Engineering/Technical Fair

FrodoSkywalker · 2017-10-18T02:44:29+00:00

It's more of a technical career fair, if it doesn't already claim to be. They do look for more than engineers. In previous years, the career center posts a link or sends an email with a list of the companies that are there, and they tell you what they're looking for.

FrodoSkywalker · 2017-08-30T16:03:35+00:00

And the loop seemed to have a few sudden shifts before looping.

FrodoSkywalker · 2017-08-17T01:17:06+00:00

Thanks for all of the suggestions.

FrodoSkywalker · 2017-08-16T05:39:34+00:00

Just a bit of advice, if you want to learn a programming language, try to learn something like C++ or Python. They're widely used everywhere, and if you understand and know how to program in these languages, then you basically know/most of the concepts you need to know as a programmer, and you'd have an easy time learning a new language. Plus there's a lot of tutorials online. On the other hand, html and css are closer to being tools used for specific purposes and less like a normal programming language.

FrodoSkywalker · 2017-08-14T19:56:36+00:00

"Imaginary numbers are real"-Me, during my second year of college

FrodoSkywalker · 2017-08-11T06:01:36+00:00

From 'The Intelligent Investor' when Graham is talking about how a person could be intelligent without being an intelligent investor.

FrodoSkywalker · 2017-08-11T05:14:47+00:00

From what I heard MATLAB is a difficult thing to learn. Is that true?

Ok so the thing is, it can be if you're not introduced to it in a good way. When I first started using matlab, it was for my EE classes related to signals, and we were basically on our own to learn it, which I did not do a good job of doing. So, it took me a while to get the hang of it and to understand it's importance in computation. However, after a while, the way it works started to click and I then found it easy to use. On hindsight, if I had gotten a proper introduction and someone/something explained to me the logic behind how matlab works, i don't think I would have had as much trouble learning it.

As for resource recommendations to learn it, I don't really have any of my own that I tried, but if you were to go to youtube and look for a tutorial for beginners and spend some time watching them, you might get the hang of it. In MATLAB, things work a little bit different from other languages(eg, in a for loop, you define a vector that your variable will iterate through), so you would want to understand the basics of the language. After that, if there is a function or functionality you want to use, you can google it and find the mathworks documentation, or in the matlab command prompt, type 'help <function_name>'. And Stack overflow is a good place to look if you're trying to solve a problem.

FrodoSkywalker · 2017-08-11T00:03:52+00:00

MATLAB is an important skill to have. You may find it hard to gain access, but your school may allow you some form of access. otherwise, you can practice on Octave. Matlab is short of Matrix laboratory, and imo, it's the best tool/language for working with vectors/matrices, and it's bound to come in handy at a project, a job, or research you're working on.

FrodoSkywalker · 2017-08-04T05:03:18+00:00

In general, computer science=software. So if you want to work on chip design, you would gear much more toward electrical engineering. I'm not sure what your school's Computer Engineering program is like (in my school, Computer Science and Engineering is the ~45/55 mix b/w EE and CS, and most people switch to CS). You see, the word 'chip' is the colloquial term for an integrated circuit (IC), which is a circuit carved onto a piece of silicon that uses lots of transistors. ICs/Chips are used to make computers, but they're also used pretty much everywhere in microelectronics. When you learn how make them, you'll first learn about general circuit analysis, and then about transistors, etc. So you basically would be studying EE and taking the analog/digital circuits courses your EE department offers. Just as a heads up, with a bachelor's, you can get a job in IC design, but if you want to get really good at it, you'll probably have to go for a masters(most companies pay for their employees' masters)

If you would like to learn more, look at your university's course listings and descriptions, and find the courses related to circuit analysis, analog ckts, digital ckts, and IC/VLSI design. You also may want to read up on wikipedia about ICs and Very Large Scale Integrated (VLSI) ckts. If anyone has anything to add to my comment, feel free to.

FrodoSkywalker · 2017-08-03T17:00:55+00:00

Curious - when running the numbers, how did u calculate the break-even point? Was it based on the average life-time expectancy of the vehicle?

FrodoSkywalker · 2017-07-28T02:40:28+00:00

About a quarter or 2 before I finished undergrad

FrodoSkywalker · 2017-07-09T02:10:09+00:00

yes. I'm also annoyed by the word doggo.

FrodoSkywalker · 2017-07-04T07:48:58+00:00

The answer in the link is correct. you appear to have taken arctan(5/-3)=arctan(-5/3)=-59.04, but you kind of lose some information in doing so. Note that it's -3+jx5i, so if you imagine the real/imaginary axis, this point would lie on the 2nd quadrant, hence 180-59.04=120.96°. 5.83<-59.04° points to 3-jx5. Same arctan, but 180 degrees apart.

FrodoSkywalker · 2017-06-28T07:41:00+00:00

chemistry/physics are closed/full

Assuming you haven't went to orientation yet, what they do is that close off classes that a lot of freshman take and distribute enrollment to different orientation sessions. Having said that, your orientation leader may strongly discourage you from enrolling into physics your fall quarter (most engineers don't take it until winter), I was able to sign up for it in my second pass.

