Electrical, Computer and Systems Engineering Webinar for Accepted Students

You see? What do you see now?

OK.

Yeah. Really. Yeah. My colleague. Yeah. My colleague, Professor Huang, She and I will. Together we will, Yeah, We will make, yeah, make this webinar. I will cover half and then yes.

I'm just trying to figure out why.

It is not allowing for us to be large.

I and it's 7:00 now, so we have participants joining us.

Excellent. Welcome, everybody.

To our Electrical Computer Systems Engineering webinar. I'm glad that you're all able to join us.

What I would suggest is if you have any questions to please type them into the chat section and we will do our best to answer those questions as we do our presentation tonight. My name is Randy Moore and I am one of the Assistant Directors for Undergraduate Admissions at RPI and I'm also the School of Engineering Liaison. And I'll be passing on the rest of this presentation now to Tang Zhang, who will go through the slides that are presented to you so that you will hopefully get a really good idea of what to expect out of this program.

Thank you, Randy.

Yeah, Hello. Yeah, this. Yeah, this is. I'm a professor at ECSC at RPI and also together with my colleague Professor Rina Huang, we will today. We're just.

To introduce you about our department, what is the electrical and the computer and the system engineering department is about and so here today we will first will get.

Go through some slides quickly to give you a very brief overview and then we're here to answer any questions.

OK, so let's start.

OK. So so basically today we just have a very quick overview about what is the ECS and like how what is really kind of scope of this kind of very diverse kind of discipline is about.

And also like after graduating from the ECSE, what kind of a job you might be expected to work to take? And also like how could you better prepare for this electrical and computer and the system engineering? And also what about your first year?

Might will look like all right. OK, so first is about this ECSE. So basically.

Actually the electrical and the computer system engineering on its own is very very broad, very diverse kind of field. It includes from very bottom like a from the semiconductor device for photonics, optical and all the way to the top like very theoretical signal processing, image like information theory, machine learning, AI.

Is a very broad as shown here.

And like a control theory, robotics and networking. And so I'm sure like you will find something that might match your interest and your passion. So then certainly once you come start your journey at RPI and then in the ECSE, I'm sure you will find out more about how diverse and how kind of a different area like a deep different subfield in this ECSC, what kind of exciting.

Research going on there.

So then you might wonder, like, where do ECS students go like?

And after they finish their four years at RPI, where they go and what this career will look like. So again that as I mentioned like here the ECIC, the this field is so broad and diverse and certainly there's a very wide.

Playground like a play field for you to explore your career like all kinds of different companies. And if because today because of the electronics has already been the foundation of pretty much everything like every, like every like every field. So then you can find the EE and the CSE computer engineering students in almost every every company and then you can both like engineers, scientists or like if you want to continue.

Go to.

For the Graduate School, the PhD and then become a professor or like really all kinds of jobs, you might you can, you can imagine that.

And so here I would list like a actually.

The an RPI like the ECSC, especially like electrical engineering, is like a one of the top field and so then over the years we have graduated.

Many, many outstanding students and many of them have done tremendous job and get a great accomplishment. So for example here the Mr. Wiseman, he's our graduate, he graduated from our department in 1997 and then very soon this year or next year he will lead the effort to return to the moon like to have a fly by.

Around the moon and he's really actually last year he came back to give us a very exciting seminar to talk about his his career.

And also another graduate from our department. Now you must have heard of this company called NVIDIA. The NVIDIA now is already like the really the backbone of the AI today. Mean like everybody talks about AI, but without Nvidia's GPU it is simply impossible for us to have this ChatGPT we have this kind of AI.

Revolution and.

Curtis Supreme, actually he's one of the three Co founders of NVIDIA and he's our graduate. He graduated from our department.

In 1982 and then he started his very exciting career like he designed I think I believe that at IBM he designed the world first graphics processor and then he moved on and then he co-founded NVIDIA in 1993 as a remain as his CTO through this early, like yeah, early 2000. So actually he's also one of the most generous alumni like actually he donated.

10s of hundreds of millions of dollars back to RPI and through his donation, actually this year the RPI will start to host the first quantum computer in the world. Like on campus. Like in one on university campus. RPI is the first and only one up to now.

Hosting the Super like hosting the quantum computer.

And that is from.

Mr. Prem, courteous prims like a generous donation to make it happen at RPI. So we're really making making history.

OK, so that is just a true over many, many very successful graduates from our department.

