Electrical Engineering at PUC-Rio is a degree course that leads to a Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering, with specialization in Electrical Engineering, which can be done in four and a half or five years. It has some important features for its students. The first is that it has three specializations which enables students to focus on one or more area during the course. These are:
In Computing and Electronics, the focus is on the design and implementation of analogue and digital systems for all manner of industrial systems and equipment, the development and implementation of signal processing methods, and the use of computational intelligence techniques.
Power Systems is an area of electrical engineering in which students design, model and simulate electricity generation, transmission and distribution systems.
Almost all energy is generated by hydroelectric and thermal power plants (99.2%, according to the 2011 National Energy Evaluation published by the Ministry of Mines and Energy).
Electricity is transferred from power plants to demand centers along high-voltage power lines. Low-voltage distribution lines supply the energy received from the transmission system to end consumers.
The growth and the interconnection of systems makes their operation and control complex tasks. Energy efficiency, distributed generation and smart grids are just a few of today’s challenges.
Due to the country’s increased energy consumption and the consequent need to expand electricity systems and develop alternative energy sources (wind, solar, biomass, etc.), the demand for professionals in this area is great.
Telecommunications is an area of electrical engineering that covers the transmission and reception of audio, video and data signals, analyzing and designing the different wired and wireless communication systems, the physical mechanisms for the propagation of radio waves, the devices needed, and the related processing of signals.
Telecommunications are present in every aspect of life today and are an essential part of modern society.