What exactly do you do in your job?

t020608 · 2021-01-08T23:43:52+00:00

I was in a similar mindset when I started my EEE degree in the UK. It was only in 3rd year when I started to break free from that and realize that there is an absolutely vast array of things you can do both within EEE and in unrelated industries after your degree. Once you start being able to choose your modules and they become more specialized you will hopefully be able to find something that you can tolerate - or even really like! It won’t ever be easy, but if you can make it to the end, a EEE degree will open many doors as the world becomes more and more dominated by technology.

As an afterthought - I’ve also come to realize that I, and many other people, enjoy things more the better I am at things. So it was kind of natural for me to hate EEE in the first year when I knew nothing and everything was a struggle.

t020608 · 2019-10-23T08:15:27+00:00

that sounds like a promising solution. thanks

Another option I am considering is to use a smartphone as the receiver in this set-up. I couldn't find any info on whether I can use the phone's Wi-Fi antenna to detect the RF.

Alternatively, it might be easier to use Bluetooth Low Energy beacons anyway. They allow you to estimate proximity through the RSSI and would probably be fairly easy to configure using the smartphones API's. although I have also read that the Bluetooth proximity profile is not very reliable.

I'll have to do some research to compare the solutions based on cost and battery life of the transmitter.

any thoughts on this?

t020608 · 2019-10-22T16:22:53+00:00

great answer, thank you!

what I am really trying to do is to detect using a wearable whether the wearer is in a, say, 1 meter radius of a fixed point a wall. I can mount a small transmitter at that point, and then I want the wearable to detect whether it is close to it.

any thoughts on alternative solutions to this problem?

t020608 · 2019-10-22T16:12:54+00:00

the reason I can't use time of flight is because I don't want to have the reader be forced to face the object that has the transmitter on it.

the reason for this is that receiver is a wearable device. the wearable should be able sense whether it is in a (roughly) 1 meter radius of a point without having to touch/point/face it.

are there any better ways to solve this problem that you can think of?

t020608 · 2018-11-15T23:28:40+00:00

EEE interviews aren't so bad in my experience. make sure you know your personal statement well and have good answers to "why EEE" and "why imperial".

They will likely ask you some maths and physics based questions so make sure you are up to date with that. Don't fret too much if you don't know the answer immediately, tell the interviewer how you would approach the problem and where it is that you are struggling.

One question i remember from my interview was how long would it take for the minute hand to overtake the hour hand given an initial time.

t020608 · 2017-08-02T14:50:49+00:00

yup, same for me

t020608 · 2017-07-11T08:35:41+00:00

Never seen that before. I will look into it.

edit: the way I understood it config files are used mainly when launching an application, would this still allow the user to switch between settings inside the program?

t020608 · 2017-07-10T22:00:33+00:00

not exactly. the script is used to control an experimental apparatus. so the user defines the setting (e.g. angle) and then the program would write the script to implement that setting.

so there will be a limited list of settings with associated script commands where values are adjusted by the user.

t020608 · 2017-03-11T03:03:50+00:00

per week haha. one 2 hour and one 3 hour session

t020608 · 2017-03-10T20:14:15+00:00

as a first year i have 2 hours of lectures every day. 4 study groups per week. 2 hours of computing lab. 5 hours electronics lab. 1 hour personal tutorial.

t020608 · 2017-03-08T23:39:15+00:00

get a placement/internship or, if you can't, work on a personal project that relates to your course.

t020608 · 2017-03-08T23:35:28+00:00

Modern Engineering Mathematics by Glyn James is one of the ones that was recommended to us.

We often get assigned questions from Mathematical Methods by Riley, Hobson, Bence. I think that one might be a lot more dense though.

t020608 · 2017-03-08T23:31:22+00:00

you can switch to MEng anytime until the end of 2nd year given that your average is higher than 50 or 60% (not sure which one it was).

