University: The University of Western Australia

Degree: Bachelor of Engineering (Honours), Electrical and Electronic Engineering

School Subjects: Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics Methods, Mathematics Specialist, Music, Literature

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When deciding on a career, a factor I wanted ticked off was whether I could see myself being involved in making something tangible, which is what drew me to engineering. As I always had an interest in working with electronic devices, I decided to pursue Electrical Engineering. Additionally, doing Physics ATAR made me realise I was more interested in the theoretical elements of the subject – which Electrical Engineering does explore a lot.

Content

The first two years of engineering cover units that are common to all engineering majors. You begin to explore more of your major-specific content in late second year onwards. Electrical Engineering’s units mainly involve theory-based problem-solving and laboratories where we construct and analyse circuits with various components. These units essentially cover the characteristics of electricity and circuit analysis (currents, voltages, resistances, etc.). You’ll also study logic circuits, building an understanding of the workings of a computer from the bottom up.

As you can probably guess from the above paragraph, Electrical Engineering is very physics-heavy. The content does somewhat build off electromagnetism in physics, but not to a large extent. This is because many new concepts are introduced. Electrical Engineering is also very maths-heavy; in particular, we work with complex numbers – a topic introduced in Specialist ATAR. Additionally, you’ll learn design language, which is similar to coding but not exactly the same. The coding that would be expected in other degrees (e.g. Computer Science), such as Java and Python, is not a large focus and will only come up in a few units.

In my opinion, there is a good mix of practical and theory work for Electrical Engineering at UWA, as every class tends to have a hands-on lab component. In particular, there are three workshop units that run in between semesters. These workshop units usually involve a group project that includes all engineering students.

Advice for Students

I would advise students to consider Electrical Engineering if they find Specialist and Physics ATAR interesting. The work required can quickly be tedious and enjoyable at times, so it is important to look in-depth into what Electrical Engineering covers and, in general, what all the other engineering majors entail. It really helps if you know what each major specifically covers. Additionally, for the Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) course, be aware that it is a four-year degree structure, with your final year being an honours (research-focused) year. You are also required to complete 450 placement hours, so I would recommend spending time finding internships and work experiences. Networking through joining engineering-based university clubs is a great starting point for meeting like-minded peers and older engineering students.