EE Subjects

[Cujo]

I'm a third year EE, I can pick a specialization in my third year. I'm thinking of Signal Processing or Radio Frequency. I'm completely stuck between the two choices. Any suggestions?

[Electro Fan]

Not sure what the choice entails/requires in the way of class choices and curriculum trade offs but why not try to do both to a strong extent?  No doubt digital signals ride on analog/RF carriers.  Whether you declare one or the other your emphasis it would be good to learn as much as you can about both.  Look for opportunities to learn about the intersection:  mixed use, modulation, multiplexing, A to D, and D to A and all the concepts and math that goes with it.  Information is encoded in signals, increasingly digital signals, which often are communicated via wireless (RF) networks, but there are lots of levels to system architecture from semiconductors to enterprise IT systems.  Zoom out, see the big picture, then focus back in once you have a clear view of the fuller picture.  The other thought would be to think about where you are going to do an internship and get your first job and what your career trajectory is going to look like.  Then circle back and think about whether you want to emphasize Signal Processing or Radio Frequency or both.

Good luck on your earning your EE degree and launching from there!

Remember, as Yogi Berra said, "unless you know where you are going, you could wind up somewhere else."  If possible, start with the goal in mind.  Then build your plan and work your plan to get to your goal.

[RoGeorge]

DSP is applied mathematics in computer science.  Software.
RF is applied physics in electronics.  Hardware.

Sometimes there are areas where they overlap, but I tend to see DSP as mostly Computer Science, while RF as mostly Electrical Engineering.

You may look at the classes for the next two years to get a better grasp what exactly each specialization means for your school.

[Cujo]

DSP is applied mathematics in computer science.  Software.
RF is applied physics in electronics.  Hardware.

Sometimes there are areas where they overlap, but I tend to see DSP as mostly Computer Science, while RF as mostly Electrical Engineering.

You may look at the classes for the next two years to get a better grasp what exactly each specialization means for your school.

Your actually right, the signal processing classes at my school are image processing and computer vision. The RF classes are mainly transmission lines design.

[zeke.]

Don't get too caught in the details of what you want to specialize in.

Ask yourself this questions: " What's something cool I want to build?"
If you can answer that question with building something involving one of those fields you mentioned then start building it. Start small though, don't think of a project that is out of your reach. If you like DSP,  do a small computer vision project at home that interest you. You will find out the answer throughout the process of doing the project.

If you don't have the desire to build it and use it, then I think you should look into something else.

[rstofer]

An important question:  Which do you want to do for 40 years of career time?  I wouldn't want to do RF until Tuesday much less for a career.  But that's just me because the RF engineers seem to be happy.  It might even be a niche kind of thing.  Maybe it pays particularly well.

When given a choice (seldom), I took digital courses.

It seems to me that the new emphasis is on AI and massively parallel computing.  Literally everything will be driven by an AI over the next 20 years or so.  But what undergrad degree heads in that direction?  Applied Mathematics, EE (digital ?), CS, Business Admin?  They all wind up there sooner or later albeit from different perspectives.

I am truly fascinated by the work being done by Google and NVIDIA.  I suppose I should be jazzed by the work at Tesla but it seems their cars are attracted to police cars.  There just has to be a story in there somewhere.

Side issue: The day won't come where I turn over driving to an AI.  Isn't going to happen!

Just think about a graphics card with 8192 CUDA units (floating point number crunchers).  The card is available today (if you can find one).  Check the Specifications here: https://www.pny.com/nvidia-rtx-a5000  That's a lot of Tflops for a beginner in AI.

https://www.amazon.com/PNY-NVIDIA-A5000-Graphic-Card/dp/B09G1Y6ZGT

The CDC 6400 that got us to the Moon was good for 2 Mflops and that graphics card is good for 70 Tflops - 35 MILLION times faster.  It has been an amazing 60 years!  Note:  you probably can't write an OS that runs on CUDA units so there would need to be an Intel I9 <super whiz> (or multiple Xeon Platinum processors) running the OS and shoveling data in and out as required.  Your job as a magician is to keep data inside the graphics card so that upload and download is minimized.

