History and Prospects of Electrical and Electronic Engineering Education in Bangladesh

Abstract

This talk is about the history and prospects of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (EEE) education in Bangladesh. Besides, I will also talk about the scopes and nature of jobs of these diversified fields at home and abroad. Electrical and Electronic Engineering education has entered a transitional phase because the technology is changing every day. The diversity of EEE education is also increasing underscoring its multi-disciplinary nature. All the areas of the electrical and electronic engineering are growing rapidly and new fascinating disciplines of this subject are being created. Thus the roles and responsibilities of an Electrical and Electronic Engineer have been changed significantly. Employers demand an Engineer with excellent communication skills along with the skills of multi-disciplinary engineering. Keeping this in mind, the curriculum of EEE Department has been designed at various universities of the country for both undergraduate and graduate programs. At present, the main focus of the EEE Department curriculum is on four major areas- power and energy, electronics, communication and computer in the undergraduate and graduate curricula in Bangladesh. Generally, a student becomes specialized in one of these groups without compromising the fundamental knowledge of Electrical and Electronic Engineering education. Courses in basic sciences, mathematics and the other relevant branches of engineering have been included in the curricula. Extensive number of laboratory experiments have been design and conducted using modern equipment to verify various theories and also to design, implement, test and measure various systems. Courses of the humanities, social sciences, ethical principles and management, with special attention to the development of effective written and oral communication skills have also been included in the curricula. Technical elective courses and relevant laboratory works that encourage individual students’ interests and provides the opportunity to gain further knowledge in multiple disciplines, facilitates the development of problem solving, teamwork, and engineering design skills with the aid of tools, such as, computer and software as well as various sophisticated modern instrument. These well designed 4-year undergraduate and 2-year graduate programs certainly help a student to prepare him/ herself for the diversified Electrical and Electronic Engineering job fields at home and abroad.