I want to tell you about EIE (cause I love it) and a bit on EEE!
So you are probably asking yourself the BIG question I was asking myself a while ago.
EIE vs EEE!?!?!?
Don’t freak out! I know it can difficult to decide but I am hoping to give you some insider information that can help you make that decision. If you still can’t decide, I guess it’s good for you to know you have about 2 weeks to decide once you join and try a bit of both!
But be careful of trying both you might fall in love with the EIE spirit 😉
Now we know one thing about the two: they belong to the same department so one would relationalize surely they must be similar? But how similar? That’s the question!
Do circuits and oscilloscopes excite you? Are you interested in learning about transistors and the power aspect of electrical engineering then EEE is more your focus area. As EEE suggests its ‘Electrical and Electronic Engineering’ whereas EIE is ‘Electronic and Information Engineering’. So if you enjoy or want to know more about the programming aspect and the interaction between software and electronics then EIE is calling your name! Don’t worry if you don’t know what information engineering is yet you’ll soon find out 🙂
The first year course difference looks like this:
The first difference is class size. EIE is on average about 40 students and a girl if you are lucky! Hahaha I joke..okay maybe not. In my year (2015 intake) we have 4 girls in EIE so don’t be shy if you’re a girl the EIE guys need girls to even things out! Apply!!
You make such strong friendships since it’s such a small cohort 🙂 It’s like a little family…
The course structure difference in 1st year:
| EEE | EIE |
| Analysis of Circuits | Analysis of Circuits |
| Digital Electronics | Digital Electronics |
| Signals and Communications | Signals and Communications |
| Maths!! | Maths!! |
| Software Engineering | Software Engineering |
| Electronics Lab | Electronics Lab |
| Computing Lab | Computing Lab |
| Energy Conversion | Algorithms and Data Structures |
| Semiconductor Devices | Computer Architecture |
| Analogue Electronics | Software Engineering |
| EERover End of year Project | Digital Imaging Processing End of year Project |
As you can already tell EIE do more computing-like courses than EEE in first year namely Algorithms and Data Structures, OS and Computer Architecture. You end up doing such cool (and difficult ;D) projects!
In Computer Architecture you implement a 64bit by 64bit multiplier in ARM assembly! I put the exclamation mark there because I am looking back at a fond memory. At the time, the project was *she hesitates and smiley nervously* “fuunnnnn…”. If you thinking right now “What is ARM assembly?” or about to google it. Don’t worry I was totally lost as well in the beginning of 1st year. You tend to catch onto things quite fast if you’re a smart cookie which you probably are! If you are already well informed on ARM assembly nice start!
In Software Engineering we get to program the game 2048 in C++, that was pretty fun to do!
For the End of year Project you get freedom to do anything cool with a camera, an FPGA board and a software synthesis tool. This project was huge but really totally and completely fufilling and I wouldn’t have it any other way. The concept or idea for implementation was left to ue and we could implement pretty much anything we thought was awesome and feasible within the given time.
Now you’re probably thinking why I am not saying more about EEE? That’s because I am an EIE-er to the end 🙂 but if you want to know more about the EEE course check out the site here
Ps. The EEE end of year project is pretty cool!!
I am a 2nd year EIE-er and in second year for those who are reading this and are totally hard core programmers and really into the computing aspect of this course we get to do 2 courses from the Department of Computing!! Yayyyy 😀
The courses are ‘Databases’ and ‘Computer Networks and Distributed Systems’. If you’re thinking “I wish i could do more courses in DoC (Dept. of Computing) “. In 3rd year as an EIE-er you get to pick all your optional courses in Doc if your heart so desires! I am proud to say due tot eh effort of the current dept reps in EEE, EIE are officially part of DoC which means we get access to their awesome computer labs and they departmental society. Finally, we are part of the family 🙂
I know the question you are probably wishing you could ask… are the rumours really true?
Are the myths real?
Is EEE/EIE as difficult as people whisper?
I promise to answer that question next. But for now don’t worry to much, enjoy this moment as you decide where you belong in this crazy and fulfilling land that is the EEE department at Imperial College!
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