Engineering Physics Jump To: Jump To: Program Offerings Minor Offering type Minor Interdisciplinary areas in physical sciences in engineering such as energy, environment, materials, microelectronics, astronautics and photonics promise to become increasingly relevant in the 21st century. The Program in Engineering Physics, which provides students with a fundamental knowledge of physics, together with problem-solving skills and an understanding of engineering, is designed to address the needs of students seeking innovative careers in today's technological age. In addition, it allows students to keep their options open between physical sciences and engineering. Following completion of the engineering physics program, students typically enter careers in engineering, applied science or applied physics through research, teaching or entrepreneurial engineering. Past graduates have also pursued other careers as diverse as medicine, business and law.The program offers a unique combination of engineering, mathematics and physics. It is directed toward students who have an interest and ability in both engineering and physics. For engineering majors, in addition to courses in those subjects fundamental to the student's field of interest, the program requires completion of courses in quantum mechanics and encourages the study of subjects such as electromagnetism, statistical mechanics, thermodynamics, condensed matter physics, mathematical physics, complex analysis and partial differential equations. For physics majors, the program requires courses in areas such as solid-state electronics, fluid mechanics, optics/optoelectronics, control theory, computers and computational methods or a variety of other applied disciplines. Computer science A.B. students are required to meet the technical course requirements needed to satisfy the B.S.E. degree. Goals for Student Learning The program seeks to prepare students to work at the interface between physics and engineering. For students majoring in engineering, this means being able to tackle unusual problems that are not amenable to standard engineering solutions. For physics majors, this means developing a familiarity with and a facility for established engineering approaches that are generally more efficient and more effective than solutions worked out from first principles. Both groups of students will benefit from a strong grounding in math, which is the key to understanding ideas in both engineering and physics. Career paths include employment at engineering firms that need to develop new methods or in research laboratories, where the design of robust experimental methods is best accomplished with a formal engineering approach. At a more senior level, program graduates should be well positioned to lead teams that comprise both physicists and engineers. Prerequisites Although there are no explicit prerequisites for entering, students planning to pursue an engineering physics minor should be aware of the prerequisites for the courses required to complete the program. For example, nearly all 300-level math courses have math prerequisites. PHY 208, which is the quantum mechanics course that B.S.E. students in the minor will be required to take, requires two semesters of physics at the first-year level and one more sophomore-level course (most likely PHY 207) as well as 200-level math courses. Similarly, most engineering courses have their own prerequisite chain. Admission to the Program All students who think that they might be interested in the engineering physics minor will be encouraged to make contact with an engineering physics committee member during their first year at Princeton to ensure that they receive timely advice. Program of Study The minor requires completion of six courses as follows:One 300- or 400-level math course.Five additional courses, either from the Department of Physics or from one of the participating engineering departments. Not more than three of the five courses taken for this requirement may also be used to satisfy requirements in the student's major.For B.S.E. students, these should be five PHY courses at the 200 level or higher, including a course in quantum mechanics (PHY 208). Of these, at least four must be listed or cross-listed as physics (PHY) courses. A fifth may be a course with strong physics content from other departments such as AST or CHM, but must be approved in advance by the program's committee.For PHY majors, these should be five engineering courses from one or more of the participating engineering departments. In order to gain exposure to the design-oriented philosophy of engineering, physics students are required to take at least two of their engineering courses in a coherent area of study so that a clear engineering stem can be identified.For a course to count toward the minor, a grade of B- or higher must be earned. One course may be taken pass/D/fail. Additional Information Exceptionally outstanding students are awarded the Jeffrey O. Kephart Prize (one per year). The program committee also selects yearly winners of independent work awards, conference travel support and summer fellowships. Additional information on the program, faculty and past and current students can be found on the program's website. Faculty Director Waseem S. Bakr Executive Committee Waseem S. Bakr, Physics Edgar Y. Choueiri, Mechanical & Aerospace Eng Sujit S. Datta, Chemical and Biological Eng Claire F. Gmachl, Electrical & Comp Engineering Michael G. Littman, Mechanical & Aerospace Eng Stephen A. Lyon, Electrical & Comp Engineering For a full list of faculty members and fellows please visit the department or program website.