So yeah, it's a very quick kind of summary like overview about our department now we have.

A little bit shy from like 600 undergraduate students and you can see the number here. And we have over like over 100 graduate students. Most of them are PhD students and we have 34 and a very actually we are growing our department very quickly. We will go over 40, like a 40 faculty members. We're doing a wide variety of kind of research.

And so.

Yeah, so here let's see like.

Again, as I mentioned, like the ECSE, electric engineering is so diverse and I'm sure you can find something.

You feel passionate about like as well as as long as you would like to know how things work like smartphone, power system, quantum computers or like you if you want to make things work like.

Robotics How to build Robotics and like.

Like like renewable energy systems and like a smart smart lighting smart building smart cities and all kinds and also like if you want to start the another NVIDIA then you can learn how to build design the circuit build integrate circuit and to build the chips and to.

To compete with companies like NVIDIA, Intel and AMD. Or if you are more interested in the algorithm level then you can also.

Learn a lot of like a, take many related courses in our department and then in the future you might invent a.

Next generation ChatGPT, all right. So we are again the very diverse from the very lower level hands on real hardware work all the way to the very top high level algorithm algorithm development like AI model development, single processing algorithm development is very theoretical to very practical, right. So we cover the whole spectrum.

And yeah, you might wonder like really how we because here in our department we offer EE like electrical engineering.

Or and the computer and system engineering so many many students are asking like which one I would like to.

Pursue. Like which? Like which major?

So.

Very simply speaking, like.

The EE is more like a closer to physics, like more device and more like a closer to hardware.

And CSE is more like on the algorithm like a software engineering. But compared with the computer science with the CSE is still much closer to to the hardware. Though we are still kind of different from the pure pure computer science. And also actually many, many students are doing we call the dual major like we if you take enough credits you can get from both EE and CS. Sorry the EE and the CSE, yeah.

And yeah, so this cartoon just shows another like, overview about what this.

Electric Engineering covers and what is the Computer System Engineering covers Actually those have.

Pretty large overlap between those, so as a result actually it's quite quite manageable. Like it's quite doable to to get a dual major on the EE and the CSE, so I highly encourage you to to consider that route.

So, yeah, as I mentioned, like there's quite some kind of overlap.

Between EE and and CSE and again that the EE is generally more focused on the hardware and physics and the CSC is more on the algorithm. Like, yeah, there's a kind of algorithm level.

Yeah, again.

Many, like many students, ask like whether I should do both. You are absolutely encouraged to do both. Like to broaden the horizon, especially.

In the future you will Co co-work with AI, like AI will be here and the AI will be used almost everywhere and then.

Like a by learning both hardware.

And the software you will be much better equipped.

To embrace with the power of AI and to take the best advantage of AI and then to improve your own productivity.

OK, so yeah, maybe now I can hand over to Professor Huang. She will.

Cover the second-half.

Do you want to address any questions first before we go into the second-half? There's a couple of them that have been posted regarding questions specific to the program.

OK.

That read and if you want to maybe answer them live, that would be great.

Sure.

OK, so one of them was will computer engineering deal with hardware and architecture too?

Absolutely, Yeah, absolutely. Computer engineering deal with this hardware, also deal with the hardware, computer architecture.

OK, excellent. And can you do an accelerated masters program alongside dual majoring?

Yeah, yeah. So actually we have this code terminal code terminal program that is really kind of orthogonal to this dual major. Then certainly it's very doable, like to get a dual major and then spend one more year to get, to get to the, yeah, to get the master.

OK, next question, is it possible to do a BME major and minor in ECSC or vice versa at the same time? If possible, how many extra classes do I have to take?

Yeah, that's a very good question.

So because you are asking like one major and one minor, then I don't really, I don't think there are that many actual courses, but on the top of my head I don't know exactly number, but it should be quite manageable because you are just the one major animal one manner. So this really quite a big difference from the dual major. So it should be, yeah, should be quite feasible, yeah.

And when it comes to logic and hardware design, would CSC or EE fit that closer?

Yes, that's a good question. I think the CSE might be the better because when you when we talk about the logic and the circuit is more like a for the computer, computer hardware architecture, hardware design. So that would be mainly for the CSC. But again that is the CSE and EE we have such a big overlap. So then.

Like when you take the CSC, it's actually you also learn quite a lot.

On the yeah, on the EE side.

OK, excellent. I know someone else had also asked a question regarding class size first two years compared to the last two years. What would they be looking at in regards to how many students would be in their intro classes compared to when they get further into their major?

