Department website: http://www.lcsee.statler.wvu.edu/
Degree Offered
- Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering (B.S.E.E.)
Nature of the Program
Electrical engineers design, develop, test, and oversee the manufacture and maintenance of equipment that uses electricity, including subsystems for power generation and transmission, sensors, electronics, instrumentation, controls, communications and signal processing. The Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering program is accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET, https://www.abet.org.
In the first two years of electrical engineering, coursework is limited to those subjects that are essential as preparatory courses for more technical courses in the third and fourth years. Fundamental courses in electrical engineering are introduced in the second year. In the third and fourth years, the curriculum provides advanced instruction through required courses and electives. These electives are included in the curriculum to allow the student to acquire additional depth in the student’s selected field of electrical engineering.
Program Educational Objectives
The Program Educational Objectives (PEO) of the Electrical Engineering (EE) program at West Virginia University is to produce graduates who will apply their knowledge and skills to achieve success in their careers in industry, research, government service or graduate study. It is expected that in the first five years after graduation our graduates will achieve success and proficiency in their profession, be recognized as leaders, and contribute to the well-being of society.
Concentration Areas
Students can choose from six concentration areas that are listed below.
- Power Systems: The cost and reliability of electricity plays a critical role in the quality of life and price of all manufactured goods. Advances in power electronics devices and computers are improving the efficiency of electromechanical devices. Electric deregulation in many states is offering retail customers an opportunity to select their electricity supplier and reduce cost. Improvements in technologies such as fuel cells, micro-turbines, wind turbines and photovoltaic systems offer new choices for power generation. Siting of distributed generation sources near the loads and operating power system under deregulation offer new challenges for power engineers.
- Control Systems: Control theory is fundamental to any system that is required to behave in a desired manner. Such systems include all engineering systems such as mechanical, chemical, electrical and computer systems as well as many other dynamical systems such as economic markets. Control theory therefore has a broad range of applications. This track interests those students who wish to apply technology to control dynamical systems. Signals from sensors, usually processed by a computer, are necessary for proper control of a system.
- Electronics: Electronics spans a number of large technical specialties within LCSEE including electronic device design and fabrication, analog electronic circuit design and applications, and optical device design and applications. A solid understanding of device operation and their limitations is key to good electronic design, be it the design of individual devices or the design of complex electronic systems. Several programming tools will be introduced to the students during their training in this area to support the development of this understanding. Students will model devices using pSpice and layout electronic circuits using VLSI design rules.
- Communications and Signal Processing: Communications and signal processing are interrelated fields that play an important role in today's information driven economy. Signal processing involves the use of programmable computer architectures to operate on physical-world signals. Signal processors are found within modern control systems, biomedical applications, and communication devices. Communications is the conveyance of information from one location to another. The capacity of a communications system is limited by the random noise in the channel. The communication channel may be a fiber optic cable, a local or wide area computer network, or the radio frequency spectrum.
- Bioengineering and Biometrics: Bioengineering is the multidisciplinary application of engineering to medicine and biology, including such areas as biomedical signal and image processing, medical informatics, and biomedical instrumentation. Bioengineering work can include the development of new technologies for use in medicine and biology or the use of engineering techniques to study issues in biology and medicine. Biometrics is a specific area of bioengineering in which biological signatures (fingerprint, voice, face, DNA) is used for identification or authentication in criminal justice, e-commerce, and medical applications. Specific LCSEE projects in these areas include signal processing for prediction of sudden cardiac death in an animal model of heart failure, development of algorithms for arrhythmia detection in implanted medical devices, telemedicine for rural health care delivery in West Virginia, analysis of temporal fingerprint images for determination of vitality, CMOS fingerprint sensor design and modeling, neural net fingerprint matching, and 3-D craniofacial reconstruction. At the undergraduate level, these projects impact courses and create opportunities for senior design projects and undergraduate research experiences.
- Computers: Computers have become an important part of the technology used by engineers and a very important part of many technological systems and products. Electrical engineering students will gain a basic understanding of how to use computers and microprocessors and be able to develop, program, and use systems with embedded microcomputers.
Click here to view the Suggested Plan of Study
Curriculum in Electrical Engineering
General Education Foundations
Please use this link to view a list of courses that meet each GEF requirement.
