For those of you who have completed third or fourth year as a UofT ECE student, any feedback for my course selection? Doing a bioengineering minor and engineering business minor along side my EE major. 🥺
Context:
It's a controller board for an antweight combat robot.
It drives two 12V DC motors with a peak of 5.12A each. The flyback diodes may likely have heatsinks on them in the future. On the bottom left, there is a fuse holder (big thing with clamps) which holds automotive standard 15A fuses. The black connector on the left is for an ERLS module.
Thank you everyone!
Edit: Sorry, I forgot to attach the github repo earlier, it is linked above.
I came into this engineering internship excited to learn and contribute. Instead, I left disappointed by what I experienced.
There was virtually no onboarding, no structured training, and no clear technical ownership of my projects. I repeatedly asked for documentation, architecture overviews, or any material that would help me understand the products I was working on, but I was largely told to Google datasheets or find answers on my own.
My manager was new to the technology I was working on, so many of my technical questions couldn’t be answered directly and I was frequently redirected to other engineers. This left me trying to piece together information from different people, many of whom weren’t familiar with my project’s overall goals. Even one week when everyone left for an event , my manger told me to wait until next week when the rest came back to answer my questions. My manger has no experience in the area we are in and seemed to get hired based on knowing a powerful person in group. Add to that people quitting due to the toxic culture and their work getting dumped on the ones left.
My projects had no well-defined specifications or success criteria. Every time I got close to finishing, the scope changed again. It often felt like I was expected to deliver without anyone agreeing on what “done” actually meant.
I consistently asked for feedback because I wanted to improve. Instead, I rarely received direct technical guidance or constructive coaching. I was often left feeling dismissed rather than supported, and some interactions came across to me as intimidating rather than encouraging. That’s not an environment where interns can develop confidence or learn effectively.
Knowledge sharing was inconsistent, and collaboration often felt discouraged. Instead of engineers taking the time to explain design decisions or walk through their reasoning, conversations frequently ended with “that’s wrong” without explaining why. That teaches very little.
This wasn’t my first internship and I am doing my masters, so I have a basis for comparison. In my previous internship, I had clear mentorship, supportive technical leadership, and received two full-time offers after my final presentation. That experience showed me how much good leadership and a healthy engineering culture matter. Looking back , I regret turning down all my other offers for this.
The technology was exciting, but an internship is about more than the product. It’s about mentorship, accountability, communication, and helping the next generation of engineers succeed. Unfortunately, I did not experience those things here.
I'm working on a small side project to simplify electrical calculations for engineers and electricians.
Before building too much, I want to understand how people currently handle:
- wire sizing
- voltage drop
- breaker selection
Do you:
Use calculators online?
Use Excel / manual formulas?
Use software?
What’s the most painful part of this process?
Has anyone ever used a 3D printer to assist with projects as an electrical engineer? If so how was the outcome? I’m thinking about purchasing one to brainstorm some ideas while I finish my bachelors degree. Thanks!
I'm an Electrical Engineering student from India and I'm curious about the UK job market for electrical engineers.
How common is visa sponsorship in the industry?
What skills and experience do UK employers typically expect from graduate electrical engineers?
Is it common for employers to hire engineers from overseas, or do most sponsored engineers already have several years of experience?
Hey everyone, I’m about a year and a half out of school and I’m trying to finally get serious about taking the FE Electrical exam. I’ve tried studying a few different times, but I keep running into the same problem: I’ll study consistently for a few weeks, then life gets busy and I fall off.
I already have a few resources:
I’m not really sure what the best approach is at this point. I’m looking for advice from people who have actually passed the FE Electrical exam, especially anyone who was a year+ out of school.
What did your study plan look like? Did you study a little every day, or dedicate certain days to it? How long did you study before taking the exam?
My biggest struggle is staying consistent. I work full time, and I have a busy life outside of work (I’m also about to propose to my girlfriend), so finding the time and keeping the momentum going has been difficult.
For those who passed:
I’d appreciate any advice or experiences you can share. Thanks!
Hi everyone,
I'm a 26-year-old electrical engineer from Brazil, currently living here and waiting for my Green Card through my wife. The process will probably take another year and a half, so I'm using this time to prepare for the US job market.
By then, I'll have about 7 years of experience at a small electric utility serving around 25,000 customers. My background includes distribution design, GIS, asset management, quality control of distribution projects, and about 2 years working in a Distribution Operations Center (similar to a utility control room).
My goal is to work as a Distribution Planning Engineer. I've been studying distribution planning extensively on my own, mainly using OpenDSS and Python, and I'm planning to take the FE Electrical exam in January.
