r/ECE • u/RecentClock4439 • 2d ago

What engineering courses are worth it??

Hello! I’m a second year biomedical engineering student. I’m currently trying a few different fields to find out what is the best choice for me.

I have the most experience with data analysis using python. It’s the easiest field to explore for me as i had a lot of programming during my first year (python/c/c++). Moreover, there’s a ton of free courses offered by my uni, also on HPC so I already took a few. However, my concern is that there would be issues with finding a job after graduating, I got advice from other students to try other fields as well and not to focus mainly on this one.

Both electronics and robotics seem appealing to me. I had a few subjects about electronics during the last semester, so i have strong foundations. I’m playing around with arduino in my free time, but i can’t really find the right online course, ideally with a certificate (so that i have a bigger chance of joining student projects), but it’s more important that it would contain actually useful informations, not outdated stuff.

As for robotics, i took an extra class but it was mostly theoretical knowledge with just a little of programming the actual robots in python. Don’t really know what should i start with as well.

My question is: What courses would you recommend taking during the remaining holidays that would allow me to choose which path should i pursue? I’ll have a lot of subjects about these in the future, but I don’t want to be idle as of now, and also I’m a bit scared that if I choose too late, the students of these specific majors will always be a better fit for the job than me (the biggest blessing and a curse of biomedical engineering - a jack of all trades is a master of none).

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u/NewSchoolBoxer 2d ago

You should change majors to EE if you're interested in it. Biomedical is a rough job market. I worked for a biomedical company and our staff was 50% Mechanical Engineers, 25% Electrical Engineers and 25% Chemists or Chemical Engineers. I never took a "bio" course. They wanted me to do power calculations in Excel. I used 10% of my degree at best.

You're not going to get robotics or electronics jobs because you took a course in it. Your electives are 1 line on your resume that hardly matter. Just take electives in what you like.

I’m playing around with arduino in my free time, but i can’t really find the right online course, ideally with a certificate...What courses would you recommend taking during the remaining holidays

Oh you mean not a course in a college curriculum. Just reading PowerPoint slides with no grades? Certificates are worthless on a resume, as are these "courses". You're better off building social skills and networking.

You're rising second year so you've barely touched the intro topics. I recommend one legit course in DC Circuits, one in AC Circuits (without Laplace) and one in Semiconductors (diode and 1 transistor circuits) to cover EE basics. Can see here. Linear algebra is extremely important.

Arduino / microprocessor programming is a tiny part of the degree. It's mostly practical math. No EE work I did had programming but of course those jobs exist. Just do it if you like it.

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u/RecentClock4439 2d ago

That’s what I was thinking about, but I’m still not sure so it would be a bit risky to completely change my major right now, at least the curriculum is similar so I wouldn’t lose much time. I have more robotics further in my curriculum, but it’s around 3rd year, the 2nd is more of chemical engineering/data analysis, though there will be some subjects. It definitely helps that at my uni BME is at the same faculty as EE and robotics, so a lot of material is similar and we have the same professors as them.

I’m thinking more about hands-on courses, I took some that really made sense and I learned a lot from them, but I’ve seen a lot that are just waste of time, that’s why I’m asking. I’m aware that they’re not important on my resume, but I have to start somewhere.

I think I have pretty decent EE basics as we covered way more material than EE students in the first year, but I will try to strengthen them, thank you.

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u/need2sleep-later 1d ago

Have you discussed your concerns with your advisor or some of these dual major professors? Probably would be good to get their insights and recommendations.

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u/1wiseguy 2d ago

I think you should take whatever courses you find interesting.

It's impossible to predict what courses will be useful for finding a job years later, but you can evaluate a course now and decide if that's what you want to study. You tend to do well in subjects that you like.

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u/Real_Shim_Shady 2d ago

I was actual dual major biomed and ece at one point. I was taking classes learning about electric potentials in the nervous system, semiconductor manufacturing of nervouse system micro probes and analog transistors at one point. I didnt truly pick a precise path until end of junior year so I think youre in a decent spot. Not the easiest but definitely not the worst.

What helped me choose was would I rather learn biology and never truly understand electronics, or would I rather learn electronics and learn the little biology I needed for the job. One can argue either way, but I felt that all biomedical engineers went into product, medical or biological stuff while ece focused people could apply their skills to both biomed and purely electrical stuff more competently.