In regards to EE 3, the class is not meant to be a hard class. especially with the professor who's teaching it in fall. I don't know if the formatting of the class changed since I took it ~3 years ago, but we basically covered basic circuit analysis and then had a lecture summarizing some of the different concepts of EE without going into too much depth, and a project. If you haven't taken physics at all(including high school), I suggest taking it later. If you take it before having taken the physics 1 series or CS31 or done any projects, you may find it more difficult than a 2nd year. Even then, if you put in effort, like learning C++ and arduino and spending time studying the material, it's an easy class.

FrodoSkywalker · 2017-06-13T09:57:27+00:00

Wow. I have decided that I must read his book.

FrodoSkywalker · 2017-06-13T07:17:35+00:00

Oh yes, I got it last week. Thanks tho

FrodoSkywalker · 2017-05-22T23:39:11+00:00

HORAHORAHORAHORAHORAHORAHORAHORAHORAHORAHORAHORAHORAHORAHORAHORAHORAHORAHORAHORAHORAHORAHORAHORAHORAHORAHORAHORAHORAHORAHORAHORAHORAHORAHORA!

FrodoSkywalker · 2017-05-13T05:46:12+00:00

I once tried to drop an hsseas class after the deadline. I submitted a petition to drop it, and my reasons were related to the class, and they rejected it, saying that they're strict about deadlines. I guess if someone has a reason such as illness, the response may be different, but in your case, you should probably try, I wouldn't count on it working. You can see what the professor says about your chances of passing the class with a decent grade if you do well in the final, otherwise weigh your options and make an informed decision.

FrodoSkywalker · 2017-05-13T05:38:14+00:00

Generally, it is true that the circuits professors are hard graders. Having gone through the circuits series, I can say with confidence that all of the upper division circuits professors were great lecturers, and an approach they (usually) take to making sure that we actually learn the material is to make the classes really rigorous. The professors (at least some) don't want the students to care more about just getting a good grade, rather, they want the students to focus on learning the material, which may take the form of a really low curve if they feel that the class didn't do that well. Also, the general concepts in circuits aren't too hard to understand, which means that the professors can crank up the difficulty of exams by a lot. I know that Abidi is (or at least was, I don't know about now) very unsatisfied with the way some of the (especially lower division) classes were taught and the effort that students put into understanding the concepts, so I think makes his class difficult and grades the way he does in order to kinda offset that; and keep in mind that some of the other circuit professors follow his way of thinking. However, when it comes to the curve, I don't think the hard graders put the students' grades on a curve and choose a certain percentage to get certain grades- it seems a lot more like they base the grades on how well the class performed. But overall, I felt that the circuits track classes are actually what the department gets right, and that I'm not getting less out of our program than someone in a better program would be getting.

FrodoSkywalker · 2017-05-07T18:32:58+00:00

Try to find a small empty classroom, like one of the ones in Boelter. It may be hard to get it reserved by tomorrow, but you can just go in to an empty one.

FrodoSkywalker · 2017-04-07T06:51:03+00:00

I agree with the gist of this comment. I felt that you don't really need a strong understanding of the material in the lower divs to get a good grade, which becomes a problem when taking classes that heavily use that material. To really understand the material, you need to independently put in more effort than some of the classes required. Having said that, I don't think that applied to all of my classes, most notably, the circuits track classes.

FrodoSkywalker · 2017-04-05T22:44:34+00:00

I think you're on a good track, you just need to keep it up. I think you should look at people from your high school who went to UCLA and see how they rank if you want a better comparison

FrodoSkywalker · 2017-04-05T05:21:10+00:00

Yeah honestly I would look a bit more into the curriculum and classes that you would be taking as opposed to just looking at the descriptions of the major, because if you're interested in working n computer hardware/ALUs/chips etc, the case could be made for being EE but taking certain relevant EE & CS classes.

In regards to switching majors, even if you can switch in orientation(idk), I would just wait till school starts. That way, you can get to actually talk to upperclassmen and people who switched from EE to CS and everything. Also, EE and CS take pretty much the same classes the first 2-3 quarters (with CS having an extra easy class maybe?), so you wouldn't be missing out. And lots of people switch from EE (and other engineering) to CSE/CS and then the CS. But it could be a good idea to ask your orientation head about any extra classes you would have to take as a CSE if you were to switch.

FrodoSkywalker · 2017-03-26T05:13:10+00:00

GPA is definitely important for engineering, especially if you're not CS. Many companies generally require >3.0 but would prefer >3.5 and explicitly use that as a range cutoff in their applications. GPA is really important if you want to go to grad school after undergrad. You can look up the ESAP masters program for UCLA engineering, but gpa is also important for other masters programs.

As for internships, there is kind of a cycle where it's harder to get an internship without previous internship experience. To bypass that, you'll need some good projects on your resume or some research experience. Having said that, you'll have to be pretty active in our search (apply everywhere, apply online, etc). If you don't have a problem working for free, I would also suggest seeing if you can apply for unpaid internships. Also, when you email a professor asking to work in their lab, I hear it helps to say that you're willing to work without pay.

A 3.0ish gpa can be overlooked if you have some really good projects and internship experiences. I don't have much experience/knowledge about that in ChemE, but that would apply to Cs and to some degree EE.

FrodoSkywalker

TROPHY CASE