Catalog for The School of Engineering

Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering

Based on broad training in the basic and engineering sciences and the humanities, this curriculum provides a thorough knowledge of the field of electrical engineering, supplemented by fundamentals of civil, mechanical, and chemical engineering, which prepares a student for further study or work in any branch of the field. Specialization is minimized in the undergraduate work.

Mission

Program Goals

The program educational goals of the Department of Electrical Engineering at The University of Mississippi are:

1. to educate students in the fundamental concepts of electrical engineering with an engineering science emphasis in a way that teaches the student to form an appreciation for the interrelationship between basic knowledge, technological advance, and human needs;
2. to contribute to mankind's knowledge through basic and applied research for the solution of society's current and future technical problems; and
3. to support professional, industrial, and economic development over the state of Mississippi through service.

These goals are consistent with the Mission Statement 5 of Purpose and Goals of The University of Mississippi that focuses our resources in the areas of engineering, communication, and related technologies. The goals are also consistent with The University of Mississippi Mission Goal Statement Focus Areas for the 1990s.

Program Philosophy

The Electrical Engineering Department has established an excellent undergraduate program that is founded on basic sciences, mathematics, and engineering science fundamentals and is accredited by ABET. The undergraduate electrical engineering program emphasizes the mastery of fundamental concepts and principles and strives to elicit original and fundamental thought processes from the students, focusing on the "whys" rather than the "hows" of engineering. A major goal of this program is that a student undergoes mental development to a point where he or she can learn rather quickly and without much difficulty the type of information generally found in undergraduate textbooks. The program consists of pre-engineering background courses that lead into six major multi-course sequences in the undergraduate electrical engineering program: 1) Circuits and Electronics, 2) Systems, 3) Digital Systems/Computers, 4) Electromagnetic Fields/RF, 5) Design, and 6) Engineering Science Core. This program is broad-based and covers the fundamental engineering science areas of electrical engineering. This educational philosophy is pursued because it is felt that specialization should be acquired at the graduate level.

Objectives

Based on this philosophy, our goals are to provide quality undergraduate and graduate programs in electrical engineering with national and international recognition. These goals reflect the fact that no engineering educational program can develop fully without parallel development of research and faculty capabilities. Thus, the department continues to place the utmost importance on faculty and support resources.

In view of our objectives, the following continuing objectives for undergraduate student education have been adopted with the appropriate vehicles for evaluation. Graduates of the Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering (BSEE) undergraduate program at The University of Mississippi should:

1. have a sound understanding of the fundamentals of engineering science, computer applications, mathematics, and physics; and have the ability to apply this knowledge in engineering practice.
2. be able to draw from physics, computer science, mathematics, and engineering science to identify, formulate, and develop practical design solutions to open-ended electrical engineering problems.
3. have experience in using different computers and operating systems for scientific computations, graphics, word-processing, data acquisition and process control, computer-aided design, and engineering communication.
4. be able to communicate effectively with adequate written and oral technical communication skills.
5. have laboratory experiences in chemistry, physics, engineering science, and electrical engineering that include a focus on health and safety issues. Individual and team laboratory experiences in electrical engineering will include circuit theory, electronics, analog systems, digital systems, microprocessor systems, HF and microwave systems, control systems, computer-aided design, and electrical design. These experiences will include the design of experiments, computer-aided data acquisition, process control, and the analysis and interpretation of data.
6. have a general education of sufficient breadth to enhance their ability to work and deal with an ever-changing society involving people of different backgrounds and disciplines in a global/science context.
7. have an understanding of professional and ethical responsibility.
8. have an appreciation of the need for lifelong learning.

Curriculum

The faculty has identified a curriculum consisting of 133 semester hours that support the specific objectives above in items 1 through 8. Our program is narrowly focused to meet these objectives, because we believe that modern-day electrical engineering students should not specialize at the undergraduate level. This philosophy is based upon the premise that the amount of technical knowledge in this profession is so extensive that fundamentals should be mastered at the undergraduate level and specialization should be pursued at the graduate level.

TOTAL SEMESTER HOURS: 133

FIRST YEAR: 34 Semester Hours

SECOND YEAR: 33 Semester Hours

THIRD YEAR: 33 Semester Hours

FOURTH YEAR: 34 Semester Hours