The Faculty of Electrical Engineering founded in 1949 has been renowned for excellence in research and education throughout the years of changes in the scope of engineering. Over this period, the faculty has earned a wide-spread international reputation for its high academic standards and scientific achievements. Spearheading the movement to establish a modern education system, it has offered a comprehensive English curriculum since 1992. Nearly the same time, the name of the faculty was changed to Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics in order to give recognition to the growing importance of computer science. The education programmes in English include a 3.5-year B.Sc., a 2-year M.Sc. and a 3-year Ph.D. programme in the fields of electrical and software engineering.
This Bulletin describes the curricula and the subjects being available for the 2009/2010 academic year, regarding the BSc, MSc and PhD programmes, respectively.
The undergraduate B.Sc. programme aims at providing a comprehensive knowledge with sound theoretical foundations in two areas: (1) Electrical Engineering including more specific studies in electronics, computer engineering and power engineering; and (2) Software Engineering dedicated to the major domains of computer science. The major specializations in Electrical Engineering are computer networks, control and robotics and power engineering. Studies in Software Engineering include specialization in infocommunication and software technology. Each specialization contains three courses focusing on the field of interest followed by a laboratory course and a project laboratory. In order to pursue studies in a given specialization the number of students must exceed a certain threshold, otherwise the interested students are kindly directed to another specialization.
The M.Sc. programme further advances the knowledge obtained in the undergraduate programmes in the same two fields: (1) Electrical Engineering, offering specializations in (i) embedded systems, (ii) infocommunication systems, and (iii) electrical machines and drives; (2) Software Engineering, offering specializations in (i) applied computer science, and (ii) system development; and (3) Business Information Systems, offering specializations in (i) Analytical Business Intelligence.
The post-graduate Ph.D. programme is available in all domains offered in the MSc program.
Since research and development requires innovative engineering expertise, one of the major concerns of the faculty is to endow students with high level mathematical skills in modeling complex engineering systems. This objective implies the use of system and algorithmic theory in addition to a thorough knowledge in physics. The search for optimal solutions in the highly complex architectures of electrical and software engineering necessitates not only engineering but economical considerations, as well. As a result, the scope of the programme must include design, research and management expertise at the same time.
Several strategies have been designed to help students develop high level skills in mathematics, physics, and computation. Besides theoretical knowledge they need to carry out design and development activities in the field of communication, instrumentation, and power industries to further perfect their practical skills. The curriculum also includes solving tasks in the fields of production and operation.
Scientific groups are formed to encourage the students to do independent but supervised laboratory work. Project laboratory is one of the core parts of the studies which are dedicated to independent problem solving with the armoury of modern work stations and SW packages. The expertise of handling these tools are inevitable in pursuing an engineering career.
In order to strengthen the transfer of knowledge and know-how between the university and industry, the faculty maintains close contact with well known multinational companies in the field of communication and computer industry. As a result, many industrial experts offer their experience and knowledge as part-time lecturers, project supervisors, members of examination committees.
Admission policy
To maintain a high educational standard is the basic interest of both the university and the students. Only a constant guard of quality can ensure that tuition fee is traded for a degree of high reputation bearing a competitive value in the global market. Therefore, the priority of our acceptance policy is sustaining the quality of education by selecting those students whose knowledge and previous qualifications are in match with the expertise required by the courses. This rule holds for all applicants, no matter the country or the educational institutions they came from. Only the implementation of this acceptance policy helps us to preserve the value of the degree, which the students rightly deserve in exchange of their tuition fee and in exchange of their continuous effort committed during the course. In order to implement the principles, our faculty has adopted the following terms of acceptance:
Practical guidelines for acceptance to the MSc programme
1. Applicants with B.Sc. studies having a WGAP (Weighted Grade Average Point) equal or better than ‘good’ and with a B.Sc. degree issued not earlier than five years prior to the application will receive unconditional acceptance to the M.Sc. course.
2. Applicants with B.Sc. studies having a WGAP equal or better than ‘good’ and with a B.Sc. degree issued earlier than five years prior to the application will receive conditional acceptance to the M.Sc. course. The term ‘conditional acceptance’ means that the applicant has been approved for admission as a provisional graduate student in the Pre-M.Sc. degree program in Electrical or Software Engineering. The Pre-M.Sc. degree program is a two-semester course for applicants who have B.Sc. degree, but who needs to brush up or improve his or her knowledge in science and technology. An applicant can then continue his or her studies in one of our four-semester M.Sc. programmes, and can receive regular M.Sc. student status if he or she achieves a WGAP of good or better in this course. Failure to achieve this grade results in revoking the admission.
3. Applicants with a B.Sc. qualification less than ‘good’ are regretfully rejected to enter the M.Sc. program.
Practical guidelines for acceptance to the PhD programme
1. The primary condition of admission to postgraduate studies is that the applicant must hold a Master of Science (or Engineering) degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering (or in some closely related fields) or Informatics. Admission to postgraduate studies will be considered if the qualification of previous studies is at least of level "good" or equivalent.
2. Applicants are expected to have a definite scope of research in electrical engineering or computer science, where they would like to advance their knowledge. They are requested to present a proposal, specifying a domain of interest with some research objectives, milestones and deliverables during the postgraduate studies. The suggested topic should have sufficient preliminaries in their university studies.
3. Applicants with experience and initial results in the suggested research topic will have preference. A short summary of preliminary research activities together with relevant reports, published papers ... etc. would be of help in the admission process.
4. Applicants should also submit two recommendations given by renowned academic personnel.
Each admission is valid only for the forthcoming academic year (starting right after the letter of acceptance). In the case of commencing studies later than the semester indicated in the letter of acceptance, or returning to studies after a passive semester, the faculty does not take responsibility for ensuring that the students can follow the same specialization which he studied prior to the passive semester, and reserves the right to direct the student to other specialization depending on the changes in the number applicants for specializations.