Home Brew University

[Jozef]

Hello,

I thought it might be a good idea to design a self-study curriculum for people who are interested in learning Electrical Engineering on their own, and I'm not saying learning it as hobby. The purpose is to provide a well organized and a content-rich study guide for people who want to get involved in serious projects and for career path change. I'm not saying that hobbyists cannot use it, but I thought it can be heavy on math and details that many enthusiasts want to skip.

The self-study guide should provide no knowledge or content. It's only a template, something like this:

===============================================================

[Course/Subject Title]

[Prerequisites]

[Topics Covered]

[Recommended Time-line]

[Topics must be covered]

[Topics and study/reference materials with chapter/section references in the suggested title]

[Practical/experiments on each topic if any with list of required tools/equipment and safety considerations]

===============================================================

For instance, someone may structure beginning electric circuit as follows:

Title
Electric Circuit - DC

Prerequisites
Simultaneous linear equations
Calculus level 3
ODEs

Topics Covered
Electric network topology
Electric energy sources
Ohm's law
KVL/KCL
Analysis methods...

Recommended Time-line
2 months

Topics and study/reference materials with chapter/section references in the suggested title
...
KVL/KCL - Electric Circuits (Nilsson & Ridel) - Ch.2-sec2.4;sec2.5
...
Analysis methods - may refer to a different text or material
...

Practical/experiments on each topic if any with list of required tools/equipment and safety considerations
Don't use the mains power 

I'm not sure yet about how to structure a self-assessment method, still work in progress.  I will soon add some beginner courses.

[Fsck]

"Calculus level 3" doesn't really mean anything. You should specify topics. I'd guess multivariable calculus: partial derivatives/multiple integals/vector calculus.

[Jozef]

I just was giving an example...but for that course I would say:

Sketching single variable functions.
Limits
Single variable differential and integral calculus, and its applications, such as mean value theorem, maxima, minima, ...etc.

ODEs
I would suggest Elementary Differential Equations by Edwards & Penney.
Focus on the constant coefficients higher order linear equations using:
Undetermined coefficinet and variation of parameter methods.
Laplace transform method
No need to dive into system of linear equations since you will be using SPICE simulation to figure out more complex circuits.

Fourier analysis are reviewed on that book, but I would recommend: Advanced Engineering Mathematics (by Erwin Kreyszig) chapters on Fourier Transforms.
But this should be a requirement for the next basic circuit analysis course, Electric Circuits - AC

Someone may say why bother and there're millions of university curriculum online and some including their course lectures. Good question.
And the answer is simply, those are not designed for fast-paced self-study.

[smashedProton]

Although I agree with this, it may not be a replacement for a Bull Shit Electrical Engineering (BSEE) degree in the eyes of a cooperation.  The lack of a degree would give them an excuse to label you as under-qualified for the job, and reject/underpay you as such.  For job security for a 'career' a college degree can't be beat.

[ftransform]

I did not learn much from school, but I can tell you a story or two....

[smashedProton]

Do tell!

[ftransform]

Do tell!

[Jozef]

Although I agree with this, it may not be a replacement for a Bull Shit Electrical Engineering (BSEE) degree in the eyes of a cooperation.

I agree. I've never seen an EE job post not asking for a degree, and in many cases higher degrees. It makes sense though, this is the standard way you learn.

If I were the hiring manager I would ask for a demo to get the interview. Send a demo and then we can proceed with next stages such as personality assessment, theoretical knowledge just to make sure you are the person who created this demo.

Personally I find many people especially those with higher degrees back their failure by paper qualification, and they are of that type who cannot stay longer than a year at one place, probably busy with another higher degree...It's something has to do with the personality of the higher degree holder. Call me a "doctor" please. 

I can give countless personal examples of how they fail at interviews whether technically or personality wise, and the later is more important.

One story I have...interviewed some PhDs, their demos were something very elementary...interviewed a non-degree person, and he showed some work that made the whole team say WoW.
We want that guy now.  Guess what, he succeeded and kicked ass. We have bad experiences with those elitist degreed, especially higher-degree, persons that we always end up redoing their work.

We have bad experience with non-degree people too but the rate of their failure compared those degree holders is almost zero. Why? Because we hire non-degreed applicants based on their demonstrated abilities and skills. And personality wise they are very excellent team player. They rock.

So I'm not saying go hire someone with no degree blindly and they will succeed, NO NO NO. Hire someone who shows interest, demonstrated knowledge and passion for team work.

[Fsck]

probably because a phd in EE is either a computer scientist, a physicist, chemist or a material scientist: most likely applied scientists, but you'll find a decent number of theorists.
ie, one of my former profs' primary research field was spintronics.

[Jozef]

The point is regardless of field and whatever qualification, the criteria for hiring someone should be a working demo and this is for jobs that require creativity and innovation such as IC design. Other typical less demanding jobs I don't care, a degree will do it.

[FrankBuss]

I thought it might be a good idea to design a self-study curriculum for people who are interested in learning Electrical Engineering on their own

Always a good idea to learn new things. For self-study, I can recommend http://www.coursera.org . The courses are free and you'll get some nice certificates at the end, when completed successfully, like I got for two courses so far:

http://www.frank-buss.de/coursera/scala-certificate.pdf
http://www.frank-buss.de/coursera/digital-sound-design-certificate.pdf

The "with distinction" award depends on the course. I completed all assignments in time and got most of it right.

[jpb]

People seem to get very excited on this forum about whether or not people with degrees/PhDs are worth employing. Those with degrees tend to think they are vital whilst those without regard them as some sort of means of mediocre people cheating their way into jobs!

Obviously when comparing experienced engineers as applicants what they did recently in terms of projects and how they contributed is probably more important than qualifications obtained several years earlier.

But you can't get experience without getting a first job and then employers have to decide between those with and without qualifications neither of which have much experience (except maybe on the hobby front). In those circumstances a degree at least indicates that the candidate has reached a basic level of understanding of theory if not of practice.

[Jozef]

We hire someone with a demo that makes us say WOW. If more than one, then we hire the them all after a personality/attitude screening. Then at work...during lunch hours we can ask how did u learn that sutff...and they r free to say: went to college, went to hell, went to Mars, ...we don't care