NOTE: Some major requirements will fulfill specific GEF requirements. Please see the curriculum requirements listed below for details on which GEFs you will need to select.
Code | Title | Hours |
---|---|---|
General Education Foundations | ||
F1 - Composition & Rhetoric | 3-6 | |
Introduction to Composition and Rhetoric and Composition, Rhetoric, and Research | ||
or ENGL 103 | Accelerated Academic Writing | |
F2A/F2B - Science & Technology | 4-6 | |
F3 - Math & Quantitative Reasoning | 3-4 | |
F4 - Society & Connections | 3 | |
F5 - Human Inquiry & the Past | 3 | |
F6 - The Arts & Creativity | 3 | |
F7 - Global Studies & Diversity | 3 | |
F8 - Focus (may be satisfied by completion of a minor, double major, or dual degree) | 9 | |
Total Hours | 31-37 |
Please note that not all of the GEF courses are offered at all campuses. Students should consult with their advisor or academic department regarding the GEF course offerings available at their campus.
Degree Requirements
Students must meet the following criteria to qualify for a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering degree:
- Complete a minimum of 127 credit hours
- Satisfy WVU's undergraduate degree requirements
- Satisfy Statler College's undergraduate degree requirements
- Complete all courses listed in the curriculum requirements with the required minimum grades
- Attain an overall grade point average of 2.00 or better
- Attain a WVU grade point average of 2.00 or better
- Attain a Statler grade point average of 2.00 or better
- A maximum of one math or science courses with a grade of D+, D, or D- may apply towards a Statler College degree
- Complete a survey regarding their academic and professional experiences at WVU, as well as post-graduation job placement or continuing education plans.
The Statler GPA is computed based on all work taken at WVU with a subject code within Statler College (BIOM, BMEG, CE, CHE, CPE, CS, CSEE, CYBE, EE, ENGR, ENVE, ETEC, IENG, IH&S, MAE, MINE, PDA, PNGE, SAFM, SENG) excluding ENGR 140, ENGR 150, and CS 101. The WVU GPA is computed based on all work taken at WVU. The Overall GPA is computed based on all work taken at WVU and transfer work.
Curriculum Requirements
Code | Title | Hours |
---|---|---|
University Requirements | 16 | |
Fundamentals of Engineering Requirements | 5 | |
Math and Science Requirements | 34 | |
Electrical Engineering Program Requirements | 72 | |
Total Hours | 127 |
University Requirements
Code | Title | Hours |
---|---|---|
General Education Foundations (GEF) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 (31-37 Credits) | ||
Outstanding GEF Requirements 1, 5, 6, and 7 | 15 | |
ENGR 191 | First-Year Seminar | 1 |
Total Hours | 16 |
Fundamentals of Engineering Requirements
Code | Title | Hours |
---|---|---|
A minimum grade of C- is required in all Fundamentals of Engineering courses. | ||
ENGR 101 | Engineering Problem Solving 1 | 2 |
Engineering Problem Solving (Select one of the following): | 3 | |
Introduction to Chemical Engineering | ||
Engineering Problem-Solving 2 | ||
Introduction to Nanotechnology Design | ||
Introduction to Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Design | ||
Total Hours | 5 |
Math and Science Requirements
Code | Title | Hours |
---|---|---|
A minimum grade of C- is required in all Math and Science courses. | ||
CHEM 115 & 115L | Fundamentals of Chemistry 1 and Fundamentals of Chemistry 1 Laboratory (GEF 2B) | 4 |
Calculus I (GEF 3): | 4 | |
Calculus 1 | ||
Calculus 1a with Precalculus and Calculus 1b with Precalculus | ||
MATH 156 | Calculus 2 | 4 |
MATH 251 | Multivariable Calculus | 4 |
MATH 261 | Elementary Differential Equations | 4 |
