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Engineering physicists apply physics to engineering problems in a variety of disciplines.
Your Career Prospects
Professional engineering physicists possesses competence in physics fundamentals, in mathematics, and in engineering practice and design. They also possess the very fundamental skill of being able to adapt what they know to entirely new ways of doing things. If you have a passion for physics and enjoy solving practical problems, a career in engineering physics offers a great deal of flexibility, and often places you on the frontiers of research and technology design.
Engineering physics has applications in many areas ranging from medical research, to satellite development, to oceanographic prospecting. With a background in engineering physics, you could find yourself designing new photonics devices, developing a new microscope system, building and testing remote sensing equipment, creating “smart” or self-assembling materials, simulating microelectronics processes, or inventing microscopic machines. In these capacities you could be working with a team composed of engineers from other disciplines, scientists, or medical professionals.
Engineering physicists perform research and development in high-technology industries in the fields of telecommunications, microelectronics and microdevices, lasers, and novel materials. Because many engineering physics graduates aspire to careers in the university and industry research communities, further studies in applied sciences or engineering are often pursued. Graduates are now working in a wide variety of fields, including fusion and solar energy, superconductors, industrial lasers, satellite electronics, silicon integrated machines, fluids engineering, and teaching. In Alberta, engineering physics graduates are employed in the telecommunications industry, high technology institutes and firms, and the resource industries.
What You Will Study
The Engineering Physics program is made up of courses from the areas of electrical engineering, mathematics, and physics. In second and third year you will develop competence in these areas by taking a series of courses forming the core of the accredited Engineering Physics program. This standard curriculum is complemented by some choices in the fields of communications, microprocessors, and electric machines. The program provides flexibility in the fourth year through a variety of technical electives and you will be able to further tailor your program through the choice of your fourth-year research project.
The Engineering Physics program provides training in the essential electrical engineering courses of circuits, electronics, signals, and controls. The skills you acquire through the knowledge gained in these courses will enable you to understand, design, and test electronic circuits and integrate them with new devices or systems. You will also develop competence in circuit simulation techniques used to debug your laboratory designs. The physics component of the program teaches electromagnetism, optics, materials physics, nuclear and atomic physics, and quantum mechanics. Advanced math courses in calculus, differential equations, and complex analysis complement the physics material. These physics and math courses provide a foundation necessary for research and development in emerging technologies where operational concepts might involve light, heat, electricity, gravity, and quantum behaviour. Two extensive physics laboratory courses provide demonstration of key experiments in these fields.
In fourth year, you will apply knowledge that you have learned in the classroom to a research project performed under the supervision of a professor or industry engineer. These projects provide an opportunity for hands-on experience in a field of choice, and also teach planning, troubleshooting, and presentation skills. Four technical elective courses allow further specialization in areas of interest. These courses are chosen from a broad range of physics or engineering courses and can include laser technology, robotics, microwave engineering, advanced quantum mechanics, photonics, or acoustics.
The University of Alberta’s program in Engineering Physics offers a sound and particularly broad education that presents a wide range of opportunities upon graduation. It also prepares you to combine fundamental and applied knowledge to meet unique engineering challenges. At the UofA, the Engineering Physics program is offered by the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in cooperation with the Department of Physics in the Faculty of Science.
Our program builds on a strong foundation in mathematics and physics and applies these principles to active research projects in areas such as fusion energy, microelectronics, robotics systems, and fibre optic communications. A fourth-year research project and a number of technical electives allow you to tailor your program to fit with your particular interests.
Historically we have had a close association with three leading research and development institutes: Micralyne Inc, TR Labs, and MPB LaserTech—centres of excellence in microelectronics, telecommunications, and laser technology. This association has provided our undergraduate students with access to world-class facilities as well as opportunities to work on research or summer projects with academic and industrial engineers in areas ranging from microelectronics and sensors to lasers and plasmas. Approximately half of the students graduating from our program proceed to postgraduate work in applied sciences or engineering. An equal number of graduates enter the engineering profession directly upon graduating.
The Engineering Physics program is a very rigorous one and entrance is limited to students who have demonstrated high academic achievement in first year. Although at the current time we do not offer a Co-op option in engineering physics, there are plans to bring in a Co-op stream in the near future.