Rajeev Khandelwal.

That really depends upon your progress like your pace. I think like if you take our regular like we have because our department provide like based on your interest and the need. Our department provides the template for the double imager and the EE for the CSE major and for dual major we have. We already have crafted templates for each like each option then.

Actually, when we create the template, we are careful about the.

To spread out the workload through the four years. So then from that if if you just follow that.

Template then pretty much. The workload is quite, yeah, it's quite uniform, yeah, across this over the over the years.

Excellent. I know we probably want to get Tarina as well. So I don't want to like take up too much more of your time. There's a couple questions in here that I hope you might be able to answer as well as we're going through the second part of the presentation.

Sure.

All right. Shall I start?

Can everybody hear me?

Yes, yeah.

OK, great. Greater. Yeah. My name is Rina Huang. Thanks for my colleague Professor Tong Jiang for the introduction. So I will cover the second part of the presentation. So my colleague, Professor John has introduced some big pictures of what you're going to find in ECIC and also the like course major selections between EE major and the CSE major. So here on the screen, you're going to see.

Example.

Courses you can take as EE major and CSE major. So if you start in fall, so this is a curriculum you can take. For example in E major you expect 123-4567 courses and in spring semesters next year you expect 123-4567, maybe 8 like courses. But please be known not all courses are three credits. Some of the courses might be only one credit.

Or so. And also I know many students come to RPI already have some like.

Advanced classes like credit they earned from like a high school. So those credit can be used to apply for courses in our department. I think the maximum credit you can take from your advanced class in high school is about 32, right, Tom, can you remind me about that?

I think 32 credit you can carry on from like high school. OK so this is just a example like the template we created. But if you do have those credits from past and you can skip those courses and start to take like classes from you know next semester originally planned. So many of the classes are offered in both semester. Free example the CS1 computer science one that's been offered in both semester.

So if you already taken CS1, you decide to for example, OK, maybe a better example is a physics one. OK in Spring 2025.

For Mass 1010. So like if you feel you already had enough credit from Mass 1010 because of the courses you took in high school, you can actually start with a higher level, for example 1020 zero. OK, so in this way you can accelerate your progress and I know of some of the students who.

Were able to transfer many credits, so they can actually finish in three years. 3 1/2 years is very common. OK, but regardless you follow this template, you should be finishing in four years with reasonably uniformly distributed workload. OK, so this is the first year. What do you expect? Courses in E major and the CSE major. So I didn't go into the too much detail, but I'll wait for any questions in the end. I can definitely answer those.

OK. Tom, can you go to next slide, please?

OK, so this is the one of the gateway class to ECC is called the Introduction to Ecses ECS 1010. OK, so every new ESS is student undergrad student will receive ADALM 1000 data acquisition board, so it's provided by analog like this company.

So this is a basic tool and that can be used in ECS department to allow you to explore component circuit, system programming, management, data analysis.

So we will also offer guest lectures on this, how to use this like design kit, so to give breadth and the range of ECS research. So this is basically uses as example to introduce some of the directions of the ECC students you can expect in terms of research, in terms of area you want to dive in in the future. OK, next slide please.

OK. So concentrations, so within ECC there are several concentrations you can choose from. So I don't think you need to decide on the concentration in the first year is more for later years. So allow you to get into certain depths in one area that's particularly into you. So we always talk about the depth versus breadth. So this is the chance.

So here we can see.

We have or you can consider, you know, look at the figures, the picture on the right.

There is. You can consider the three big categories, the first electronics and the photonics. So it covers the microelectronics and the photonics. For example, you may wonder how transistor is made. OK, so how like?

CMOS operates so that's fits into the area of microelectronics. You may wonder how light emitting doubt works, how laser doubt is fabricated, designed or solar cell OK solar panels, that's the photonics area. So next is a computer hardware systems OK. The after that is a mixed signal and power electronics. So if you consider your cell phone OK, that's absolutely a mixed signal circuit.

So where you have RF allow you to send a signal to the cell phone towers, OK and various towers.

You also have digital allow you to do the computer OK. You also have cameras to be able to process those images. So that's fit into mixed signal and power electronics. So another area is the information of science is communication and the network. So like the for example, fiber network communication, digital like communication like 5G60, that's the.

Like the future. OK, so right now you probably your cell phone is on 3G-4G network but the future we are predicted is five G 16 network.