PHYS 111 & 111L | General Physics 1 and General Physics 1 Laboratory (GEF 8) | 4 |
PHYS 112 & 112L | General Physics 2 and General Physics 2 Laboratory (GEF 8) | 4 |
STAT 215 | Introduction to Probability and Statistics | 3 |
Math/Science Elective (Select one of the following): | 3 | |
Principles of Biology and Principles of Biology Laboratory | ||
Fundamentals of Chemistry 2 and Fundamentals of Chemistry 2 Laboratory | ||
Introduction to Linear Algebra | ||
Applied Modern Algebra | ||
Numerical Analysis 1 | ||
Applied Linear Algebra | ||
Complex Variables | ||
Partial Differential Equations | ||
Introduction to Mathematical Physics | ||
Introductory Modern Physics | ||
Optics | ||
Theoretical Mechanics 1 | ||
Elementary Physiology | ||
Mechanisms of Body Function | ||
Intermediate Statistical Methods | ||
Sampling Methods | ||
Introduction to Probability Theory | ||
Total Hours | 34 |
Electrical Engineering Program Requirements
Code | Title | Hours |
---|---|---|
ECON 201 | Principles of Microeconomics (GEF 4) | 3 |
CPE 271 | Introduction to Digital Logic Design | 3 |
CPE 271L | Digital Logic Laboratory | 1 |
CPE 310 | Microprocessor Systems | 3 |
CPE 310L | Microprocessor Systems Laboratory | 1 |
CS 110 & 110L | Introduction to Computer Science and Introduction to Computer Science Laboratory | 4 |
EE 221 | Introduction to Electrical Engineering | 3 |
EE 221L | Introduction to Electrical Engineering Laboratory | 1 |
EE 223 | Electrical Circuits | 3 |
EE 223L | Electrical Circuits Laboratory | 1 |
EE 327 | Signals and Systems 1 | 3 |
EE 329 | Signals and Systems 2 | 3 |
EE 329L | Signals and Systems Laboratory | 1 |
EE 335 | Electromechanical Energy Conversion and Systems | 3 |
EE 335L | Electromechanical Energy Conversion and Systems Laboratory | 1 |
EE 345 | Engineering Electromagnetics | 3 |
EE 251 | Digital Electronics | 3 |
EE 251L | Digital Electronics Laboratory | 1 |
EE 355 | Analog Electronics | 3 |
EE 355L | Analog Electronics Laboratory | 1 |
CSEE 380 | Engineering Professionalism Seminar | 1 |
CSEE 480 | Capstone Project - Design | 2 |
or CSEE 480S | Capstone Project - Design | |
or EE 480 | Capstone Project - Design | |
CSEE 481 | Capstone Project - Implementation | 3 |
or CSEE 481S | Capstone Project - Implementation | |
or EE 481 | Capstone Project - Implementation | |
Engineering Science Elective (Select one of the following): | 3 | |
Environmental Science and Technology | ||
Materials Science | ||
Material and Energy Balance | ||
Industrial Quality Control | ||
Engineering Economy | ||
Statics | ||
Thermodynamics | ||
Technical Electives (300 level or higher in BIOM, BMEG, CE, CHE, CPE, CS, CYBE, EE, IENG, MAE, MINE, PNGE, BIOL, CHEM, PHYS, STAT, OR MATH courses) * | 9 | |
Concentration Area (CA) Technical Electives (Selected from one of the CAs below) | 9 | |
CA1: Power Systems | ||
Introduction to Power Electronics | ||
Select one of the following: | ||
Electrical Power Distribution Systems | ||
Power Systems Analysis | ||
Select one of the following: | ||
Data and Computer Communications | ||
Cybersecurity Principles and Practice | ||
Fundamentals of Control Systems | ||
Introduction to Digital Control | ||
Electrical Power Distribution Systems | ||
Power Systems Analysis | ||
Introduction to Communications Systems | ||
CA2: Control Systems | ||
Select one of the following: | ||
Fundamentals of Control Systems | ||
Introduction to Digital Control | ||
Select two of the following: | ||
Fundamentals of Control Systems | ||
Introduction to Digital Control | ||
Introduction to Power Electronics | ||
Introduction to Communications Systems | ||
Digital Signal Processing Fundamentals | ||
CA3: Electronics | ||
