Electrical Engineering

Student Info > Undergraduate Handbook

BSEE Degree Requirements and Policies

General Information

To qualify for the BSEE degree you must successfully complete 180 credit hours of course work. Transfer students must complete at least 90 of these credits from four-year institutions (including the UW); a minimum of 45 credits must be earned in residence at the UW in order to receive the BSEE degree. In addition, students must take at least 30 credits of specific EE coursework in residence at the UW.

The EE Advising Office maintains a curriculum chart for each student in the Department (Chart for all students admitted *before* AUT08; Chart for AUT08 admits and beyond). This record shows each curriculum area as well as required courses within each area. In addition, you may obtain a DARS (Degree Audit Reporting System) report via the MyUW option on the UW web page (http://myuw.washington.edu/). Please note that DARS reports do not always accurately reflect fulfillment of degree requirements; if you have any questions about discrepancies, please contact advisers in the EE Advising Office (543-2142). In addition to meeting regularly with an adviser, you are strongly encouraged to maintain your own record of progress toward your degree using the curriculum chart in Appendix 2. Requirements for the BSEE degree are distributed into nine areas of study:

Each of these areas is described in further detail in succeeding pages of this handbook.

Mathematics (24 credits)

The following Mathematics courses are required:

Statistics (3 credits)

Choose one of the following classes:

Natural Science (20 credits)

The following natural science courses are required:

Computer Programming (9 credits)

The following computer programming courses are required of all students:

Electrical Engineering Core (14 credits)

The following fundamental courses are required of all students:

Electrical Engineering Major Concentration Area (at least 24 credits)

Students must select one of the following major concentration areas, which emphasize depth in addition to some adjacent breadth in Electrical Engineering. Each of the areas culminates with a significant design project in a "capstone" course (indicated by an * adjacent to the number of credits, e.g., EE 433).  It should be possible for students to complete more than one of the areas in their entirety, however only one is required. In some cases, major concentration areas may require courses from a different department or have suggested electives from a different department.  When courses from other departments are taken, the credits earned will not count toward the minimum 58 credits required in EE, but they will count toward other required credits as appropriate (for instance, engineering electives to reach 68 total EE/ENGR credits; approved non-ee electives; VLPA/I&S).

  1. Analog Circuits
  2. Biomedical Instrumentation
  3. Sensors and Devices
  4. Digital VLSI Circuits
  5. Embedded Computing Systems
  6. Electromagnetics
  7. Signal Processing
  8. Communications
  9. Wireless Communications
  10. Large Scale Power Systems
  11. Sustainable Electric Energy
  12. Power Electronics and Electric Drives
  13. Controls
  14. Student-Designed

If you are unable to take the designated capstone course from your selected Major Concentration Area due to unusual circumstances, an independent design project (at least 4 credits) may be approved as a replacement. A proposal for such a replacement must be approved by the Group Chair for your area and the Faculty Undergraduate Program Coordinator. Consult the EE Advising Office for more information on this process.

Additional EE Electives

In addition to completing the Electrical Engineering Core and at least one of the Major Concentration Areas, students must take enough additional EE courses so that their total of EE credits equals or exceeds 58.

Professional Issues Course Requirement *(beginning Autumn 2008)
Beginning Autumn 2008, all newly admitted students will be required to take a professional issues ethics course. This requirement will cover issues relating to professional development, ethical dilemmas, and societal expectations of engineers. Students can choose from the following courses: EE 398, EE 406 or EE 456. Please see an EE advisor for a list of the most current course options.

Undergraduate Independent Study Applied to EE Electives

Students may apply up to 10 credits of EE 499 Special Projects work to the EE Electives requirement. This represents research or design project carried out under the supervision of a faculty sponsor. Students may register for between two and five credits each quarter; the precise number of credits is determined by the student and the faculty supervisor and is dependent on the amount of work to be carried out. Each credit generally represents between three and five hours of work each week. To register for these credits, please pick up an "EE 499 Approval for Undergraduate Research and Special Projects" form from the Advising Office, obtain a faculty signature and turn in to Advising for an entry code.

Additional College of Engineering Electives

In addition to the 58 minimum credits required of EE coursework, you must earn an additional 10 credits in technical courses from departments in the College of Engineering.  These credits can come from EE, another COE department, or a combination of COE departments. These courses must be at the 200-level or above, with the following exceptions:

The following courses do not count:

The following courses do count:
The sum of the credits from the EE Core, EE Major Area, EE Electives, and College of Engineering Electives must equal or exceed 68. Please note that these credits do not take the place of the Approved Non-EE Electives requirement described below. That is a separate requirement.

