Electrical Engineering, Bachelor of Science
The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering offers a complete electrical engineering undergraduate program to students on the City (Lincoln) and Scott (Omaha) campuses of the University of Nebraska. Curriculum requirements for the electrical engineering major are nearly identical on both campuses and students can complete all degree requirements on either campus.
Electrical engineering is concerned with the production, transmission, and utilization of electrical energy and the creation, transmission and processing of information. This includes power generation and transmission systems, motors, batteries and control systems, as well as radio frequency (RF) systems, telecommunications, remote sensing, signal processing, digital circuits, instrumentation, audio, video and opto-electronics. Employment opportunities for electrical engineers cover a wide spectrum of activities including design, development, research, sales, and management. These activities are carried on in industrial organizations, public and private utilities, the communications and computer industry, governmental and educational institutions, and consulting engineering firms. The objective of this major is to offer students an education to become productive electrical engineers and be active, contributing citizens of the nation and the world.
This department has over 40 faculty involved in research related to electronic materials, nanotechnology, optical systems, communications, biomedical applications, signal processing, microelectronics design, energy systems, and electromagnetics. Students are encouraged to participate in research activities, and have opportunities to travel and present their work at research conferences.
The department has extensive research facilities for all areas including state of the art computing facilities, integrated circuits and systems research facilities, communications and signal processing laboratories, applied electromagnetics research, solid state laboratories, nanostructures research, electro-optics research and energy systems laboratories.
The curriculum is designed to provide a broad education in fundamental principles and laboratory applications, and an awareness of the socioeconomic impact of technology. Technical electives are normally selected from advanced courses in electrical engineering to provide for specialization in selected areas as well as breadth and depth of knowledge. However, technical electives can also be selected from courses offered by other departments of the College of Engineering or from appropriate courses in physics, chemistry, mathematics, and biological sciences.
Accreditation
The Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) department’s Electrical Engineering Program (EE) is accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET
Program Educational Objectives
The Program Educational Objectives (PEOs) for the electrical engineering program are a statement of what its graduates are doing or are capable of doing three to five years after graduation. Electrical engineering is concerned with the production, transmission, and utilization of electrical energy and the transmission and processing of information. Employment opportunities for electrical engineers cover a wide spectrum of activities including design, development, research, sales, and management. These activities are carried on in industrial organizations, public and private utilities, the communications and computer industry, governmental and educational institutions, and consulting engineering firms. Careers may encompass electronic materials, nanotechnology, optical systems, communications, biomedical applications, signal processing, microelectronics design, energy systems, and electromagnetics. The objective of this program is to offer students an education to become productive electrical engineers and be active, contributing citizens of the nation and the world.
The Program Educational Objectives for the electrical engineering program are that graduates will be:
- Employed in business, academia, or government.
- Successful engineers who have established productive careers in their field and have contributed to improve and provide innovative and effective solutions in electrical engineering or related fields.
- Demonstrating technical and decision-making processes and the human interactions necessary to produce viable, responsible, and sustainable technological solutions.
- Engaging in lifelong learning, which may include postgraduate education, to successfully adapt to technological, industry specific, and cultural changes and to foster adept functioning in society.
- Performing engineering practice in a context that reflects awareness of the ethics of their profession and of the impacts of their work on the profession and society at large.
These Program Educational Objectives were developed with input from the program's educational objectives constituency, consisting of employers (including the Industry Advisory Board), graduates of the program, and faculty of the department.
Student Outcomes
Student Outcomes are those abilities that a graduate of the Electrical Engineering program will have attained so that he/she can meet the educational objectives established for the program.
At the time of graduation, students in the ECE Electrical Engineering program will have:
- an ability to identify, formulate, and solve complex engineering problems by applying principles of engineering, science, and mathematics
- an ability to apply engineering design to produce solutions that meet specified needs with consideration of public health, safety, and welfare, as well as global, cultural, social, environmental, and economic factors
- an ability to communicate effectively with a range of audiences
- an ability to recognize ethical and professional responsibilities in engineering situations and make informed judgments, which must consider the impact of engineering solutions in global, economic, environmental, and societal contexts
- an ability to function effectively on a team whose members together provide leadership, create a collaborative and inclusive environment, establish goals, plan tasks, and meet objectives
- an ability to develop and conduct appropriate experimentation, analyze and interpret data, and use engineering judgment to draw conclusions
- an ability to acquire and apply new knowledge as needed, using appropriate learning strategies.
