Specializations for Electronics and Communications Engineering and Electronics and Electrical Engineering students.

In many countries the Master’s degree in ECE/EEE is offered under the names of Ms in Computer Engineering (Ms in CE) and Ms in Electrical Engineering (Ms in EE). These streams are two pretty common choices among Engineering students, second to only Computer Science. Although CSc grads get the highest pay among engineering grads, Electrical Engineers are not very far behind, as the industries in this segment are booming internationally and domestically. Since more and more Electrical students are directly or indirectly opting for jobs in CSc, there will be shortage and consequently more demand for Highly skilled electrical Engineers across the world. 

Here are some specializations you can explore in this field–

1. VLSI and circuit design:

Description: Thanks to VLSI engineers, your laptop is functioning as efficiently as a room sized computer used to. VLSI is basically packing a lot(millions) of switches in a chip. Common Roles: ASIC frontend designer,FPGA frontend designer,Library developer

2. Nanotechnology:

Description: Now, if you want to place more chips(billions) in a single chip, do you think merely decreasing the channel length of the transistor will do the job? Nope. Scaling doesn’t work like that in electronics. Many nonlinear effects arise. In order to understand the effects and come up with new designs, one needs to have a good understanding of underlying physics. That’s where Nanotechnology comes in.

Common Roles: Materials Engineer, applied research positions in tech giants

3.Optics and Photonics:

Description: What if computers can perform calculations at a fraction of light speed? Am I sounding futuristic? Please check out Optical computing. Take a look at the router that you are using. Did you observe a thin cable connecting it and a port nearby? Well that’s an optical fibre. Applications of Laser and Photonics are vast. This field is probably the most exciting interplay between Physics and Electronics.

Common Roles: Photonics engineer, Silicon photonics, Bio-Photonics

4. Bio Electronics:

Description: Few weeks back, Neuralink released a video showing a chimpanzee playing video games. Mind boggling, isn’t it?! We were taught that behind every action there is an impulse sent by the brain. Artificial limbs are applications of bioelectronics.

Common Roles:  R&D labs of electronic equipment designers

5. Networks:

Description: This specialization focuses on making systems interact with each other. One will learn how to manage bandwidth, traffic, and the security of networks , as well as any devices connected to the network.

Common Roles: Network Administrator, Network Analyst, Network Architect.

6. Signals and Image Processing:

Description: Ever wondered why there are many image formats such as jpeg,jpg and tiff. Ever thought how we are able to compress huge files(from GB to MB) ? Well, it all comes down to compression techniques. How is it related to Signal processing, you ask? Image and text are nothing but signals. Deep Learning is extensively used in this domain.

Common Roles: Cryptography, Image processing engineer, Deep Learning Engineer

7. Radio Frequency engineering:

Description: Why doesn’t your normal speaker work for satellite broadcasting. Well, frequency is the answer. The bandwidth of the human voice and that of radiofrequency waves are different. At higher frequency even a small wounded wire in your circuit may act as an inductor. In RF engineering you will learn how to design equipment for capturing, amplifying and processing electromagnetic waves(30HZ to 300 GHZ)

Common Roles: RF engineer, Microwave engineer

8. Telecommunications:

Description: Just like a music director innovates with different instruments and modulations, a Telecom Engineer comes up with different ways of transmitting a signal from A to B with minimal information loss. For doing so ,he /she comes up with protocols such as GSM,3G,4G,5G  and techniques for packing and transmitting signals such as CDMA,FDMA,etc. 

Common roles: Telecom Engineer, Protocol testing engineer

There are many other specializations for ECE and EEE students such as Power & Energy systems,  Robotics, Computer Vision, Bio Engineering etc.. which all have great real world applications and hence many job opportunities around the world. 

Expert Tip– If you want to get jobs right after graduation, pick universities in areas/countries where there are good electronics companies. In the USA, apart from popular states such as California, Texas etc there are other states such as North Carolina, New Mexico and a few more, where job opportunities for Electronics students are plenty. The State Universities here also offer good funding opportunities. After Master’s, many students interested in core Electronics pursue PhD (which is just another two years), in order to find high paying jobs in the R & D division of top electronics companies.