Computer region, imaging information and decision science. So for example AI and the computer region, for example, you probably, if you have a Tesla car for autonomous driving, absolutely need computer region to make those decisions. OK, so another area is control autonomy. So control automation like robotic arms.

So this fund like a wide applications from industry manufacture to all the way to NASA to like Mars when you remotely control those robots to explore them like a new planet, power systems and the robotics. OK, so based on these three big categories we offer several concentrations for example microelectronics concentration. We have a number of courses associated with microelectronics, photonics.

Power electronics, computer hardware systems, communication network, computer vision and imaging, AI and machine learning, power systems, control systems, robotics, automation, and all different concentrations.

Most students decide on their concentration in 3rd year and 4th year.

Basically which allow you to take courses like a related course in this area, get more in depth exploration in that particular area.

OK. Aunt Tom, can you please move to our next slide? Thanks.

Like many students ask about undergraduate research opportunities, so at RPI at ECC we do offer quite a lot of opportunities for undergraduate research. We typically call it URP. OK, so undergrad research projects in ECC department are arranged based on mutual interest of individual faculty members students. So what we do is we encourage students to talk to faculty members.

To see whether they have any research opportunities. For example, last semester I myself, my team, my group, we took on 2 undergraduates, 2 undergrad students. So they helped us to develop a data acquisition system to connect laser with like a power meter and also the like a computer to and also fiber for alignment. So my research background is in photonics so.

That's a very basic photonic like fiber chip like a setup system. So the students at 200 students has opportunity to do this research with us. So if you are interested in doing research with the faculty member in one particular area area, you can contact the faculty just directly. Research can be offered in by credit. So you can take for example three credit worth of research. So basically you talk to the professor.

The professor designed a project, you work on that and you earn a credit or you can also work on paid so you can be, you know, get a check. Another category is undergrad course system experience. So at ECSE we routinely offer undergrad TAS. So even though we don't call them Tasmania, but basically they are teaching assistant to help to organize or participate in course teaching of undergrad courses.

This typically is done for last year students OK because they are already accumulated quite a busy experience. So the course has been you already taken received a A minus above your overall GPA has to be good.

Then you can participate in some of the like the teaching to get some teaching experience, For example help in a in a lab or help students in tutoring sessions. So that can be done.

UDSA Undergraduate Course Assistant Assistant typically be done by credit. So again, like a researcher, you can, you know do it based on numbers, hours you participate in per week. You can take it as a as a credit or you can take it for pay. OK, both ways, fine.

All right. So next prize please.

So ECC researchers. So once students get into a senior stage, OK last year undergrad you might start to consider Graduate School to really getting serious in do research to consider master program or PhD program. We do offer master slash PTT program. I know it's still a few years ahead of you, but it never hurt to start think about it early. So at ECS we.

Most our faculty are research active. For example, in my research area is Photonics. We has done a lot of research in developing photonic chips targeting for communication, fiber communication, optical interconnect.

Lately our research more concentrate on computing. For example, in the last few years we developed a special trip called Reservoir computing chip with everything based on single chip be able to do a certain computing jobs with much energy efficient and also very compact. Lately we start to do more tensor core based computing. So you may be aware that matrix operation is the foundation of all type of computing, so it can be done in regular.

Computers or you can done in some special.

Using some special techniques, for example UH optics users optical medium to perform the computing. So another area will be interesting is the quantum computing. You probably also heard about that. OK, so all these research are carried on at like essays, department, many different directions, controls, robotics. So we are very strong in that area as well.

Like I know my colleague Tong is focused on memory, right? Memory device? Would you want to share with some little bit of your research experience, your direction?

Oh yeah, this is just some kind of a computer system memory, memory hierarchy design. Like how we how we how should we rethink the memory system in the future. AI centric.

That's it.

Thanks. And can you please go to next slide, Yeah, this is. So this is a couple of pictures you see people working in the in the lake. So this is actually one of the project carried on by one of the faculty member in ECS department. They are working on develop sensors to look at to monitor the water quality or contamination. I believe these pictures taken at Lake George. So that's I think that's Sheila's project.

OK. Can you please go to next page? Yeah, so Archway and the co-ops. So RPI has those right now it's mandatory.

Archer way. So basically you may take courses in summertime.

Were in one semester and then give you a summer end of spring sorry summer and the fall semester connected a long period of time. So you can go to some like a company to do an internship or you can have a spring semester and summer connected so this can be done. This called ultra way semester so allow you this arrangement allow students to pursue a serious Co-op like a position so.