I'd love to hear from engineers already working in this field. How's the market for Distribution Planning Engineers? Is demand still strong? Does my background seem relevant, and what skills or knowledge would you recommend I focus on during the next year and a half before moving to the US?
Thanks! I really appreciate any advice.
I've been comparing electrical wire from a few different suppliers for an upcoming project, and I keep seeing products with the same gauge and similar ratings but very different prices. I've looked at local suppliers as well as alibaba, and on paper some of them seem nearly identical.
In your experience, what usually explains the price gap? Is it better copper, tighter manufacturing tolerances, longer-term reliability, certifications, or is some of it just branding?
I'm not asking about a specific application just curious what engineers pay attention to when two products appear to have the same specs but don't cost anywhere near the same.
I’m 24 and feel like I’m late to go to college. If I do decide to go it’ll have to be online but idk how I would go about it. I can’t stop working since I have bills to pay for so going in person is not really an option for me. I’m the Florida national guard so I’m trying to use my benefits as well. Any ideas on how to get this done? Should I get an AA then transfer? I saw FIU has an online program but I just don’t know if I should get a AA at a community college first. Please any advice would help a lot thanks
I've always loved robots and stuff, so I decided to get into hobbyist-level stuff, just to expand my knowledge. I've made a couple of basic projects with Arduino, and with them, I made a really sincere effort to learn all the code and do it all myself. As I try to do more advanced stuff, though, I'm becoming increasingly lazy with learning all the code, and for the last couple of projects, I've done all of the code completely with Claude. I know I should be learning how to code, but I'm wondering, "With all the advancements in AI, will it even be necessary for me to learn how to do it at all?" I feel especially guilty right now, because I just entered a competition with one of my projects, and the hardware and idea was completley my own, but the code was 100% claude. Should I stop messing around with hardware and learn how to code first?
Hello, I have just received a scholarship in Master of Electrical Engineering in Italy, I am from a growing country and this is a big opportunity for me. I had a bachelor in Power system. But I noticed that a lot of people dont know what to do with their masters, and I want to avoid that seeing job market now. Is there anything I could do while taking my master or before that to have a career that could help me move abroad like in Europe or Developed country, especially in Smart grid as I see that a lot of my lecturers talking about it in my old university. Or is smart grid not a good career path, if anyone have any advice please comment down.
Hi everyone, I'm a student that recently finished with their first year of electrical engineering, and honestly I feel so lost, there seems to be so many skills that need to be learned but I lack guidance, are there any courses or important things that I can learn now that would be beneficial to me? I appreciate any kind of advice or recommendation
We really need help right now for our capstone, from Davao City for our capstone project
Job Title: Prototyping Engineer – Defence Systems
Company: Technotreon
Location: Pune (Work From Office)
Type: Full-Time, Paid
About the Role:
We're a Pune-based defence-tech company building deployable technologies — mechanical systems, embedded electronics, UAV/robotic subsystems, and rapid prototyping. You'll work across the full prototype lifecycle: concept, CAD design, fabrication, PCB/embedded integration, testing, and field validation.
What You'll Work On:
Eligibility:
Salary: Based on experience, discussed during the interview process
How to Apply:
Comment "interested" below, and I'll reach out to you directly via Reddit chat with next steps.
Hey! Like the tittle says I graduated this past may and I don’t have an engineering offer, I applied like crazy but never got a call. I even applied for management positions and I ended up landing a management position in an amazon warehouse. The pay is pretty good but I wonder how this may affect my career overall. Also the schedules there are kinda fuck (overnight) so I honestly don’t know what to do.
Any advice accepted!
Hey everybody! I just can not prove the Barkhausen criteria in my oscillator. It is a Colpitts oscillator, which should oscillate around 150kHz. Now i built this circuit and its working, does its job, just can not prove the unity gain and the phase shift criteria. In LTSpice i tride to simulate and i just can not get a 0 degrre phase shift (or the multiple of 360degree). In this configuration i get 17 dB and -261 degree. Is there a problem with my simulation, or any kind of suggestion, how to see the gain*phase shift in this simulation? Thanks in advance!
Hi everyone,
I’m an Electrical Engineer with over 30 years of experience spanning hardware, software, robotics engineering, and management. Throughout my career, I've had the opportunity to build complex systems, lead engineering teams, and navigate the shifting landscape of the tech industry. Now, I’m looking to give back.
Who I'm looking to mentor:
How we can work together:
Whether you're building a new robot, trying to scale a software project, or figuring out how to transition from an individual contributor to a management track, I’d love to help you find your footing.
If you're interested, please drop a comment below or send me a DM with a brief intro about yourself, your background, and what you are currently working on!