Is It For You?

Much more than designing chips, video games and operating systems, SFU’s Computer Engineering option trains you to think logically about complex and abstract problems – and to develop innovative solutions for these. This option provides a highly flexible elective list, allowing you to combine software and hardware expertise with applications that interest and excite you – in fields from biomedical to financial or from environmental to automotive, for example. 

What You’ll Learn

You’ll start by learning a foundation of digital electronics, computer architecture and networks and communications. At more advanced levels, subjects include structured programming, software engineering, compilers, operating systems, intelligent systems, embedded systems, real-time systems and VLSI systems.

Is It For You?

Electronic circuits, IC chips, microprocessors, microcontrollers and devices provide the backbone of a vast array of modern devices in fields ranging from computers, communications, transportation, controls for automotive industry, manufacturing, mining, power generation, networking and security to name a few. Inside the gaming consoles, televisions, computers, smartphones, modern vehicles are a complex set of electronics that grew from a century of circuit design. Every component – from the RAM chips to the processors and the touchscreen of tablets and cell-phones – were co-designed by electronics engineers, each making key advances on existing technologies. In this option, you will be inspired, challenged and trained to design the next level of advancements in a potentially limitless range of high-tech fields.

The Electronics Engineering option at Simon Fraser University trains the next generation of Electronics engineers with a firm grounding in the advanced mathematics, physics and programming courses. Specialized courses cover fundamental aspects of electronics engineering such as electronic materials and devices, sensors, actuators, digital systems design, embedded and real-time software systems, feedback control systems, high frequency electronics, communication networks, digital communications leading to detailed understanding of the design and architecture of microprocessors, microcontrollers and silicon integrated circuits (ICs). Many laboratory exercises are embedded in the curriculum providing hands-on experience in designing and building micro-circuits, CAD design and Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) chip design; for example our students design and fabricate their own chips in one of Canada's only microfabrication facilities open for undergraduate students.

An electronic engineer is a versatile engineer as s/he possesses expertise and deep understanding of fundamental principles and a range of hi-tech skills for employment or entrepreneurship in a wide array of engineering domains.

What You’ll Learn

You’ll start by mastering the the key elements of physics and the language of mathematics, along with strong software design and programming skills. You will then master the basics of circuit and chip design, signal processing, feedback control systems and move on to analyzing and designing complex electronics systems. From here, your creativity and imagination will be fired to discover and design the next generation of high-tech solutions. You will spend a year working in related industry via our co-op program which will give you industry experience and set you up for positions in industry or entrepreneurship upon graduation. In your career as an electronics engineer, you’ll be empowered to invent innovative, faster, smaller and cost-effective hi-tech solutions that make the world a better place.

Is It For You?

Do you want to create robots that make life easier for people? This is the kind of project systems engineers work on. But to build that robot, you’ll need skills in a wide range of interrelated areas: how will your robot navigate rooms or use the images it “sees” and what processing power might be needed?

These challenges require engineers who think at a systems level – deploying skills in hardware, mathematics algorithms and software designed to control hardware components. This is one of the most exciting fields of engineering science, with limitless potential innovation – and highly exciting careers.

What You’ll Learn

In this option, you will supplement an electronic engineering education with fundamentals in mechanical design, electromechanical control and computing. You will be trained to become a highly versatile engineer capable of integrating electronics, mechanical design and computer hardware and software.

Is It For You?

Revolutionary recent advances in new technologies for better disease diagnosis and monitoring have enabled clinicians to significantly advance human health leading to vastly improved quality of life. A visit to the clinic reveals a host of advanced technologies used routinely, and specialized hospital units, surgical rooms and imaging facilities are further equipped with a dazzling array of engineered devices. The basic scientific and operating principles behind these technologies and devices are the focus of the Biomedical Engineering curriculum. A Biomedical Engineer has the unique opportunity of combining knowledge and skills from mathematics, physics and engineering with biology, human anatomy and physiology with the ultimate goal of designing technologies for improving human health.

At SFU Engineering Science, our Biomedical Engineering program strives to create, first and foremost, a strong foundation in electrical and systems engineering. Additional specialized courses are offered in biomechanics, biochemistry, biomedical physiology, biomedical instrumentation, biomedical image acquisition and biosignal and image processing, clinical imaging, optics and biophotonics, and assistive devices. Our faculty are involved in leading edge research in a wide range of areas such as design of biomedical instrumentation, microsensors, microfluidics, optical coherence tomography imaging, photonics, signal and image processing, dementia diagnostics, traumatic brain injury imaging, rehabilitation and assistive devices, prosthetics, cellular and embryo imaging, computational models, and simulation. These provide exceptional students challenging research opportunities to increase their analytical, quantitative and communication skills.

Biomedical Engineering is a highly competitive interdisciplinary program aimed at top students. 

What You’ll Learn

Biomedical Engineering is jointly-offered with the School of Biomedical Physiology and Kinesiology. Highly interdisciplinary and taught by faculty from both schools, you will gain a strong foundation of engineering skills plus rich biomedical-related expertise in chemistry, biology, human physiology, biomechanics, biomedical instrumentation and biomedical signal processing.

Is It For You?

This unique and challenging option trains you to be both an engineer and a physicist – two distinct fields that are typically quite divergent. Students of engineering physics cover the fundamentals of science, mathematics, engineering design and practice as well as computing skills – and fuse these with theoretical and applied physics.

This is a demanding and multidisciplinary option aimed at highly capable students who can handle learning these two fields jointly. The rewards, however, are high: you will graduate with a background sufficient for graduate school in Physics, Engineering Physics or Electrical Engineering. You will also be qualified to directly enter industry in electronic or electrical systems design positions.

What You’ll Learn

Engineering Physics students learn how to understand electrical systems from two broad perspectives. For example, an engineer knows how to use a transistor while a physicist knows exactly how that transistor works – an engineering physicist understands both approaches.

Students who undertake this option deploy mathematical analysis at a level beyond other engineering graduates. In addition, our Engineering Physics option includes a final research-based thesis project. This may incorporate design but the main goal is the creation of new knowledge – an undertaking similar to graduate school thesis projects.