You know if you just do a summary intern typically that's two to three months commitment company to fail. Oh, we just trained you then you just gone OK for.

Like a Archer way so you can have much longer time so almost six months and beyond. OK so you make yourself more competitive on the internship or like market and also you as a student you has a higher chance to be hired and also give you like a better understanding what the company do. You can navigate and learn more like from from your working experience as a Co-op. So there's some examples companies students pursue.

Like Cooper. Opportunities as undergrad student. Like Facebook recent. So that's a big defense contractor. Intel Phillips, many different places.

OK. Yeah. Thanks.

Like a archery opportunities on campus, so you can pursue opportunities in industry like the companies we just showed before. You can also look at the research at academic settings particularly. This is particularly useful for those of you who want to pursue a master PhD study. OK, so students in the past pursued opportunity in archery semester in John Hopkins RP and MIT Lincoln Lab, which is not too far away Syracuse, Georgia Tech, Cornell.

Different universities.

Also, we have the programs study aboard.

Uh, like a student pursue this opportunity too and also an actual way. You can also go to like a school in like internationally to explore to get a different experience, community service, outreach or self designed experience. So we have some freedom in what kind of opportunity, what kind of?

Like activities are considered acceptable in the archery, but we don't like students do is stay at home and watching TV, so that's not allowed.

OK, thanks. So next page, please meet our student.

I think I'm, I'm going to play those videos.

So OK, so do you want me to start sharing or you can play those videos on your side? So we need to just copy the link and then go there and play?

Or maybe we can just play a few videos there?

Yeah, maybe. Yeah. Yeah. No, I think it's. I think they can just copy the link and then the students can watch their own.

Can they OK Do they have the access to this set of slides?

Do they OK?

Yeah, I think, yeah, I think Randy will share the slides, right.

Yeah, maybe. Maybe just let's first finish up this slides and then later on we can just play.

Yeah, yeah, we can finish this. Then maybe we can play one or two. We don't have to play or six. OK, so collapse and organizations. He says he So there's different.

Technical clubs. You can participate. For example, this ETA Kappa Noon, the International Honor Society for Electrical and Computer Engineers.

So this is the home to some of the best and the brightest students in the field. RPI also have some other like clubs and many of them host them like many students. And also our PR has IEEE chapter like a student branch. So if you are ECC student by the end of year four years of study, we strongly encourage you to become IEEE member.

So that's the home, OK? That's your technical home.

So Rensselaer Formula Hybrid. So this is through participation in annual ICE Formula Hybrid competition. Members build invaluable skills in product design, team collaboration and project management, helping to properly prepare them for professional careers in the world of engineering. The management next is Embedded Hardware Club. This is more related to.

Robotics and Control and.

Mass heavy club, So if you are interested in this area like Embedded Hardware club is definitely something you can consider to join.

Industry advisor program. So we offer this program to connect students with alumni for one-on-one industry advising SO also we have panels with aluminum other engagements with alumni to show you the many possibilities with ECE degree. So graduate undergrad mentorship.

So we have.

Like every student underwear student joining eczema would have a mentor to guide you through your.

Three to four years of study at the RPI. So it's provide like, you know, academic advice.

Career like advice. Sometimes even more.

We actually not just. Typically, those mentors are like faculty members of, for example, in our department SSE faculty.

But we also have those mentor programs like.

Kind of like a joint mentor program is for students has some general questions. For example you wonder like you want to say oh OK, so whether I can transfer this particular course to RPI and whether this is feasible, you know those general questions are released on administrative we have those programs too. We also have a program with students who may have sometimes may have some difficulty.

We can. There's a program to help students to, you know, overcome this like challenges, Yeah.

How are you going to connect with esse? This is some social media, so you know different things, OK?

Yeah. So this ends our like this presentation. Hopefully we give you kind of an initial idea.

Do have questions?

Yes.

So one of them was is CSC or EE more popular?

Maybe Reno you want to answer that?

My research is more on the hardware side, so I I.

I think this is equally popular, right So.

Yes, it's pretty much yes, it's.

It is more interesting, so I I would say equally popular. It depends on students.

Like your where your interest is, we have the resource to support both.

Yeah.

And they say, can Can you talk about the kind of job role differences between EE and CSE with any examples?

Yeah, like for EE for example like you want to work on the semiconductor and then you go to company like Global Foundry and.

