Research Experience for Graduate School in EE

[deserturf16]

Hello,

 

I was curious as to the research experience EE graduate programs prefer applicants having. I am currently involved in a research project at my university that has a high probability of getting published in a reputable journal. Even though the research is in the EE department of my University, it is more related to the field of material science. 

 

For example, my research envolves increasing the absorption spectrum of a particular semiconductor photocatalyst. However, for graduate school, I believe I am more interested in RF/wireless. 

 

My question is, does your undergrad research experience publications(if any) have to be directly related to the topics you want to focus on as a PhD student or is any research experience good to have? 

 

[Ohm]

Kind of wondering the same...I've worked on High Voltage Engineering at my undergrad level and have an IEEE Conference presentation (as co-author). Otherwise, I have 3 other papers in image processing (one as first author). I've applied for High Voltage and Power Systems engineering in all of my choices (masters and direct PhD). My guess is that should be relevant to your research area, i.e, only the HV Paper would be considered relevant in my case.

[deserturf16]

Ya, however, I assuming that since im an undergraduate student...at the end of the day...any research experience looks great on a graduate school application. The research I'm doing as an undergrad right now has a great potential of getting published...but i'd rather chase a different topic in graduate school. 

[Ohm]

Yeah...I've just completed undergrad too and did my publications with the same hope...but I'm still not sure if they really add up to THAT great an extent. I mean, there are people out there who've done TONS of research in their own area of interest, and have a lot of publications.