Bright Job Prospects for Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering Graduates

There may be many domains within the engineering field but pursuing a Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) in Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering (ECSE) at Monash University Malaysia can offer prospective students a multitude of exciting career options in the future.

ECSE encompasses all scales of electrical and electronic engineering, from the fundamentals of circuits, electronic signals and signal processing; through digital electronics and systems on chips; to the designs of large scale power and telecommunication systems. Associate Professor Lan Boon Leong, Head of Discipline (ECSE), Monash University Malaysia explained that ECSE is a diverse and rapidly evolving field that includes biomedical, computer systems, electronics, electrical power engineering, robotics and telecommunications.

The university’s four-year program equips students with a solid foundation in ECSE to prepare them for the working world. “The job scope is pretty wide while students can enter different fields and industries,” he explained. “Our graduates work in a wide range of industries, including semiconductor manufacturing, telecommunications, solid state lighting, technology consultancy and software engineering.”

Prof Lan highlighted that job prospects for ECSE graduates are very good – many multinational companies actively seek Monash graduates to employ, including recruitment on campus. All engineering students are required to undergo a three-month industrial training to gain work experience. “In the last internship period, nearly two-thirds of ECSE students did their industrial training at renowned multinational companies such as Intel, National Instruments (NI) and Huawei Technologies,” said Prof Lan, adding that many of these students have formally and informally been offered a job before they graduate.

This includes fourth year student Chin Ming Jun who accepted a job offer from NI after completing his internship with the American multinational company.

Real World Experiences

In speaking about his experience, the 22-year-old, who interned at NI in Penang for three months beginning last November, said he hit the ground running and worked on a commercial project with a team of experienced engineers, where he was tasked to produce a power supply prototype. “I had to design a control system to regulate the power supply and ensure that its quality is good and that it won’t damage the electronics,” explained Chin, who is scheduled to graduate at the end of the year. Despite being an intern, Chin was entrusted to do his own research to help him decide on the best method to implement the control.

“They place a lot of trust in you – even the lead designer would ask you for your opinions,” he said. “They shared tips and suggestions on ways to go about it but ultimately, it was still my call on how I wanted to implement it.”

He spent time poring over data sheets and articles to keep abreast of the latest technologies. “One of the most important thing for an R&D engineer is to have the hunger to learn, as technology advances every day. Through this internship, I’ve found myself having to learn new things with speed because time is of the essence. You can’t spend one month learning something new. That could stall your project.”

The internship proved to be an invaluable experience as Chin gained numerous technical and non-technical skills during his tenure there. “I learned a lot about communication protocols such as SPI (Serial Peripheral Interface) and I²C (Inter-Integrated Circuit),” he said, adding that it also taught him to be confident as other professionals within NI also sought his opinions and ideas. He added that his studies at Monash solidified his foundations in ECSE which helped him learn and adapt quickly in the working environment.

Nurturing Future Engineers

Prof Lan reiterated that their curriculum addresses the fundamental knowledge of ECSE which can be applied in many areas. “You can’t learn everything in university – you learn the fundamentals. When you go out to the working world, you have to rely on your ability to learn. And that’s one of the key points about our degree – students learn how to learn,” he said.

“Students learn how to learn not only in their third-year engineering design unit and final-year project but also in other units throughout their four-year of studies.”

To further help students ease their transition from university to the work place, ECSE hosts talks by its alumni who share their experiences with current students on job hunting and interview, what to expect in the working world, as well as how they adapted to their new environment.

For more information on the program, please visit www.eng.monash.edu.my.

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