Seminar Courses Applied to Required Credits

Students may apply a maximum of two seminar credits to the EE Electives, College of Engineering Electives and Approved Non-EE Electives requirements. Possible seminars include EE 400 Intellectual Property Seminar, EE 500 Electrical Engineering Departmental Colloquium, and EE 591 Robotics and Controls Colloquium. Other EE 500 seminars may not be open to general enrollment, please check with the responsible faculty member to determine if the seminar is suitable and you can enroll in it. Seminars offered by other departments may be counted towards the appropriate class of elective credit, subject to the maximum two credit limit.

Graduate Courses Applied to EE Electives

Under special circumstances you may petition, as an undergraduate, to apply up to 4 credits earned in graduate courses (other than graduate seminars and courses labeled EE 500) toward your minimum 58 required EE credits. Before such a request can be approved, you must demonstrate that you have the required background for the graduate courses. Consult the EE Advising Office for additional information.

Written and Oral Communication (12 credits)

This requirement includes two components described below: English Composition and Additional Writing Requirements

English Composition

At least 5 credits of English Compostion must be taken from the UW's approved list of composition courses. These courses include:

If you have transfer credit that you think is similar to the courses above, but which did not transfer exactly as any of the courses above, please check with the EE Advising Office.

Additional Writing Requirements

The following Technical Communication classes are required for graduation:

Approved Non-EE Electives (10 credits)

The following courses satisfy the approved non-EE electives requirement:

You may petition to substitute Natural Science classes not listed (such as Atmospheric Sciences, Astronomy, Earth and Space Sciences, etc.), at the level of 300 and above. Courses not listed above must be approved for substitution before they will be allowed to count toward this requirement.

Visual, Literary and Performing Arts and Individuals and Societies (25 credits)

A total of 25 credits is required, with a minimum of 10 credits in each seperate area. VLPA/I&S courses are designated in the quarterly time schedule and the UW course catalog. In addition, a list of current VLPA/I&S classes can be found on-line.

Free Electives (9 credits)

These credits can be fulfilled by any courses for which the University of Washington gives credit, except courses which duplicate or parallel courses for which you have already received credit. Up to 4 credits given for Co-op experience may apply to this requirement. This is the only degree requirement to which you may apply Co-op credits. Please note that students who choose to take STAT/MATH 390 for the Statistics requirement need only earn 8 Free Elective credits.

S/NS and CR/NC Grading

You may not apply any courses graded Satisfactory/Non-Satisfactory (S/NS) to any distribution or major requirement, but you may use them as Free Electives. You may apply courses graded Credit/Non-Credit (CR/NC) where appropriate.

Registration

You should plan your quarterly schedule of classes well in advance of your assigned registration day. You should also meet an adviser to discuss any questions regarding your schedule or to confirm that your schedule of courses covers your requirements. Staff in the EE Advising Office can also answer questions regarding course availability, scheduling, etc. Be sure to register for courses on your assigned registration day as many EE courses tend to fill up quickly. If you need to take a course that has closed, check the on-line time schedule several times a day to see if someone has dropped the course. Waiting lists are only started on the request of an instructor and are kept in the EE Advising Office. If you still haven't gained a space by the first day of classes, plan to attend the class for the first week to see if a space opens up or if the instructor will let you overload.

Graduation

In order to graduate with the BSEE degree, you must fulfill the program of study and the requirements described in this handbook. You should apply for graduation up to two quarters in advance of your anticipated graduation date. Doing so will give you Graduating Senior Priority (GSP) status for your last two quarters of registration. The absolute deadline to apply for graduation is no later than the end of the third week of the quarter in which you plan to graduate.

Applicability of Requirements

The requirements in this handbook apply to all students admitted to the department in or after Autumn quarter 2006 and until such time as a new handbook or amendment is issued. Students admitted while this handbook is in effect will not be subject to additional degree requirements except those necessary to comply with accreditation requirements.

If you are a returning student who was originally admitted to the department in a previous quarter, different requirements may apply to you. Please consult the EE Advising Office for guidance.

Changes in policy and administrative procedures can be applied to students admitted before the effective date of this handbook, as long as such changes do not modify the total number of credits required for the BSEE degree and the distribution of those credits.

Updates or corrections to this page should be sent to .

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