Hi everyone,

I want to integrate AI more effectively into my workflow. I am currently using ChatGPT Plus and i am considering to switch to different LLM (like perplexivity or claude) for better productivity and scientific research. I dont have much time to test all of them my own. Since i dont have much time i want to ask you which LLM do you use and is it meet your expectations?

I’m a 2nd-year Electronics and Communication Engineering student, and I’m trying to build a strong foundation instead of randomly learning a lot of technologies.

I’m currently planning to spend significant time on:

Digital Electronics

Verilog

Semiconductor Physics

Analog VLSI Design

C++ + DSA

Python

SQL

Linux

Operating Systems

My plan is also to build a few serious projects

So guys

1.Is this skill combination actually useful, or am I spreading myself too thin?

2. Which skills should I prioritize most?

3. Are SQL and OS worth learning for an ECE/VLSI-oriented career?

4. Is there anything important missing from this list?

I got a job offer to work as an Electronics Warfare enginer in southern california. I just graduated this summer in EE. I was wondering if anyone on here is an EW engineer, and what is the base pay amount I should ask for if I end up taking the job?

I am starting my final year in 12 days, and I'm starting to worry I'll graduate without a single internship on my resume. It's not for lack of trying I hope — I've applied to around 500 positions and landed only 2 interviews. Both went fine as far as I could tell, then I got ghosted on both.

What I do have is a stack of self-directed projects: a home security system built on AVR microcontrollers, a bigger version of which im currently working on with a couple of CS friends using multiple ESP32s talking to each other with a Raspberry Pi and push notifications, a genuinely weird PCB project where I'm 3D-printing wire channels into the board itself, and some other embedded/firmware work. I've put in a lot of hours debugging real problems, never inside a company.

I don't know how much that actually counts when a recruiter is skimming resumes though. A 500-to-2 ratio has me questioning whether the resume is even getting past the initial screen, and getting ghosted after two interviews that seemed to go okay is its own special kind of demoralizing. For reference I've been using the template over at r/EngineeringResumes

At this point I'm done grinding out applications for now and just focusing on finishing my degree. But I'd still like to know: if you graduated without an internship, how badly did it actually hurt down the line? Did having real projects soften the blow, or did it not really matter without a company name attached? And for anyone in the same boat — did you keep applying alongside coursework, or fully step back like I'm doing?

Hello! I’m a second year biomedical engineering student. I’m currently trying a few different fields to find out what is the best choice for me.

I have the most experience with data analysis using python. It’s the easiest field to explore for me as i had a lot of programming during my first year (python/c/c++). Moreover, there’s a ton of free courses offered by my uni, also on HPC so I already took a few. However, my concern is that there would be issues with finding a job after graduating, I got advice from other students to try other fields as well and not to focus mainly on this one.

Both electronics and robotics seem appealing to me. I had a few subjects about electronics during the last semester, so i have strong foundations. I’m playing around with arduino in my free time, but i can’t really find the right online course, ideally with a certificate (so that i have a bigger chance of joining student projects), but it’s more important that it would contain actually useful informations, not outdated stuff.

As for robotics, i took an extra class but it was mostly theoretical knowledge with just a little of programming the actual robots in python. Don’t really know what should i start with as well.

My question is: What courses would you recommend taking during the remaining holidays that would allow me to choose which path should i pursue? I’ll have a lot of subjects about these in the future, but I don’t want to be idle as of now, and also I’m a bit scared that if I choose too late, the students of these specific majors will always be a better fit for the job than me (the biggest blessing and a curse of biomedical engineering - a jack of all trades is a master of none).

Currently in ece branch in 2nd year and i have some knowledge of arduino nd have built a project on it as well but i want to dive more deep in hardware instead of software everyone seems to be chasing in my university. If anyone's up for teaming up , then they are most welcome . Would prefer someone with similar knowledge level . I m hoping to find someone who i can learn nd grow with in this field nd build projects nd go for hacks .

This is my first ever job offer out of school. Given my role and location, is it a good salary offer, or should I negotiate it? Neither of my parents worked in engineering, so I have no idea who to ask about these types of questions.

Hi everyone,
My partner and I (both control and systems engineers) recently finished developing the power section of a smart home switch for a local merchant.
Technical Details:
The board takes 220V AC mains and steps it down to 12V DC and 3.3V DC.

It includes 4 relays for switching.

We did all the schematic design and PCB layout using KiCad.

The prototype was successfully manufactured in China and tested.

Total R&D and design time took us a little over 2 months.

I have attached a 3D render of the board for reference.

The Dilemma:
We have no prior experience in pricing our hardware design services. This was built for a merchant who plans to mass-produce and sell it. We are trying to figure out the fairest compensation model:

1. Should we charge a one-time flat fee for the design? If so, what is a reasonable price range for 2 months of R&D for this type of board?
2. Should we ask for a partnership/royalty model (a percentage of sales/profit)?
3. How should handing over the source files (KiCad) vs. just the Gerbers affect the pricing?

Any advice on industry standards for hardware freelance pricing or personal experiences would be highly appreciated. Thanks!

Hi everyone

I’ll be starting my Master’s degree in Electronics Engineering at the University of Genoa (UniGe) in Italy soon, and I’m trying to plan ahead for my master’s thesis and, potentially, future research.

My main interests are:

• Power Management ICs (PMICs)
• DC-DC converters, mostly switched-capacitor, buck/boost/buck-boost, and resonant converters
• Energy harvesting and low-power power conversion
• Analog/mixed-signal IC design related to power management

At first I was mainly looking at professors and research groups within UniGe, but I realized that it might make more sense to look more broadly and not just inside the university I’ll be attending since I haven't been able to identify a professor or research group within UniGe working specifically on PMICs. So I’m hoping to get some advice on research groups, professors, or labs that might be open to working with a master’s student from another university.

