want to learn as much as possible

 

[CrysPhys]

I'm going into my sr. year in EE and I want to focus as much as I can on signal engineering for my technical electives(digital filter deisgn, digital signal processing, comm. systems, antenna theory etc.) and I was curious where a path in that field would take me if i decided to go to graduate school in the future? In terms of the types of subjects I could read up on to better familiarize myself with more and more information in that area. What else could I be studying in my free time to learn more about the field? I just want to learn as much as possible

From the title and body of your post, it's not clear to me whether you are asking (1) what jobs are available with an undergrad degree, or (2) which grad schools you should consider, and what specialties in grad school you should consider?

 

[Dr. Courtney]

When I worked for Cisco Systems in wireless networking, most of the engineers in that part of the company were signal guys. I was the lone physicist.

 

[icesalmon]

From the title and body of your post, it's not clear to me whether you are asking (1) what jobs are available with an undergrad degree, or (2) which grad schools you should consider, and what specialties in grad school you should consider?

I'm not concerned with jobs, I'm concerned with what i can learn in the field after I've covered all my undergraduate coursework.

 

[icesalmon]

When I worked for Cisco Systems in wireless networking, most of the engineers in that part of the company were signal guys. I was the lone physicist.

more work for you!

 

[CrysPhys]

I'm not concerned with jobs, I'm concerned with what i can learn in the field after I've covered all my undergraduate coursework.

(1) Are you planning for a MS or PhD in grad school?

(2) Have you given any thought to your ultimate career (e.g., academic research or industry)?

 

[icesalmon]

(1) Are you planning for a MS or PhD in grad school?

(2) Have you given any thought to your ultimate career (e.g., academic research or industry)?

1). MS
2). Industry, other than that i haven no clue.

 

[icesalmon]

When I worked for Cisco Systems in wireless networking, most of the engineers in that part of the company were signal guys. I was the lone physicist.

what kinda work did they do?

 

[Dr. Courtney]

what kinda work did they do?

They designed wireless networking equipment.

 

[marcusl]

If you get a solid grounding in both communications theory and add information theory, you'll be well-placed for a position developing state-of-the-art mm-wave 5G communications equipment, which is just starting to take off now and will be the dominant communications technology for the next couple of decades. Early systems currently being deployed are fairly simple, so you'll enter the field at a time when advanced technologies such as MIMO will be developed. Whether you decide to work on hardware or not, additional courses in microwave electronics and antenna theory would make you even more marketable.

 

[icesalmon]

If you get a solid grounding in both communications theory and add information theory, you'll be well-placed for a position developing state-of-the-art mm-wave 5G communications equipment, which is just starting to take off now and will be the dominant communications technology for the next couple of decades. Early systems currently being deployed are fairly simple, so you'll enter the field at a time when advanced technologies such as MIMO will be developed. Whether you decide to work on hardware or not, additional courses in microwave electronics and antenna theory would make you even more marketable.

what additional courses, that are continuations of antenna theory, could i look into? and what subjects should i be comfortable with in order to begin a study on information theory?

 

[marcusl]

Continuation of antenna theory? Maybe phased arrays and adaptive array processing.
For info theory, comms theory is a definite pre-req. Consult your university course catalog for other pre-requisites.

 

[berkeman]

what subjects should i be comfortable with in order to begin a study on information theory?

Have you studied the various modulation schemes yet? Especially the more advanced ones like OFDM and OOFDM...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orthogonal_frequency-division_multiplexing

That will stretch your mind a bit.