Electrical Engineering

About the Program

The electrical engineering program provides a solid and practice-based understanding to enable students to enter the workforce and be quickly productive. The program stresses necessary theory with applications to circuits, electronics, signals and systems, control systems, communications, computers, antennas and microwaves, instrumentation, power systems. The program has an excellent balance of classroom instruction and hands-on laboratory experiences. Students develop problem solving skills and engage in the creative process of design.

The course of study leading to the Bachelors of Science in Electrical Engineering is a practice-oriented curriculum. We have outstanding state-of-the-art undergraduate lab facilities open for instruction and hands-on applications. Program students gain a solid foundation in the underlying principles reinforced through practical experience so that our graduates are effective workers immediately after graduation.

The various fields of electrical engineering include the following:

Electrical Energy/Power Systems – Conventional and alternative generation, transmission and distribution of electrical energy safely, efficiently and economically.
Control Systems – Analysis and design of systems with feedback using traditional and modern techniques, including robotics and electronics applications.
Communications – Analysis and design of systems and electronics to send and receive information over various transmission media.
Electronics – Analysis and design of circuits with electrical devices for applications in power systems, communications and controls.
Electromagnetic Fields – Analysis and design of antennas such as those used in cell phone technology and microwave systems.
Computers – Design of digital systems with modern devices such as microprocessors, VLSI circuits and FPGAs to fulfill the needs of larger systems used in communications, controls and power systems.
The electrical engineering program provides a solid foundation for each of these fields with a set of electives that enhance the student’s understanding and abilities.

Why we stand out

All the skills you need: The program is very much practice oriented with a goal of training students to be productive on the job immediately after graduation. Our degree program is streamlined toward engineering education with just enough emphasis on soft skills for students to be successful practicing engineering. And the program provides for a strong, general background in all of the traditional areas of electrical engineering.

The one-on one experience: We also have small class sizes which enables students to have much more one-on-one and personalized instruction from professors. Office hours are plentiful and well-balanced. Faculty members are friendly and easily approached. All instruction in the classroom and in the labs is done by experienced faculty members. There are no teaching assistants and everyone in the program is sensitive to student needs.

Pro-level facilities, equipment and software: We have in one of our labs over $600,000 worth of Emerson hardware and software used for the control of complex processes such as what might in an electrical generation plant or wastewater treatment plant. We have new multimeters and oscilloscopes less than one year old. We have state-of-the-art electrical power systems equipment, and major, state-of-the-art software is available through a site license with our main campus in Morgantown.

Real-world problem solving: All students have to complete a two-semester design sequence where students have to come up with an idea for something that fulfills a need that no one has done before. Some recent examples include a fitness mirror for monitoring personal goals such as weight loss, a wireless PLC system at a paper processing plant, an empty parking space detection and display system working with an app on a smart phone, a motorized assisted bicycle, smart football equipment, motorcyclist's display jacket and a smart home adaptation.

Accreditation

Our Electrical Engineering program is accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET, http://www.abet.org.