Electrical for Dummies

Hi! I’m Bruce, a part 2 Electrical and Electronics Student, and with Sem 2 on its way I’m confident there’s been plenty of discussion about choosing your specialization. What are my friends choosing? GPA requirement? Will I pass? At such uncertain times I’m hoping my personal experience will not convince, but rather help you make the most informed decision on why you should or shouldn’t pick Electrical Engineering to do, for the rest of your life. *Queue Dramatic Music*

Rewinding back to this time of last year, I had no idea what i wanted to do. Civil seemed like the vanilla choice, Mechatronics had the highest GPA requirements, but I wasn’t particularly drawn to any. Then, ELECTENG 101 came by. The underlying logical argument present in every question was what ultimately swayed me into choosing EEE, although in part 2 I did discover that I’m not very good at formulating those arguments in question. Nevertheless, I will summarize each course taken in Sem 1 of EEE for your enjoyment.

“Stay grounded.” – Dr William Lee

ENGSCI 211

Very much the bigger brother to ENGSCI 111. If there was one course you could easily fall behind in, It’s ENGSCI 211 – due to its fast pace and large syllabus. Other than finding the limits to integrals, you will also be finding the limit to how small you can make the font on your cheat sheet while still being readable without a microscope. Lastly shoutout to the staff on Ed. It made all the difference having my semi-coherent question typed up at 3am the night before the exam answered within 5 minutes. Seriously Kevin, please get some sleep!

SOFTENG 281

I’ll start of by saying I didn’t like coding in ENGGEN 131 due to all the syntax and obscure knowledge you had to remember, so I went into this course without high hopes. To my surprise, the focus of SOFTENG 281 is on the conceptual understanding of the code, or rather the object, and not the previously mentioned things in ENGGEN 131.

The projects can be challenging at times, but It was equally rewarding knowing that I’ve implemented what was learnt in a practical sense. To those whose strong suit isn’t coding, SOFTENG 281 puts coding in a more welcoming way, where your ability of coding is not limited by your syntax. Give it another shot, and maybe you’ll change your mind.

ELECTENG 291

This is The electrical course of this semester. It requires a lot of conceptual understanding, and it may leave you questioning your existence. But you knew that already. Taught by none other than Dr William Lee; suffering and setbacks are guaranteed. Your gaps in knowledge, and false assumptions will be mercilessly exposed under bright light. Cheat sheets are practically useless, as he is testing your understanding rather than your ability to regurgitate information. So, are you up for the challenge?

“You can run, but you can’t hide”

If any of the above sounds like a fun challenge to you then I strongly encourage you to consider EEE. Despite all the moaning and complaining from me, I genuinely believe that this is an engineering discipline that gets the best out of you. I’ve crashed out 17 times last semester, but I’ve came out a little stronger every single time. I’ve had moments of disbelief, or wanting to throw a chair at my monitor, but maybe the resistance felt along the way is what makes the destination worth reaching.

“Finding comfort in discomfort”