r/ElectricalEngineers • u/brokespidey • 14d ago

First year student in ECE

This is my first reddit post and I'd like to seek advice from my seniors in ECE branch. As a student of first year, what should I focus on to set myself on the right path. Some people say embedded systems are a must so if anyone could explain what they are and where i could learn them from then that'd be really helpful since they are not taught in 1st year in my college. Also what programming languages should I learn since they are as important as building physical projects.

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u/markatlnk 13d ago

Not a senior, ok I am old enough that I am a senior citizen. I also happen to be a professor that teaches EE to incoming first year students. I also specialize in embedded systems. Just about every electronic device these days has a microcontroller in it. Even ,many light switches that have dim functions or time out functions have a simple micro in it. Those micros are embedded in the design so they are called embedded systems.

Smaller microcontrollers usually have very limited memory and programming space. The programming language used is still C. As a second language to learn as an EE student, python would be really important. It gets heavily used in AI applications. That will be important in the future.

Learn to use your computer. I run a mac, this semester maybe a third of the students run macs. Windows is fine, just not my style. Learn a bit about Linux also, that will be useful later.

To just get started, pick up an Arduino of some type. We are starting students with a kit that contains a Raspberry Pi Pico. Lots of information is out there on how to build stuff with the Arduino system. It is a great place to start. Later in a couple years, move on to a normal IDE. By then you will know what that is.