Electrical Engineering

About this opportunity

The School of Electrical, Computer, and Energy Engineering (ECEE) has attracted national and international attention due to our continued strength in providing innovative academic programs, outstanding research performance, and growth in student enrollment to record levels. The electrical engineering industry is becoming increasingly interdisciplinary. Electrical and computing devices are used in a vast array of applications, including wireless communications, electric power generation, medicine, energy, space exploration and environmental conservation. The development of the microprocessor also expanded opportunities for electrical engineers to improve the design of familiar products such as automobiles, consumer and office products, entertainment systems, power tools and a variety of test and measurement instruments.

Electrical engineers combine the laws of electricity and principles of engineering to a variety of applications that directly affect the daily lives of most of the world’s population, from the development of satellite communication links to a sophisticated patient monitoring system in a hospital trauma unit. Electrical engineers are concerned with many design and development challenges associated with technology that uses electricity.

Our faculty includes experts in electrical engineering’s many application areas. They are committed to the integration of use-inspired research with locally and globally relevant academic programming and have achieved national recognition by pursuing the best activities in research, training and entrepreneurship.

Thesis

The full details of the thesis can be found here: https://students.barretthonors.asu.edu/sites/default/files/2022-07/Thesis-Guidebook.pdf

Many Electrical Engineering students take EEE 488/489 as their capstone design sequence and may use their senior capstone design project as the foundation for the honors thesis. In this case, the capstone project mentor (ASU Faculty) is the Thesis Director. The second committee member can be faculty but can also be a qualified professional inside or outside ASU (e.g., if there are industry members involved in the capstone, they can participate in the committee). The honors thesis must be a distinct and independent addition to the rest of the project, and the advisor makes this judgement. Be sure you and your advisor agree on the scope of your Honors thesis at the start of the project! Please feel free to involve your FHAs if you have any questions about the specific scope of a proposed thesis contribution to a capstone project.

Alternatively, students may work on projects outside of the capstone, based on academic preparation completed through research or coursework. 

Both of these options allow up to $1000 in funding from Barrett to support the project. The application for this funding should be started before spending occurs, then students submit receipts for reimbursement at the end. Thesis funds do not allow for any advance payments. Please see more details here: https://students.barretthonors.asu.edu/funding/thesis-project-funding

Academic Preparation

Students should approach their courses with curiosity and brainstorm ideas about future research and thesis work.  Electrical Engineering research includes six primary areas of specialization: 

• Control systems
• Electric power and energy systems 
• Electromagnetics, antennas, and microwaves
• Electronic and mixed-signal circuit design 
• Physical electronics and photonics 
• Signal processing and communications 

Recommended Timeline

In their junior year, students should begin to solidify plans for the thesis and then complete the project in their final year. Many students use research from past semesters with Engineering faculty and Fulton Schools of Engineering Research programs such as Fulton Undergraduate Research Initiative (FURI) and the Grand Challenges Scholars Program (GCSP) for thesis work

Other Honors Opportunities

ECEE offers honors students enrolled in the Electrical Engineering (EE) Undergraduate Program several opportunities to help them to fulfill requirements for graduation from Barrett, the Honors College (BHC). Opportunities include:

• Turning EE program courses into honors courses through Honors Enrichment Contracts. Most honors contracts involve either a project that extends the ideas and techniques covered in the course or outside research on topics relevant to the course work. 
• Performing research towards an independent thesis or a thesis based on the senior design capstone project.