Professional Admission Requirements
Pre-professionally admitted College of Engineering students majoring in electrical engineering will be granted profession admission into the electrical engineering program if the students have:
- maintained a cumulative GPA of at least 2.4 and is in good standing in the College of Engineering, and
- completed ECEN 213 Electrical Circuits I or ECEN 215 Electronics and Circuits I and ECEN 214 Electrical Circuits II or ECEN 216 Electronics and Circuits II with a grade of C or better.
A transfer student will be admitted if he/she has:
- completed courses equivalent to ECEN 213 or ECEN 215 and ECEN 214 or ECEN 216 at other institutions with acceptable transfer grades of C or better, and
- earned a GPA of 2.4 or better during their first 12 credit hours in electrical engineering course work at UNL/UNO.
Transfer students will be able to appeal to the College's Academic Appeals Committee for admission for an additional semester if they fail to meet the GPA requirement.
See the College of Engineering section of the catalog for details on admission to the college.
Students graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering degree must successfully complete 124 credit hours as follows:
| Code | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| Required electrical engineering courses | 41 | |
| Required math and science courses | 32 | |
| Technical electives 1 | 27 | |
- 1
Of the 27 credit hours of technical electives, at least 12 credit hours must be taken as electrical engineering (ECEN) courses, which are referred to as “EE Option Technical Electives.” The remaining 15 credit hours of technical electives which are referred to as “EE or Other Technical Electives” may be taken from any 300 or 400 level course offering (with some exceptions) in the department of Electrical and Computer Engineering or in any other engineering department within the College of Engineering, or in the departments of Biological Sciences, Chemistry, Computer Science and Engineering, Mathematics, Statistics, or Physics and Astronomy at UNL or UNO.
Requirements
| First Year | ||
|---|---|---|
| First Semester | Credits | |
| ECEN 103 | ELECTRICAL AND COMPUTER ENGINEERING FUNDAMENTALS | 4 |
| MATH 1950 | CALCULUS I | 5 |
| CIST 1400 | INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTER SCIENCE I | 3 |
| ENGL 1160 | ENGLISH COMPOSITION II | 3 |
| Credits | 15 | |
| Second Semester | ||
| ECEN 106 | MICROPROCESSOR APPLICATIONS | 3 |
| ECEN 123 | INTRODUCTION TO ELECTRICAL AND COMPUTER ENGINEERING | 1 |
| ECEN 225 | ELECTRICAL AND COMPUTER ENGINEERING SEMINAR | 1 |
| MATH 1960 | CALCULUS II | 4 |
| PHYS 2110 | GENERAL PHYSICS I - CALCULUS LEVEL | 4 |
| CMST 1110 | PUBLIC SPEAKING FUNDS 2 | 3 |
| Credits | 16 | |
| Second Year | ||
| First Semester | ||
| ECEN 215 | ELECTRONICS AND CIRCUITS I | 3 |
| ECEN 218 | ELECTRICAL CIRCUITS LABORATORY I | 1 |
| MATH 2050 | APPLIED LINEAR ALGEBRA | 3 |
| MATH 2350 | DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS | 3 |
| PHYS 2120 | GENERAL PHYSICS-CALCULUS LEVEL | 4 |
| PHYS 1164 | GENERAL PHYSICS LABORATORY II | 1 |
| Credits | 15 | |
| Second Semester | ||
| ECEN 216 | ELECTRONICS AND CIRCUITS II | 3 |
| ECEN 222 | ELECTRONIC CIRCUITS I | 4 |
| ECEN 313 | SWITCHING CIRCUITS THEORY | 4 |
| MATH 1970 | CALCULUS III | 4 |
| Credits | 15 | |
| Third Year | ||
| First Semester | ||
| ECEN 304 | SIGNALS AND SYSTEMS I | 3 |
| ECEN 306 | ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELD THEORY | 3 |
| ECEN 307 | ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING LABORATORY I | 2 |
| Electrical Engineering Option Technical Elective 3 | 3 | |
| Electrical Engineering or Other Technical Electives 3 | 3 | |
| ACE Elective 1 | 3 | |
| Credits | 17 | |
| Second Semester | ||
| ECEN 305 | PROBABILITY THEORY AND STATISTICS FOR ELECTRICAL AND COMPUTER ENGINEERS | 3 |
| ECEN 347 | ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING LABORATORY II | 1 |
