- For the past four years, graduates of the electrical engineering
program have enjoyed a 100 percent placement rate, either in employment or for upper-level degrees.
- Senior students actively participate in undergraduate research
sponsored by federal agencies. Students traveled to NASA's Columbia
Scientific Balloon Facility in Texas to integrate their payload in
the High Altitude Student Platform.
- Students are participating in the Undergraduate Student
Instrument Project (USIP) to design a cosmic- ray calorimeter for
integration into one of NASA's suborbital research platforms.
- Gannon University has received National Science Foundation
(NSF), funding which will be
used to award approximately
20 scholarships per year, each renewable for up to four years. The
average scholarship amount will be $6,522 per year, depending on
awardee's unmet financial need.
- The STaRT-UPS program gives undergradaute women and minorities
access to hands-on research opportunities on campus.
You Will Learn
The electrical and computer engineering department offers two
technical options: electrical and electronic and computer engineering. Both are designed to guide students to
build technical competency, and effective communication and
leadership skills. Our program integrates the liberal studies core
and emphasizes holistic student development.
The department is innovative in its teaching approach by
employing a Modular Integrated Curriculum Environment (MICE). MICE
treats each core subject within the curriculum as a modular unit
that focuses on specific topics of knowledge. Each modular unit has
a project that ties into a centralized learning platform,
mini-Electric- Vehicle (miniEV), to function as part of the system
without requiring students to have full knowledge of the system to see how their own modular design will work in a larger
system. By doing so, students will have the opportunity to build
system-level integration skills and be able to understand how each
subject learned is employed and utilized in a larger system early
in their career. Within this learning environment, students at all
levels are engaging in project-based learning. The program is
designed to guide students to build technical competency, effective
communication, leadership skills and entrepreneurial
spirit.
You Will Experience
Our close partnership with Erie's General Electric
Transportation location provides students with opportunities for
internships, co-ops and full-time jobs upon graduation, and allows
for constant industry input into existing and new course
offerings.
Most of our students begin their internship following the
completion of their sophomore or junior years.
You Will Achieve
Students in two disciplines: electrical and electronic
engineering, and computer engineering, have many choices of career
paths. Such opportunities include, but are not limited to, the
following:
- Careers in high-tech private sector industries such as
automotive, transportation, communication technologies, energy,
electric utilities,
- Gannon graduates are also accepted into highly competitive
graduate schools such as University of Illinois, Purdue University,
etc.
- Military defense industries.
- Some examples of companies where our students are employed
include: GE, Motorola, LORD Corp., Bechtel, Ahlmond Steel, Northrop
Grumman, Allegheny Power, Eaton Corp., U.S. Steel and ATI Allegheny
Ludlum.
You will Study
The electrical engineering curriculum is designed to foster
students' system integration and project management
and entrepreneurial skills. The program is designed to provide
opportunities to students from all levels to work on projects
together. Electrical engineering majors take various core and
elective courses including:
ECE 217: Data Structure and Algorithm
This course involves an in-depth, programming-based study of data
structures, algorithms and cooperating programming techniques used
in real-time and embedded systems. Topics include static and
dynamic structures, hashing, searching, signals and distributive
and concurrent inter-process communication.
ECE 324 & ECE 325: Electric Machines & Electric Machines Laboratory
These courses are taken simultaneously. The standard course introduces the
fundamental principles of transformers, energy conversion and the
operational principles of electric machines. Induction machines,
synchronous machines, and DC machines, including
their steady-state characteristics and operations, are also
discussed. Students spend an additional three hours per week in the
lab where they learn the hands-on application of what they've
studied in the classroom.
ECE 357: Senior Design
This senior-level course includes discussion of design
fundamentals, application of design principles to a design problem,
determination of a complete problem definition or specification,
and development of a conceptual design and a preliminary design
with alternatives. Students establish a schedule and tentative test
plan, discuss ethics, and consider the impact on engineering
decisions. Through this course, students develop skills in
effective communication, and learn to present design at a formal
design review to colleagues.
Liberal Studies Core
The Liberal Studies Core Curriculum is one reflection of Gannon University's commitment to
its Catholic identity. The Core's design offers students a defined, integrated, shared
experience as the foundation for their undergraduate program.
You Will Earn
Salaries in the industry vary depending on the location and type
of organization.
- Starting salary: $64,300
- Mid-career salary: $106,000
All salary information is compiled from data gathered from the
Bureau of Labor Statistics (bls.gov) and/or PayScale
(payscale.com).