This is an archived copy of the 2020-22 catalog. To access the most recent version of the catalog, please visit http://catalog.utexas.edu/.

Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering

Students seeking the Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering pursue one of two curricula—electrical engineering or computer engineering. Both curricula contain the fundamentals of electrical engineering and computer engineering; they differ in technical core requirements in order to suit different career objectives.

The curricula in electrical engineering and computer engineering are designed to educate students in the fundamentals of engineering, which are built upon a foundation of mathematics, science, communication, and the liberal arts. Graduates should be equipped to advance their knowledge while contributing professionally to a rapidly changing technology. Areas in which electrical and computer engineers contribute significantly are: communications, signal processing, networks and systems, electronics and integrated circuits, energy systems and renewable energy, fields, waves and electromagnetic systems, nanoelectronics and nanotechnology, computer architecture and embedded systems, and software engineering and design. Typical career paths of graduates include design, development, management, consulting, teaching, and research. Many graduates seek further education in law, medicine, business, or engineering.

The core requirements of the Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering provide a foundation of engineering fundamentals. Students then build on the core requirements by choosing an advanced technical component and a set of free electives from within or outside of the department. Once the technical core area is chosen, the student is assigned a faculty advisor with expertise in that area to help the student select technical core courses that are appropriate to his or her career and educational goals. The curriculum thus ensures breadth through the core courses and the choice of a technical elective; technical core area coursework provides additional depth.

Student Outcomes

Electrical and computer engineering graduates should demonstrate:

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

Program Educational Objectives

Electrical and computer engineering graduates should:

Contribute to the economic development of Texas and beyond through the ethical practice of electrical and computer engineering in industry and public service
Exhibit leadership in technical or business activity through engineering ability, communication skills, and knowledge of contemporary and global issues
Continue to educate themselves through professional study and personal research
Be prepared for admission to, and to excel in, the best graduate programs in the world
Design systems to collect, encode, store, transmit, and process energy and information, and to evaluate system performance, either individually or in teams
Use their engineering ability and creative potential to create technology that will improve the quality of life in society

Portable Computing Devices

Students enrolled in a degree program in electrical and computer engineering will be expected to own a portable computing device capable of compiling and running a program suitable for use in the classroom and on the University wireless network. Use of these devices in the classroom and as a general part of the learning experience within our programs is at the discretion of faculty and not all classes or courses of instruction will require the use of these devices. Once admitted, students will be informed by the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department (ECE) office about specific device requirements.

Curriculum

Course requirements include courses within the Cockrell School of Engineering and other required courses. In addition, each student must complete the University’s core curriculum. In some cases, a course that fulfills one of the following requirements may also be counted toward the core curriculum; these courses are identified below.

In the process of fulfilling engineering degree requirements, students must also complete coursework to satisfy the following flag requirements: one independent inquiry flag, one course with a quantitative reasoning flag, one ethics flag, one global cultures flag, one cultural diversity in the US flag, and two writing flags. The independent inquiry flag, the quantitative reasoning flag, the ethics flag, and two writing flags are carried by courses specifically required for the degree; these courses are identified below. Courses that may be used to fulfill flag requirements are identified in the Course Schedule. More information about flags is given in Skills and Experiences Flags.

Enrollment in Electrical Engineering 333T, 160, 260, 360, 460, and 379K requires completion of Electrical Engineering 312 or 313 with a grade of at least C-.

Pre-approved courses are used to fulfill technical core, advanced math and/or science and core technical electives; other elective courses must be approved by the electrical and computer engineering faculty before the student enrolls in them.

Transfer Coursework: No more than 25 semester credit hours of transfer electrical engineering coursework may be counted for credit toward the electrical engineering degree.