| Electrical Engineering Option Technical Elective 3 | 3 | |
| Electrical Engineering or Other Technical Electives 3 | 3 | |
| Science Elective | 4 | |
| ACE Elective 1 | 3 | |
| Credits | 17 | |
| Fourth Year | ||
| First Semester | ||
| ECEN 494 | ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING CAPSTONE I | 2 |
| Electrical Engineering Option Technical Elective 3 | 3 | |
| Electrical Engineering or Other Technical Electives 3 | 6 | |
| ACE Electives 1 | 3 | |
| Credits | 14 | |
| Second Semester | ||
| ECEN 495 | ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING CAPSTONE II | 3 |
| Electrical Engineering Option Technical Elective 3 | 3 | |
| Electrical Engineering or Other Technical Electives 3 | 3 | |
| ACE Elective 1 | 6 | |
| Credits | 15 | |
| Total Credits | 124 | |
- 1
Choose one course from not yet satisfied ACE outcomes 5,6,7,8 or 9.
- 2
- 3
The department maintains of approved list of technical electives (within and outside of ECE) on the department website.
- 4
ECEN 213 may be substituted for ECEN 215.
- 5
ECEN 214 may be substituted for ECEN 216.
Total Credit Hours Required for Graduation - 124 Hours
Technical Electives
Each EE undergraduate student must choose one of the emphasis areas listed below for the EE technical electives.
Electrical Engineering Emphasis Areas
Communications and Signal Processing
Electromagnetic Fields and Optics
Electronics
Energy and Power Systems
Materials and Devices
Bioengineering
Modeling and Simulation
Telecommunications
Electives
There are 27 credit hours of technical electives required. Of these 27 credit hours, at least 12 credit hours must be taken in one of the electrical engineering (ECEN) emphasis areas. Below is a list of courses in each emphasis area.
Communications & Signal Processing
ECEN 410 Multivariate Random Processes
ECEN 325/ECEN 462 core Communications Systems/Communications Systems
ECEN 424/ECEN 463 core Digital Signal Processing/Digital Signal Processing
ECEN 461/ECEN 464 Digital Communications Media/Digital Communication Systems
ECEN 465 Intro Data Compression
Electromagnetic Fields and Optics
ECEN 408 core Engineering Electromagnetics
ECEN 467 Electromagnetic Theory and Applications
ECEN 468 Microwave Engineering
ECEN 479 Optical Fiber Communications
ECEN 480 Introduction to Lasers and Laser applications
ECEN 486 Applied Photonics
Electronics
ECEN 310/ ECEN 474 core Digital Design and Interfacing/Digital Systems
ECEN 352/ECEN 361 core Electronic Circuits II/Advanced Electronics and Circuits
ECEN 362 Data and Telecommunications Transceivers
ECEN 469 Analog Integrated Circuits
ECEN 470 Digital and Analog VLSI Design
Energy and Power Systems
ECEN 338 core Intro Power and Energy Systems
ECEN 406 Power Systems Analysis
ECEN 428 core Power Electronics
ECEN 430 Wind Energy
ECEN 436 Electric Machines
ECEN 444 Linear Control Systems
ECEN 498 X Solar Energy
Materials and Devices
ECEN 417 Semiconductor Fundamentals II
ECEN 420 Plasma Processing of Semiconductors
ECEN 421 core Principles of Semiconductor Materials and Devices I
ECEN 422 Introduction to Physics and Chemistry of Solids
Bioengineering
ECEN 450 core Bioinformatics
ECEN 460 Labview Programming
ECEN 453 Computational and Systems Biology
ECEN 498 S Bioengineering Image and Signal Processing
Modeling and Simulation
ECEN 398 M core Computational Modeling and Simulation: Discrete Systems
ECEN 448 Decision Analysis
ECEN 498 Computational Modeling and Simulation: Continuous Systems
Telecommunications
ECEN 362 Data and Telecommunications Transceivers
ECEN 461/ECEN 464 core Digital Communications Media/Digital Communication Systems
ECEN 466 core Telecommunications Engineering I
Of the 12 credit hours required in an emphasis area which are referred to as "EE Option Technical Electives", 6 credit hours must be taken from one of the eight EE emphasis areas listed. This must include at least one Core Course in that area.
