Coursework and career options advice needed...

[sarayu]

Hi,

I am glad that I came across this forum and hope I will get some advice. I was offered admission in MS Electrical engineering and now is the time to enroll in classes. As I am returning to school after few years I am not sure about best choice of courses and classes.I am  interested to work in solar PV and storage technologies or semiconductor reearch and development areas in specific and green technologies in a broader sense. I assume power electronics could be the better major. I could not meet with the advisor as he is out of station and was told to enroll before meeting him and that I could drop or add classes later.However, I wish I could talk or communicate with someone knowledgeable or experienced in the field, who could provide some guidance before I start enrolling.

 

 

Thank you

 

sru

[shinigamiasuka]

HI!

 

Not an expert, but here's what I think.

 

I'm sure you'll find course descriptions on your department's website somewhere. Go through the descriptions and see what fascinates you. For solar pv, go through the descriptions of optoelectronics courses; and for storage technologies and green energy go for power electronics, yes, but also look at energy conversion and energy harvesting/scavenging courses (esp. for the green technologies).

 

For semiconductor research, you'll have to take solid state devices courses + courses based on which part of semiconductor research you're interested in e.g. fabrication technologies, material properties, novel devices, potential optoelectronic properties, organic semiconductors research (OLED, PV), nanowires, 1-D and 2-D devices, spintronics, etc. The field is huge! And also what I'm interested in as well! :D

 

Also remember, what you'll end up doing will depend on what your department likes focusing on in terms of research. Like mine is into high frequency electronics, displays, and optoelectronic (light emitting as well as absorbing) possibilities of novel semiconductor devices , so I guess that's how my own research is going to end up being. That being said, what kind of research is your advisor into?

 

For my first semester, I'm probably going to take a solid state devices lab course (hands-on fabrication), and a solid state physics course (4+4 = 8 credits total, the minimum requirement for full-time enrollment). Our course enrollments begin on June 1.