Device Design and Integration | ||
Select two of the following: | ||
Introduction to Power Electronics | ||
Fiber Optics Communications | ||
Introduction to Antennas | ||
Introduction to Microfabrication | ||
Fundamentals of Photonics | ||
Optics | ||
Solid State Physics | ||
CA4: Communications & Signal Processing | ||
Choose one of the following: | ||
Fiber Optics Communications | ||
Introduction to Communications Systems | ||
Digital Signal Processing Fundamentals | ||
Select two of the following: | ||
Biometric Systems | ||
Introduction to Digital Computer Architecture | ||
Wireless Networking | ||
Data and Computer Communications | ||
Fundamentals of Control Systems | ||
Introduction to Digital Control | ||
Fiber Optics Communications | ||
Introduction to Antennas | ||
Introduction to Communications Systems | ||
Digital Signal Processing Fundamentals | ||
Introduction to Digital Image Processing | ||
Digital Speech Processing | ||
CA5: Bioengineering and Biometrics | ||
Bioengineering | ||
Select one of the following: | ||
Biometric Systems | ||
Digital Signal Processing Fundamentals | ||
Introduction to Digital Image Processing | ||
Select one of the following: | ||
Biometric Systems | ||
Organic Chemistry: Brief Course and Organic Chemistry: Brief Course Laboratory | ||
Organic Chemistry 1 and Organic Chemistry 1 Laboratory | ||
Organic Chemistry 2 and Organic Chemistry 2 Laboratory | ||
Digital Signal Processing Fundamentals | ||
Introduction to Digital Image Processing | ||
Elementary Physiology | ||
or PSIO 441 | Mechanisms of Body Function | |
CA6: Computers | ||
Option 1 | ||
Microcomputer Structures and Interfacing and Microcomputer Structures and Interfacing Laboratory | ||
Select two of the following: | ||
Computer Incident Response | ||
Introduction to Digital Computer Architecture | ||
Real-Time Systems Development | ||
Option 2 | ||
Computer Incident Response | ||
Introduction to Digital Computer Architecture | ||
Real-Time Systems Development | ||
Total Hours | 72 |
- *
Excludes any 490, 491, 495, Non-LCSEE 493
Suggested Plan of Study
It is important for students to take courses in the order specified as closely as possible; all prerequisites and concurrent requirements must be observed. A typical B.S.E.E. degree program that completes degree requirements in four years is as follows.
First Year | |||
---|---|---|---|
Fall | Hours | Spring | Hours |
CHEM 115 & 115L (GEF 2) | 4 | ENGR 102 | 3 |
ENGL 101 (GEF 1) | 3 | MATH 156 (GEF 8) | 4 |
ENGR 101 | 2 | PHYS 111 & 111L (GEF 8) | 4 |
ENGR 191 | 1 | GEF 6 | 3 |
MATH 155 (GEF 3) | 4 | GEF 7 | 3 |
GEF 5 | 3 | ||
17 | 17 | ||
Second Year | |||
Fall | Hours | Spring | Hours |
CPE 271 | 3 | CS 110 & 110L | 4 |
CPE 271L | 1 | EE 223 | 3 |
EE 221 | 3 | EE 223L | 1 |
EE 221L | 1 | EE 251 | 3 |
MATH 251 | 4 | EE 251L | 1 |
PHYS 112 & 112L (GEF 8) | 4 | MATH 261 | 4 |
16 | 16 | ||
Third Year | |||
Fall | Hours | Spring | Hours |
EE 327 | 3 | CPE 310 | 3 |
EE 335 | 3 | CPE 310L | 1 |
EE 335L | 1 | EE 329 | 3 |
EE 355 | 3 | EE 329L | 1 |
EE 355L | 1 | EE 345 | 3 |
STAT 215 | 3 | Math/Science Elective | 3 |
ENGL 102 (GEF 1) | 3 | CSEE 380 | 1 |
17 | 15 | ||
Fourth Year | |||
Fall | Hours | Spring | Hours |
CSEE 480 | 2 | CSEE 481 | 3 |
ECON 201 (GEF 4) | 3 | CA Technical Elective | 3 |
CA Technical Elective | 3 | Technical Elective | 3 |
CA Technical Elective | 3 | Technical Elective | 3 |
Engineering Science Elective | 3 | Technical Elective | 3 |
14 | 15 | ||
Total credit hours: 127 |
Student Outcomes
Upon graduation, all Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering students will have:
- 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.