If I were in school today, I would be working on any aspect of AI.

[rstofer]

Your actually right, the signal processing classes at my school are image processing and computer vision. The RF classes are mainly transmission lines design.

And right after the images are obtained and cleaned up, they will be stuffed into an AI for image recognition.

[SL4P]

Maths, Physics, Technical Drawing and Technical writing.

[RJSV]

I'm not a career coach, but the mention, here of AI and inference towards 'neural simulators' got me to order and read this book:

   NEUROSCIENCE FOR DUMMIES,
by Frank Amthor

Which is way way outside my usual study.

BTW,. Any Physics or Calculus, beginner to medium level 'homework' or study question:
TRY: Send me a PM !

[Rick Law]

If I were you I would reflect back on the last 50 years of EE / signal processing / RF, the last 20 years, the last 10 years,
and then think ahead about what will likely happen in the next 10, 20, 40 years in these fields.
Then ask yourself if / how you want to be a part of those changes, whether certain areas will likely expand or contract in
workforce size / opportunities, how technologies will integrate, what technologies will be basically obsolete soon, et. al.
...
...

I think evb149 is so important that I feel I must echo in agreement.

A career is a long stretch of time.  World changes, every day, every hour, every minute.  When you need something to last decades (career length), adaptability is a much desired quality.

After you get enough field-specific (EE) skills to be marketable, hunt for courses that help you to be adaptable and desirable.  Problem solving skills, analytic skills, organizational skills...  They may look too simplistic and too general but there are great benefits hidden under that simplistic looking skin.  You can use those skills day 1 of employment well into the day when you retire.

[tggzzz]

I'm a third year EE, I can pick a specialization in my third year. I'm thinking of Signal Processing or Radio Frequency. I'm completely stuck between the two choices. Any suggestions?

The points about thinking 40 years ahead are very valid. Avoid learning which buttons to press in the currently fashionable technology, because that will be irrelevant in 5 years time. Instead concentrate on the fundamental principles.

There is another way of considering the choice, which I have found valuable...

Consider that every choice you make in life enables and limits future possibiliities.

Sometimes it is helpful to make a choice that leaves an open door to future possibilities. That's obvious

Other times it can be necessary to make a choice that closes a door, in which case try to ensure that you are preventing something that doesn't interest you.

[rstofer]

I'm not a career coach, but the mention, here of AI and inference towards 'neural simulators' got me to order and read this book:

   NEUROSCIENCE FOR DUMMIES,
by Frank Amthor

Which is way way outside my usual study.

BTW,. Any Physics or Calculus, beginner to medium level 'homework' or study question:
TRY: Send me a PM !

Covid brought us a massive uptick in remote learning.  Now it is possible to get degrees at any level and not even live in the same country as the university.  Here is a sample:

https://ischoolonline.berkeley.edu/requestinfo/mids-spz-atf/

Almost every university is offering some remote classes and some even allow for time shifting (watch the lectures at your convenience).

Of course, you miss out on the social rewards of living on campus and those human relationships can be quite valuable but the technical content is all out there.


This practice opens up an entirely new revenue stream for the university and it is nearly all profit.  They don't reduce the tuition just because you're working remotely.  The money pours in and they don't even see the student!

[coppice]

I'm a third year EE, I can pick a specialization in my third year. I'm thinking of Signal Processing or Radio Frequency. I'm completely stuck between the two choices. Any suggestions?

Be aware that signal processing, whether digital or analogue, is not the business it used to be. Only a small number of people now get to produce something interesting and original. Then the stuff that works out well gets deployed in specific product designs all over the place. You might do some tweaking during those product designs, but not much.

[edavid]

How good a student are you, and how are your math skills?  When I was in school, the signal processing courses were real GPA killers.