To work on their manufacturing line and then to manufacture those integrate circuit chips. So that is like for the EE, I mean that is just a one one example of what the EE graduate might do like they they even do some kind of research to develop.

The Next Generation?

Like a device like a transistor, how we can optimize the transistor? How to make the transistor perform better and the lower power and using new new material, new device And then for CSE for example, one job is more basically you can consider CSE is a much closer to the design.

Architect design and operation around the computers, for example like.

If you want to become Chief architect at the NVIDIA and to architect the next generation GPU to power future AI, then that would be for CSE, but without the help from the EE. CSE is nothing. So we have to stand on on the shoulder of the EE, like to build the basic device and then for the CSC to further innovate, yeah.

And can you switch over to CSC or vice versa if you feel the other is a better fit towards your academic aspirations?

Yes, absolutely you can. You can switch when you change. Yeah. Basically you are allowed to change mine. No problem. No. No. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Yes.

And we also had someone that wanted to know if you could speak more about the quantum computing initiative at RPI and if there would be a quantum concentration.

Yeah, we hope so. Like in the near, we are now the RPI set the quantum computing as one of the most important future growth area for RPI and also at large for for the United States. So then the RPI has been very heavily investing in the quantum computing area. So that's the reason why we began to host the the for the first time in any university where the first one to host a real.

Quantum computer and then certainly around that the RPI including our department will hire more professors around the quantum computer from the device to the architecture to the algorithm. And then certainly we will have more like a courses curriculum development around the quantum computer. And then as as time goes by and then as we get stronger, more solid and solid.

Yeah.

From both curriculum and research around quantum computing, of course we will consider to offer a concentration quantum computer concentration, but I don't know when, how many years it might take. But absolutely this is a One Direction.

The whole RPI is heavily pushing towards, yeah.

OK. And there's a question of it. Is there?

Yes.

Absolutely.

Yeah. Can I, Randy, can I add a few words? I I think that's an excellent question I feel very passionate about, partially because I'm also sitting on the RPI Quantum initiative Advisory Board. So RPI going to host the first one and the only one worldwide.

Academic campus, the quantum computing. So there's many ways to do a quantum computer. The one RPI going to have is similar as like IBM has as similar as Google has. You probably heard of the competition between West Coast to East Coast like quantum computer. So they based on cryogenic temperature. Basically you cool down the temperature to .1 carbon, so it's cooler than outer space. So when you go outside the like the earth, you go to outer space that temperature is even higher than.

The quantum computer can cool down, so the currently installing the quantum computer at RPI in a computer computing lab like there's a department. So they are going to have a ribbon cutting.

In beginning of April, so basically only less than two weeks you're going to have a ribbon cutting, so it's very exciting. So IBM claimed they reached.

Qubit is more than 100, they can produce reliably. RPI quantum computer can do 20 more than 20 qubits, which is more than enough for most academic research needs. So yes the quantum computing operates as a chronogenic temperature, but how you going to use it is going through the fiber network is a classic non quantum part of the hardware, so allow you to even you as a student at RPI.

OK, you can sit in your office, sit in your sit at home, so from your regular computer and access the quantum computer.

And send the commander send your problems maybe partition certain time the quantum computer will operator will work for you. So a big part of the quantum computing in this like the field is such as error correction. How can we correct the error and also find an interesting applications. So one application people think about is like last few years we have the COVID then we have to looking for some kind of protein as you know can produce vaccine but the protein is not maybe.

Now exists naturally for the vaccine. So you have designed those things. The computation is enormous.

How can you do it fast? OK, quantum computing can be a solution.

OK.

OK, I hope I answered some of the like quantum questions. Yeah.

I I believe so. We had somebody else asked. Is there a certain language that RPI prefers a teacher use?

Yeah, I would assume you're asking about the programming language.

Correct.

Here we use a variety like. It's different, even different courses. We use different ones like Python And then pretty much I think Python is used as a starting point and then later on like ACC plus, plus and some courses might start to use like.

Yeah.

Some.

Java or like a Rust? Yeah, it's really kind of yeah. Depends on upon the courses, yeah. But pretty much the Python, Python And the sea will be the must.

Yeah, yeah. We used to use a lot of Matlabs as well.

Oh yeah. Metal lab, Yes, yeah.

Yeah.

This is a good question What is the difference between Computer System engineering and Computer science?

That's a very good question.

We don't like each other like a computer engineer. We don't like a computer. Yeah, yeah, something I was joking. The computer science is more on the, so probably we can say like a computer.