A bit about my background:

I recently graduated in Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering. During my undergraduate studies, I was part of an IC design lab and gained some experience with Cadence Virtuoso and the TSMC 180 nm process.

I’ve also studied DC-DC converters independently, including switched-capacitor, buck, boost, and buck-boost converters. On the analog side, I have a foundational background in topics such as:

• single-stage amplifiers
• current mirrors
• frequency response
• basic stability analysis

Most of my background comes from Razavi and Allen & Holberg. I haven’t gone very deeply into topics such as bandgap references, LDOs, or advanced op-amp design yet.

I only have one Q2 journal publication from my undergraduate research on a hybrid resonant switched-capacitor DC-DC converter: https://etasr.com/index.php/ETASR/article/view/10817

The work was entirely simulation-based in Cadence Virtuoso using TSMC 180 nm. Unfortunately, I didn’t have access to the funding/facilities needed for a tape-out, so I haven’t had the opportunity to go through the full ASIC flow from design to tape-out.

Because of that, I’m particularly interested in finding a research environment where I could take the next step and gain more experience with actual IC implementation, or more advanced power-management research.

I’m wondering whether it is possible to do something along the lines of:

UniGe MSc → formal thesis supervisor at UniGe → research/project carried out with an external professor, research group, university, or institute elsewhere in Italy, Europe, the US, or Canada → thesis ultimately submitted through UniGe.

Of course, I understand that this would depend on UniGe’s rules and potentially on agreements between the institutions. I’m mainly trying to find out whether people have actually done something along these lines, what form the arrangement took, and how feasible it is.

So I’d especially appreciate recommendations for:

1. Research groups/labs anywhere in Italy, Europe, the US, or Canada working on PMICs, integrated DC-DC converters, switched-capacitor converters, energy harvesting, low-power ICs, or closely related topics.
2. Professors/researchers who are receptive to MSc students from other universities.
3. Experiences with doing an external/collaborative MSc thesis, where the student is officially enrolled at one university but performs the research with another group.
4. Advice on how students normally arrange this kind of collaboration and how early I should start contacting professors.

I’m also very open to related areas such as analog IC design, low-power circuits, power electronics, mixed-signal ICs, and energy-efficient systems, even if the group doesn’t work specifically on PMICs.

I know I still have a lot to learn, but I’m serious about pursuing in this direction and would love to hear from anyone who has gone through a similar path.

Thanks in advance for any recommendations, experiences, or advice :D

I am a ECE student at a Tier-2 college (RGUKT) currently pursuing ECE 1st year.

Just as a fresher which skills should I learn and to which subject to focus more.

Great Seniors advice me and give some tips to prepare me for jobs.

I just graduated with CE and I've been on the job search. I just had my first onsite recently and just got the offer, but I'm not really feeling sure if I should take it or not. I was aiming to start my career somewhat closer to home in a bigger city, but this offer is for a company, although a large and good company, that's across the country in a far smaller city that I didn't feel very attached to on my visit. I'm a bit stressed thinking about moving all the way over there and risk not being happy with how my career starts, so any advice on if I should keep searching? Interviews have seemed to slow down just a bit so I'm worried if I reject it it'll be a struggle to get an offer I'm more happy with.

I did recently have an interview that went well, however they ended up cancelling the role. The same company does have some similar positions that I could try applying for, would it be bad to contact the recruiter I was talking to and let them know I got an offer with a different company to see if they'd be interested in chatting about me in those positions?

I’m a computer engineering major and I’m about to start uni in a week and I’m wondering if I really do need a laptop when most likely they’ll have computers to use in my engineering classes and mostly because I have a good pc at home I can use all the software with.

I graduated two months ago from an ABET accredited school and got my EE degree (U.S. btw). I’ve been applying before graduation and even more so now. But I’m literally getting rejected over and over again from entry level roles.

I had an interview an hour ago and it was a technicians job. Not something I want I’ll be honest. But maybe I can get a design role in that company later?

I’m in no debt, so there’s no rush. But I don’t want the months to fly by like these past two have.

Any advice? Should I keep applying?

I'm currently going into my 2nd year of uni and don't have much to my name. I want to really step up and get work going, meaning personal projects, self taught content etc. to get myself prepared to apply for internships at any company possible (even high-end companies like NVIDIA or Arms Holdings, cause it doesn't hurt to try).

I mainly want to set myself up for a good future and do something that I will enjoy as well, and this seems like a good route. However I know that this route is very selective and so i want to make myself a good competition. I've researched things to learn and projects to do to try bag an internship from one of these companies but would like to hear from people who were actually successful.

What did you do to successfully get a Hardware Engineer (FPGA/ASIC) type internship? What do you think made you stick out from other applicants? Thanks for any advice.

Hi everyone,

I am preparing my application for the upcoming Spring session at UIUC for MS courses and am trying to decide between the  MS in Computer Science (CS) and MS Electrical & Computer Engineering (ECE) departments.

To give a bit of background, my bachelor's is in Computer Engineering, followed by professional experience working at Espressif Systems (ESP32) doing firmware development, and later transitioning into the file systems and storage domain. My goal is to continue down the systems track, but I am trying to figure out which department offers the best fit.

My main concern with the ECE department is whether it mandates specific hardware-heavy coursework (such as physical design, chip design, or hardware verification) that might not align with my software/systems background. If ECE allows the flexibility to focus purely on systems software without forcing those specific hardware constraints, I feel the ECE Computer Engineering track might actually be a great fit for my profile.

I tried looking through the official degree requirements for both programs, but found the sheer amount of information a bit overwhelming.

Could anyone help clarify the curriculum flexibility and help me decide which path makes more sense given my background?

Thanks for your help!