In addition, at least one 3 credit hour course from a different EE emphasis area must be taken. The remaining 3 credits may be satisfied by any non-required 3000- or 4000-level ECEN course except ECEN 399 Undergraduate Research.
The remaining 15 credit hours of technical electives which are referred to as “EE or other Technical Electives” may be taken from any 3000- or 4000-level course offering (with the exception of those listed below) in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering or in any other engineering department within the College of Engineering at UNL, or in the UNO Departments of Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Mathematics, or Physics or in the UNL Departments of Biological Sciences, Chemistry, Computer Science and Engineering, Mathematics, Statistics, or Physics and Astronomy.
Not Allowed 300- and 400-Level Technical Electives
ENGR 469 Technology, Science and Civilization
BIOL 3500 Biological Principles of Aging
CSCI 3710 Introduction to Digital Design and Computer Organization
STAT 3000 Statistical Methods I
UNL BIOS 310 School of Biological Sciences Seminar
UNL IMSE 305 Introduction to Engineering Management
MATH 4980 Seminar or UNL MATH 495 Seminar
UNL MATH 496 Seminar in Mathematics
or any other seminar-type courses.
Allowed 100 and 200 Level Technical Electives
UNL AGEN 225 Engineering Properties of Biological Materials (BSEN 225)
PHYS 4350 Astrophysics or ASTR 204 Introduction to Astronomy & Astrophysics
UNL ASTR 224 Astronomy & Astrophysics Lab
BIOL 2140 Genetics or UNL BIOS 206 General Genetics
BIOL 2740 Human Physiology and Anatomy I or UNL BIOS 213 Human Physiology
CHEM 1190 General Chemistry II and CHEM 1194 General Chemistry II Laboratory or UNL CHEM 110 General Chemistry II
CHEM 1190 General Chemistry II or UNL CHEM 114 Fundamental Chemistry II
Any 2000 level chemistry course or UNL CHEM 2xx
CSCI 1620 Introduction to Computer Science II or UNL CSCE 156 Computer Science II
MATH 2030 Discrete Mathematics or UNL CSCE 235 Introduction to Discrete Structures
UNL CSCE 251 Unix Programming Environment
UNL MATL 260 Elements of Materials Science
UNL MATL 262 Materials Lab I
MECH 223 Engineering Statics
MECH 200 Engineering Thermodynamics
No more than a total of 3 credit hours may be taken in ECEN 399 or similar offerings from other departments.
However, students can choose a “Research Option.” The purpose of research option is to provide research experiences and offer opportunities for students to work with a faculty advisor on a specific research topic. A certificate of completion of thesis will be awarded to the students, and outstanding thesis awards will be presented at the end of semester functions. Requirements for the research option are listed below.
Research Option
1. Selection of a faculty advisor (ECE department faculty), research topic, and thesis committee (at least one other faculty).
2. Registration for 6 credit hours of undergraduate research (ECEN 399)over at least two consecutive semesters on the same research topic.
3. GPA of above 3.0.
4. Write an undergraduate thesis or report and make an oral presentation to be graded by thesis committee members.
Science Electives
BIOL 1450 BIOLOGY I (5 cr) or UNL LIFE 120 and LIFE 120L FUNDAMENTALS OF BIOLOGY I
CHEM 1180 (3 cr) and CHEM 1184 (1 cr) or UNL CHEM 109 or CHEM 111 or CHEM 113
PHYS 2130 (4 cr) or UNL PHYS 213