3 replies to this topic

[automagnus]

Hi Brooklyn Tech,

I am a senior at RIT in the Microelectronic Engineering (MicroE) B.S. program. I graduated from Brooklyn Tech way back in 2006. I'll be graduating from RIT in the spring and moving on to a PhD program in Electrical Engineering/Material Science at another University. I wanted to write a bit about RIT and the MicroE program. The MicroE major is one of those programs that most high school students never heard of, and by the time they learn about it in college it's too late and they have committed themselves to another major. It's a shame because it is a very interesting field and I think Brooklyn Tech students are great candidates for this science/math/physics based major, especially considering that PLTW credits can be applied at RIT.

What is MicroE?
MicroE is the fabrication and design of integrated circuits (microchips, flash memory, DRAM memory, analog devices, digital, etc). Mostly it focuses on the fabrication and physics of semiconductor devices. We have a cleanroom facility where we walk around in silly suits and build complete, working microchips from bare silicon wafers (Images http://www.rit.edu/kgcoe/ue/tour.php ). More importantly the program covers semiconductor device physics, which explains why transistors work, how to make them faster, cooler, and lays the groundwork for understanding experimental devices currently being researched. The course outline can be found at http://www.rit.edu/k.../new_layout.php .
Also, here’s a sweet youtube video of Micron’s fabrication facility.


The B.S. degree requires ~4 years of actual school and 50 weeks of co-op (paid internship). So it's technically a 5 year program, but realistically it's not any more school than any other 4 yr degree. Co-ops are an amazing experience where you work for a company for ~6 months at a time, doing real engineering work on real products to earn real money. Personally I've co-oped for AMD and worked to develop the 45nm node, and Northrop Grumman's silicon fabrication facility. My classmates have co-oped for Intel, IBM, Freescale, Micron, and many others.

What Kind of Future Could I Expect?
I think this major sets you up for an awesome future. The vast majority of my classmates graduating this year have a full time job lined up or are going on to graduate school like me. Even with 9% unemployment we really haven't had much difficulty getting jobs, and even the job market was in a big downturn in 2008 most of my classmates found co-ops with major corporations or took up paid undergraduate research positions. Based on my experience, if you graduate from this major with a reasonable GPA (> 3.0) you won't have to worry about finding a job.

This all sounds really fancy, do I need super awesome grades to get in?
I had something like an 88 average and my SAT scores were Verbal: 650 and Math: 670.

If you have an interest in physics and want to learn about how electronics work on the most fundamental physical level check out this program. I promise you will learn things about the world we live that will completely blow your mind. The professors in the microE program as well as the electrical engineering department are phenomenal and well respected.

Feel free to ask me any questions.

[Leon]

College Reviews... although the college selection process for seniors are already over

[automagnus]

Just to be clear, I have absolutely no financial interest in RIT. No one besides myself contributes to writing my posts, no one at RIT even knows I've written this, and these assessments are solely mine and my honest opinion. With that out of the way, I've written this because when I was applying for college in high school the engineering degrees people considered were basically limited to Mechanical, Electrical and Computer engineering. I really wanted to get into the heart of an electronic device and understand how it works on the most fundamental level and I was lucky enough to have stumbled upon this major almost by accident.

Leon, If I recall correctly, I took my SATs in my Junior year and started considering colleges and major shortly after (pro-tip: get your applications done as early as possible, don't procrastinate).

As stated before, I would be more than happy to answer any questions about RIT or the microE program.

[SoLR]

Wow very interesting! Although I have no interest in pursuing a degree in engineering I'm sure that some of our members will find this information very useful. The video was awesome as well.