System engineering.

We build the infrastructure, the hardware like more like infrastructure for computer science people to develop.

New algorithm like a new compiler and the new language and the new environment like a pie torch and those kind of mean new AI platform, so computer engineering is closer to.

The hardware, so we build the infrastructure for example, like if you go to.

Any cloud like a cloud vendor like Amazon or Google or Microsoft Azure, So their computer engineering people, they build the data center, they build the infrastructure like how to build like like not only the computer but also like the interconnect like the like as yeah, as Arena point out like the fiber like a fiber fiber channel fiber interconnect, how we can connect.

Thousands of servers together and that things are handled by computer engineering. So we build the infrastructure and then computer science people they build like like purely software system and then to work on top of this of this infrastructure, yeah.

Yeah, we get a lot of questions regarding dual majors, majors and minors. I know one person asked about if you can be an EE major with a minor in physics or double major. What tends to be the more popular dual majors across other School of Engineering and School of Science or within the School of engineering in general that people can do in regards to what sort of sort of programs they want to study?

Irina, do you have a?

Yes.

One of the very popular one is the EE Slash physics.

Yes, yeah. Yeah.

So we do have a template developed for this due majors. So maybe this is not within school for engineering, it's actually cross between School of Engineering and School of science because physics is of science like within school of science. So for example people interested in applied physics and maybe more practical EE. So that's one popular due major I guess another one is actually CSE and the slash CECS so that's another popular one you can take in ECC in ECC department.

Being a student in ECS, OK, so you if you are interested more in computer architecture.

Ah, maybe signal processing. You are also interested in the computer science programming, so you can choose a dual major between as an essays student chooses CSE, The computer like system engineering and computer science department like slash so then that's a dual major, also very popular one.

Excellent.

Yep.

We occasionally we occasionally also have students doing EE and slash mechanical engineering that also time to time happen.

And I know we also get this question a lot too regarding, you know, pursuing a Master's degree and they want to know basically if any of these courses.

Lend into a master's degree or qualify for the master's degree program? Or are they separate in regards to?

Individuals taking master's courses within their senior year and of course, getting their degree earlier.

Yeah, they're pretty much separate. Certainly in your senior year, you can take the graduate level course to qualify for the master degree.

All right. So, yeah, that, yeah, that is my understanding.

I think the best way to do it is actually through code terminal.

Yeah, yeah. It's called Terminal, yes.

So yeah, coterminal I I think that's one of the best thing. I always encourage student to do the Co terminal, if you know you're going to finish freezer because of your advanced credit, like you can always, you know transfer some credit to allow you to finish your undergrad study maybe in three and half years or three years, OK, then you add.

Very often, just one more year you can get a master degree. I think that's the best deal.

So then.

Yeah.

So as an undergrad, you don't have to take those graduate level courses, basically 6000 level course, but once you start officially on the coterminal program, then you can start to take those 6000 level course. I think there's a certain number you have to courses you have to take. If I remember correctly it's about 10:10 classes, 6000 level to qualify you being a master student. So if you consider five classes in one semester, then one year you're done. So you got the master degree. I I think that's the best.

Yeah, I think there was also a question about like what sort of student support services are available to specifically to engineering students.

I'm not sure how.

Yeah, I know Student Services is not on this call to be able to answer that question, but I do know that our students do work very closely with the academic hubs of their department.

Then that might be a good question. If they want to reach out to admissions@rpi.edu, we'll make sure that we get them in touch with the appropriate people within the school of engineering.

Someone else had mentioned Mr. Tong says that EE is the backbone to be a successful CSC engineer. If that is the case, does the core CSC have the required EE courses or can we or should we take EE as a minor?

Yeah, that's a very good question. Certainly it's not required, but certainly it will be beneficial for CSC student to take some more like EE courses. But today's computer systems are built upon the principle of abstraction. Then you can just work on one layer without knowing too much on another layer. So that is how we build the very complex system. So from that aspect.

Then you don't have to know a lot on the semiconductor on those very low level devices.

In order to become a good computer computer system.

Like a computer system engineer, but certainly the more you know the better. But it is not that absolutely critical, Yeah.

And I do believe there's also a question regarding data science and how well is that integrated within both the CECSE majors.

This science? Uh, yeah, don't.

Data science? Or would that more likely be a minor?

The immediate data science offered by By which department?

Data science, Data analytics. I believe some of those programs are in Haas.

