Why Be An EE?

Do you wonder how we can communicate with Sojourner on Mars, how computers work, what's this HDTV stuff about, or how your CD player makes music from just a bunch of little pits in plastic? If so, then you might also be considering Electrical Engineering as a major. Read on to learn more about what EE's do, or click the link below to see a flash movie about the EE Profession.

EE deals with just about anything involving electrical or electronic systems, e.g. nuclear power plants, microwave communications, computer technology, radar, satellites, electric light bulbs, electric cars, integrated circuits, fiber optics, television, stereos, computer imaging, CAT scans, medical equipment of all kinds, pace makers, telephone systems, lasers, solar cells, superconductors, jet aircraft, the space program, international commerce, digital video disks, camcorders, astronomy, cellular phones, air pollution control, earthquake safety, home appliances, national defense, video games, and more, more, more.

To put that in perspective, suppose you could help cut the amount of pollution in the world (electric cars), help poor villages around the world obtain clean water, better educations and safe, cold food and medical storage (solar cells), bring nations closer together economically and culturally (fiber optics communications), save people's lives (medical imaging), help people with more productive work schedules (computer networks), or save lives through safer transportation (automobile control systems). Would that interest you?

EE or Computer Science?

What's the difference between Electrical Engineering and Computer Science? Computers are electrical systems, and a lot of thought goes into making them perform as quickly and reliably as possible. CS students will learn lots about how computers work at the basic machine and programming levels, and to some extent the hardware level (sometimes Computer Engineering, sometimes EE). EE's learn more about the rest of the world and how to make heavy use of computers as a tool to help solve problems.

Electrical Engineering is challenging, rewarding, fulfilling, and can be a great stepping stone to other careers in management, business, law and medicine. Job opportunities exist basically everywhere in the U.S., or even the world.

Electrical Engineering Jobs

How's the job market in EE? Here are some real headlines from articles in trade journals printed in 1997, all relating to EE's: "Southwest's employers have plenty of openings," "Employers are hot to hire high-tech workers," "High premium for ASIC EE's," "No end to hiring splurge at comm companies," "Good times keep rollin' for EEs," and "RF, VLSI, software engineers head companies' wish lists." There has been no better time for EE's on the job market, and there is no end in sight to the trend! The number of EE majors has declined considerably within the last ten years, and job opportunities have skyrocketed, so the demand for new EE's is tremendous! What are salaries like? Last year, BSEE's from Notre Dame were offered from about $40k to one at $54k per year!

Why aren't as many students choosing EE these days? Maybe because it's hard to visualize what EE's do, maybe it's perceived as being "too difficult" (it's not the easiest, but every day, tens of thousands of EE students survive to attend yet one more class), maybe they choose CSE because they grew up with computers and feel comfortable. Whatever the reason, students like you may be overlooking the best career opportunity around!

Consider EE at Notre Dame! If you have any questions about our program, go right ahead and phone Professor Sauer at (574) 631-6999 (or use his email: sauer.1@nd.edu), or call the department office at (574) 631-5480 for more information. As Undergraduate Coordinator, Dr. Sauer will answer any questions you might have about EE or Notre Dame. If you don't reach him, leave a phone message and he'll call you back shortly. Good luck with your career decision making!