Uni - electrical or electronic engineering?

[bob123]

Hi i am shortly going to university, I have the choice of southampton for electronic engineering or electrical engineering and the same at newcastle and loughborough. All of these are for masters.

I would like the opinion of anyone who has done a degree in either to give me information on which is the better degree to do. My interests cover all areas and i do not have a particlar area that i enjoy more.

Thanks
rob

[poobah]

I don't know about GB... but consider roughly:

Electrical = Providing... might learn more rotating machinery/power

Electronics = Consuming... might learn learn more digital stuff.

[bob123]

my main areas of interest are:

HV - tesla coils, EMP e.t.c.
Audio - Amps, mixers e.t.c

which would be the closest to matching these?

[Tweeker]

Well, electrical will provide better opportunities for liberating stuff to burn tesla coiling. Also theres alot of crossover between switchmode power supply design etc. and double resonant solid state coils. Im always having to get new smoke emiting diodes.

[poobah]

Name some more interests... keeping in mind that no one will actually pay you to build Tesla Coils...

There is nothing wrong with learning microprocessors (tronics) everything is moving that way.

[davidsrsb]

Where do you see youself working when you finish?
Realistically electrical means becoming a professional engineer and working in power generation.
Electronic means microprocessors/chip design/radar these days, I don't think anybody teaches analogue well in the last 20 years

[Sir Trefor]

Originally posted by bob123
my main areas of interest are:

HV - tesla coils, EMP e.t.c.
Audio - Amps, mixers e.t.c

Regardless of which degree path you choose, I strongly suggest taht you visit the Lindsay's Technical books website. There are several books on building tesla coils and turbines, as well as re-printed books on the subject of tubes and their applications in radio, including the Thordarson Transformer Manual and a book on how to build your own regenerative receiver. Just thought I'd mention it...

[bob123]

well id quite like to go on to design class d amplifiers and work with digital audio. As that seems to be the way forward at the moment as far as audio is concerend. I dont know much about microprocessers as it is quite a difficult thing to do in your garage.

How much do the two degrees cross over covering the same topics?

What are the employment prospects of either degree?

Baring in mind that i dont particualy want to end up working on power generation which do you think i am better suited to?

[poobah]

Go for tronics dude...


There is large crossover though.

What's in common:

Math - well beyond calculus
Physics - Statics & Dynamics
Maybe chemistry
Electronic devices

'trical:
Rotating machinery
Power distribution
Basic computer programming

'tronic
Semiconductor theory - halfway advanced
Microprocessors - some advanced programming
Digital communication

This is just a rough guide. I got my degree in the 1890's I think things have changed a bit...

There's a ton you can do in your garage with micro's too...cheap

[AudioFreak]

'tronics would probably be the safest path. I started in Electrical and after fairly quickly realising that this would lead to power generation / distribution etc I jumped ship. Electronics is much more enjoyable at least from my POV.