Requirements		Hours
Electrical Engineering Courses
E E 302	Introduction to Electrical Engineering (part II science and technology)	3
E E 306	Introduction to Computing	3
E E 411	Circuit Theory	4
E E 312	Software Design and Implementation I	3
or E E 312H	Software Design and Implementation I
E E 313	Linear Systems and Signals	3
E E 319K	Introduction to Embedded Systems	3
E E 333T	Engineering Communication (writing flag)	3
E E 351K	Probability and Random Processes	3
E E 364D	Introduction to Engineering Design (writing flag)	3
or E E 364E	Interdisciplinary Entrepreneurship
One of the following senior design project courses:		4
E E 464G	Multidisciplinary Senior Design Project (independent inquiry flag)
E E 464H	Honors Senior Design Project (independent inquiry flag)
E E 464K	Senior Design Project (independent inquiry flag)
E E 464R	Research Senior Design Project (independent inquiry flag)
E E 464S	Start-Up Senior Design Project
Advance technical component: Within an identified "core": two core courses (six-seven hours), one core laboratory course (four hours), one advanced mathematics course (three-four hours)		14
Advanced technical component electives: Within the same identified “core”: four courses (minimum 12 hours)		12
Advanced technical elective: Within any core of Electrical Engineering: one upper-division electrical engineering course (or E E 316) (three-four hours) ¹		3
Set of free electives: at least 14 hours of additional coursework taken for a letter grade. ²		14
Other Technical Courses
Mathematics
M 408C & M 408D	Differential and Integral Calculus and Sequences, Series, and Multivariable Calculus (mathematics; quantitative reasoning flag)	8
or
M 408K & M 408L & M 408M	Differential Calculus and Integral Calculus and Multivariable Calculus
M 427J	Differential Equations with Linear Algebra (quantitative reasoning flag)	4
M 340L	Matrices and Matrix Calculations	3
Physics
PHY 103M	Laboratory for Physics 303K	1
PHY 103N	Laboratory for Physics 303L	1
PHY 303K	Engineering Physics I (part I science and technology; quantitative reasoning flag)	3
PHY 303L	Engineering Physics II (part I science and technology; quantitative reasoning flag)	3
Rhetoric and Writing
RHE 306	Rhetoric and Writing (English composition)	3
Remaining Core Curriculum Courses
E 316L	British Literature ³	3
or E 316M	American Literature
or E 316N	World Literature
or E 316P	Masterworks of Literature
American and Texas government ⁴		6
American history ⁴		6
Visual and performing arts ⁵		3
Social and behavioral science ⁵		3
UGS 302	First-Year Signature Course ⁶	3
or UGS 303	First-Year Signature Course
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1. E E Option: Advanced Technical Component (mathematics) is four hours and one Advanced Technical Component Requirement is three hours. C E Option: Advanced Technical Component (mathematics) is three hours and one Advanced Technical Component Elective is four hours.
2. Must include at least one advanced mathematics or basic science course (three hours); no more than three hours of lower-division coursework; all coursework must count for a major in the offering department; all coursework must be taken in residence, except that up to three credit hours can be transferred with approval; no course can duplicate a course the student has taken or is required to take as part of the other Electrical Engineering coursework requirements.
3. Some sections of the English humanities courses (E 316L, 316M, 316N, 316P) carry a global cultures or cultural diversity flag.
4. Some sections carry a cultural diversity flag.
5. Some sections carry a global cultures and/or cultural diversity flag.
6. In UGS 302, all sections carry a writing flag; in UGS 303, some sections carry a writing flag.
Total Hours		125

Integrated BSEE/MSE program

The integrated degree program results in simultaneously awarding a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering: Integrated Option (BSEE) degree, and a Master's of Science in Engineering (MSE) degree in any one of the ten graduate tracks offered by the graduate program in electrical and computer engineering (ECE).

There are two stages to admission, an informal non-binding department based stage and a second stage in which the student formally applies to the Graduate School within the integrated BSEE/MSE program and within one of the available ECE graduate tracks. At stage one, undergraduate students in the ECE department may apply to the integrated degree program after qualifying for admission to major sequence. The purpose of stage one is primarily to provide appropriate advising to students interested in and appropriate for the integrated program. Admission to the integrated program at stage one is based on the applicant's grade point average, letters of recommendation, a statement of purpose, and other relevant examples of academic ability and leadership. Students will be advised by the integrated program advisor about the appropriate courses to take and reserve for graduate credit in their senior year in order to complete the integrated program as efficiently as possible. As for admission to the regular standalone MSE program, all admissions decisions at stage two are made by the admissions committee in the respective graduate track, with admission requirements set by the graduate track, with the exception that Graduate Record Exam (GRE) test scores are not required of integrated program participants. While optimal, application and admission at stage one are not required for application and admission to the integrated program at stage two.

The integrated program requires 120 semester credit hours (SCH) for the BSEE portion of the integrated program, as opposed to the 125 SCH minimum required for the BSEE degree alone. Students in the integrated program begin taking graduate courses as seniors. Students admitted to the integrated program will normally take and reserve for graduate credit two graduate courses in place of approved electives from the advanced technical coursework that would otherwise be required in the regular/standalone BSEE program. However, precisely which BSEE electives are to be replaced by the graduate courses can be adjusted as approved by technical core faculty advisors.

Students in this program will receive the BSEE and MSE degrees simultaneously after successfully completing a minimum total of 150 semester credit hours, 30 of which must qualify for the MSE program of work in electrical and computer engineering. Students unable to successfully complete the integrated program may obtain a BSEE degree by satisfying all of the requirements for the standalone BSEE degree. Since the regular BSEE degree requirements are a subset of the Integrated BSEE/MSE Program degree requirements, an undergraduate student should still be on a trajectory to graduate with the regular BSEE degree in the same timeframe that the student was on when applying to the Integrated BSEE/MSE Program. A student dismissed from the integrated program while a graduate student should already meet the degree requirements for the regular BSEE degree.

Information regarding the integrated program requirements and policies may be obtained from the ECE advising offices.

Upper-Division Technical Component Areas

Both electrical engineering and computer engineering students must choose an advanced technical component area. Electrical engineering students must choose their advanced technical component area from the electrical engineering technical areas listed below; computer engineering students must choose their technical component area from the computer engineering technical areas.

For all technical component areas, the student must complete all courses in the area on the letter-grade basis.

Electrical Engineering Advanced Technical Component Areas

Communications, Signal Processing, Networks, and Systems

Communications, signal processing, networks, and systems broadly encompasses the principles underlying the design and implementation of systems for information transmission. The field considers how information is represented, compressed, and transmitted on wired and wireless links and how communication networks can be, and are, designed and operated. A student who chooses this technical component area should recognize that communications and networking is a broad application domain where many engineering tools come into play: from circuit design for wireless phones to embedded network processors to system and application software for networked systems.