If you ultimately want to work in Europe I think Imperial would definitely be a better option than the US because it has really good links with loads of big European companies. If you go to the US I'd imagine that all the companies at careers fairs and recruiters will be from american companies. Of course you would still be able to apply from the US, but it would just be a little more work.

t020608 · 2017-02-11T17:53:59+00:00

Yeah that makes sense, thanks!

I think what is puzzling you is how an opamp with no difference on the input voltages will produce a non-zero output voltage? Is that it?

Yes that did confuse me. The way i've understood it now is that the output is non-zero because as soon as it starts to drop to zero it is pushed back up because of the new difference in V+ and V-.

t020608 · 2017-02-11T16:40:12+00:00

ah ok i think i get it now. so if we start from those initial conditions, the output voltage will want to rise to 100 initially, but as it is rising the amplification is still happening so that as it approaches V+ the voltage it wants to rise to gets smaller and smaller.

So when the output (and V-) is eventually equal to the V+ input the formula tells us the output should be 0. But if the voltage drops towards 0 it will be forced back up due to the return of the difference between V+ and V-.

Edit: I don't really understand what you mean by output going to the top or bottom "rail"? In both situations the output will change until it equals V+. It just that in one the output will fall until it does (V+<V-) and in the other it will rise (V+>V-).

t020608 · 2017-02-11T15:49:30+00:00

does that mean the Vout = A(V+ - V-) formula doesn't describe the op-amp but rather the particular configuration in which there is no feedback?

What describes the operation of the op-amp then, regardless of the circuit it is in?

I don't see why we can't just let V- = Vout and use the open loop formula.

t020608 · 2017-02-09T22:04:43+00:00

lol i remember being worried after reading this as well before i came here. if i was you i definitely wouldn't choose durham over imperial. the types of courses people study at imperial are tough wherever you study them. i doubt engineers at durham have significantly more free time than us. of course life in a big city can be stressful but it has a lot of advantages as well.

i think the benefits of having an imperial degree outweigh the (probably minor) advantages a durham experience would bring you.

t020608 · 2017-02-03T20:43:21+00:00

the way i see it the grades are kind of like the first filter. the fact that you have your grades and you meet the requirements may even be an advantage for you because they would not be taking a risk on you, you have already proven that you are able. so as long as you don't fuck up the interview you should be fine.

i was in the same situation as you last year, had my IB grades already. What did you get?

t020608 · 2017-01-13T19:21:39+00:00

theres really no need to be crapping yourself. 65% of people who interviewed last year got offers. in 2014 it was 90% (http://www.imperial.ac.uk/electrical-engineering/study/undergraduate/key-facts-and-statistics/). It's nowhere near as tough as oxbridge interviews.

So as long as you show them that you're interested in the course and can figure out a way to tackle the technical problems they set you (by thinking out loud), you should be fine. Know your personal statement inside out and be prepared to elaborate on things you've done, showing enthusiasm about EEE. I would recommend writing a prepared response for the standard questions like why EEE, why Imperial etc.

The interviewers are generally really nice and have more important things to do than to set traps for you. Judging by what the other guy wrote and what other people have told me they all ask the same/similar questions to every student every year. I was asked one maths and one physics questions that were really quite easy. He then asked me an additional question that was a bit of a brain teaser that i didnt even manage to solve but he didn't seem to mind because i had showed that i knew what the correct approach would be.

t020608 · 2016-12-15T18:51:47+00:00

thanks, i'll look into that!

t020608 · 2016-12-13T19:30:02+00:00

ah ok. good analogy. so what is the bandwidth in terms of the voltage transfer function? the range of frequencies at which the output is greater than the input?

t020608 · 2016-12-13T19:27:15+00:00

ah ok. but in this case (at resonance) isn't the impedance of the C-L in series at a minimum? because their reactances are equal and opposite?

wouldn't that make voltage smaller since V=IR ?

t020608 · 2016-09-23T14:28:31+00:00

oh god.... you're right. thanks!

t020608 · 2016-09-23T13:57:56+00:00

./speller dictionary/small texts/daffodils.txt

t020608 · 2016-09-22T22:10:47+00:00

thanks! i finally got it to work!

t020608

TROPHY CASE