Ok, I need to pick my senior elective soon, and I don't know anything about any of them really. I'm pretty sure I don't want Power Systems, so unless anyone has a good argument for it (I'm a Comp Eng, not a EE) that really just leaves me with 4 other choices:

253 Electronics with R. Wilson
271 Electromagnetics with Dubroff or Seguin
265 Linear Systems with Acar
205 Electromechanics with Corzine

So far I've heard nothing really about any of the teachers, except that Acar was hard, and that electronics or linear systems might be more useful to me. But I really need to know if any of these teachers are going to rape me in the ass, or if these classes would be a waste of time for a Comp Eng major. I'm thinking electromagnetics might not be as useful as the rest, but ratemyprofessors.com had good things to say for Dubroff and Seguin, so I didn't want to completely eliminate it as an option.

And hey, if you know me and want to tell me to take one just to have a study partner, go ahead and do that too, cause I really don't have a clue right now what to take.

Any info on these courses would be great

Comp E would probably have most to do with electronics, i would imagine.

I'm a senior in EE and have had all of those classes except 205 (I took 209 instead but a lot of similar concepts apply). I didn't take those teachers, though. Don't base your decision off the teachers, though, base it off what material would benefit you the most.

With that said, I highly recommend you take EE253. Many of the digital circuits you work with as a CPE will be completely useless on the job unless you have some sort of background in interfacing it to real-world signals, and EE253 will give you that. You will learn basic active circuit concepts, including rectification circuits, basic transistor circuits, basic amplifier designs, and many op-amp concepts. As a CPE you will benefit greatly from the transistor material because transistor switching is a must for any sort of microcontroller interfacing. 253 will give you a launchpad for many other concepts as well. I can't say for sure that your teacher will cover all that stuff, but 253 is your best bet.

I'm a senior Comp E and EE double major. I can say from personal experience in classes and on my coop that electronics will be the most usefull of the classes on that list (although probably not the easiest). If it was my choice, i would definitley choose Electronics.

Are there not any worthwhile CpE courses you can take?

You must take one of those EE classes for Sen Elective E.

That said, what do people think about the Computer Organization elective? The choices are Cpe 311 (not offered), 312, 313, or 315. I'm considering 315 (Digital Computer Design or something) at this point.

I have taken 313, and 315. I think both are useful. 313 is more how to design a processor, and 315 is more how the intel 8086/88 work. 312 I haven't take but hear it is very good if you want to spend lots of time playing with hardware, there is no actual hardware in the other two classes.

Concering senior elective E, Electromechnics won't help you at ALL as a CPE. The other 3 each can help you as a CPE depending on what you go into. If you are going into very high speed design, understanding electromagnetics will be helpful. If you are going into signals/communications take linear systems. If you are going into analog then take electronics.

I thought Cpe was, by definition, kind of digital.

Ignore the analog and think you will only do digital won't go over very well. You cannot ignore the analog. Take electronics.

Having taken both 313 and 312, I would definitely recommend 312. 313 is an interesting class, but practically speaking, unless you go to work for a chip manufacturer, it will be somewhat useless information. 312 on the other hand teaches you about real issues that one would face as a digital systems designer or integrator working for an electronics company. Communication reflections knowledge is something that came in handy just this week, and I am an EE in a Mine right now.

Hi BigChief,

I'm CS/CpE, and took Electronics I to fulfill that requirement. My professor was Dr. Cox; we used Electronic Circuit Analysis and Design, 2nd Ed.. The book is pretty good, albeit detailed, and worth keeping. If you are interested in a traditional CpE career: designing logic, laying out boards, troubleshooting boards... you'll probably find Electronics helpful as you will run into circuits with BJT's, FET's, or Op-Amp's in them. Like jeff said, understanding how they work will help you interface with the analog world.

I disagree with JJacob on Electromechanics. I've run into three-phase AC synchronous motors on the job and had to learn how their commutation schemes worked. If you're interested in interacting with the physical world, it might be worth taking.

Lastly, if you're interested in communications or control systems, take Linear Systems I. Linear hands you some mathy tools to analyze problems in those arenas.