Oh, then Jenna, do you know that I yeah, I don't.

I saw data science more in CS department.

So yeah.

No.

Correct. So I think they're talking about doing that CECS dual degree. Would that be redundant and what sort of data science would be incorporated in that?

Data science is a very broad term and in.

ECC curriculum, we have many courses that offers students to gain some expertise in those data. In the broad term data science like for example Intro to machine learning. That's one course and Tom probably know better know more about those related to data science courses offers.

OK, and I know we get a lot of the questions of switching from one major to another. So there this person's asking about switching from electrical engineering to computer science, especially because those are in two different schools. One was one is in the School of engineering and the other one is in the school of science. And how would someone make that switch going from one school to the other?

Yeah, that's especially for EE to CS that could be a little bit hard for for for Computer science, they have their requirement like entry like a gate, courses, courses. You have to pass that course in order to be qualified to pursue the CS major. And that course you should take at at least at the second year then if you are in the EE and then without taking that gate course for CS, if you wait for the third year.

Then that may be too late.

For you to switch, so yeah.

And then how common are dual majors within the engineering department? I know some tend to work better than others, but within Electrical computer systems engineering, would people be able to do that as a dual major and how rigorous would that be?

Yeah, Renault, do you want?

So can you see the question again?

On the.

None.

Yeah. So they want to know in this particular case, how common is it to double major from the engineering department and how rigorous is that approach? And I believe they're asking about the dual major options where, for example, someone would do a mechanical arrow being a very, very close match. But in other departments within engineering, if they're choosing to do a dual major, how rigorous would that be for them if they're not closely aligned?

So when you say rigorous, what do you mean? We have the template course template you can student can follow. So if they choose to decide the dual major between for example EE and Physics. So yes you have to pass the courses pass the class.

But basically if you follow those template you will get a dual major. So is that the question when you see rigorous SO?

OK.

Oh, no, no, no, no.

Yeah, I believe that's mostly, I think people want to know, like, you know, are they going to be doubling the amount of credits they're taking or do some of these work quite nicely where they'll be still manageable while they're trying to pursue your degree?

Yum I I I think it's manageable. Probably a lot. Of course. For example you do E and physics or CSE and CS many of the first two years. Those courses are overlap. So you do need to like for example you do the CSE at ECS as EC students. You take the CSE as a major you don't want you want to do a dual major from CS department probably from year one or year two you need to maybe every semester you need to take one actual.

Course compared to standard CSE student in order to accumulate enough credit to get a new major. So that's about it.

OK.

I think that is like manageable, but I wouldn't say it's without effort. You definitely do a little bit more effort. We we do we have many many students on campus can can do that can in the end do major, but we only encourage students typically has a good GPA to do that because you do have a little bit heavier course load compared to just a single major.

Excellent. I also do know that because students are required to get 20 to 24 credits within the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, it's very easy to pick up a minor while you're at RPI.

Oh yeah.

Yeah.

I don't see any other questions in the chat box, so I believe that's pretty much it. I do want to thank everyone for being on tonight's call. Hopefully we were able to answer a lot of your questions regarding the Electrical Computer Systems Engineering department. And again, if you have an opportunity as an accepted student to come to one of our accepted student celebrations, we have them coming up on both March 23rd and April 13th.

And we will give a lot more information at those times as well as coming to campus and visiting us.

Yeah, we really look forward to seeing everyone.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

2.

OK.

People want to know if you'll be able to visit the quantum computer.

I think if you.

Right.

I I think so. This is in a glass, so you won't be able to touch it. Yes, you can see it from.

Yeah. Too cold to touch, Yeah.

Yeah, it's it's gonna be brand new, but.

April 5th, yeah.

Yes, yeah.

So you can follow us on. Yes, Yeah, you can follow us. You know ECS he connects to the Twitter, Facebook, I assume the ribbon cutting day in April 5th. Let let me see the calendar. It's, I think it's yeah, fifth. Yeah. Those two days you can you can see those live broadcast.

Yes.

Yeah.

Excellent. And I know the goal is to get students in the future to be able to work with in that quantum computer.

Yes, yes.

Yes, it was very exciting. It's very exciting area, yeah.

That's exciting, very exciting.

Yes, yes.

All right. Well, thank you, everyone. I hope you have a great evening. And with that, we'll close out tonight's presentation.

Yep. Thank you. Bye, bye.

Yep. Bye, bye.

Thank you.