In the George Washington University electrical engineering master’s program, you’ll gain a competitive advantage through honing your technical, business and communication skills. Our program teaches you to effectively apply your knowledge of STEM disciplines to solve urgent problems and plan for future needs. You can complete the entire electrical engineering degree online in a focus area that is in high demand.

Master of Science in Electrical Engineering: Program Quick Facts

Completion Time: 2-2.5 years
Delivery: 100% online
Next Start Date: Week of January 8, 2024
Total Credits: 30 credits
Cost Per Credit: $1,195
Total Tuition Cost: $35,850
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Program Summary

Our online electrical engineering master’s program prepares students to take charge of complex projects and lead multi-disciplinary teams. They become experts in essential engineering principles and learn the cutting-edge techniques needed to design and implement electrical systems in a rapidly advancing environment. GW offers two focus areas in this degree: electrical power and energy and communications and networks.

Electrical engineers drive major advances in a wide range of industries, making our world of constantly evolving technology possible. These professionals design essential systems, supervise manufacturing processes and design infrastructure. Graduates with an electrical engineering degree from GW are ready to work at the forefront of today’s technological leaps and adapt to new breakthroughs.

Admissions Requirements

Ideal candidates for the M.S. in Electrical Engineering program will meet the following requirements:

  • Hold a bachelor’s degree in engineering, computer science (B.S.), mathematics, physics, or closely related field from an accredited institution.
  • Minimum grade point average of B- (2.7 on a 4.0 scale) or higher.
    • Applicants with less than a 2.7 GPA are welcome to apply and may be accepted conditionally based on a holistic review of application materials.

For more information please read our Admission Requirements.

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Curriculum

The online Master of Science in Electrical Engineering program exposes students to cutting-edge topics ranging from the design of next-generation communication networks to the development of smart power grids. The online format offers the advantage of synchronous or asynchronous delivery, allowing students the flexibility to study when and where it works best for their situations.

Graduates will be prepared to apply the principles of electrical engineering in a broad range of enterprises and develop the skills they need to achieve technical mastery within their fields.

The curriculum comprises 10 courses, including those that cover core electrical engineering skills. The curriculum was designed with these focus areas because they are not only high-growth areas for the technology sector, but offer considerable potential for electrical engineers to advance their careers.

The online Master of Science in Electrical Engineering does not require a thesis.

Each course in the curriculum awards three semester hours of graduate credit to yield the 30 credit hours required for the degree.

Students can choose from two focus areas featuring specialized electrical engineering online courses:

Electrical Power and Energy

  • Develop and optimize smarter systems to generate and distribute electrical power from conventional and green renewable resources
    Learn to transmit and deliver power via smart, reliable, resilient, and self-healing power systems
  • Courses cover techniques for circuit analysis, energy conversion, power market reliability modeling and power system protection

Communications and Networks

  • Learn how network architecture and topology enable the secure, efficient transmission of information, and learn how to design high-speed and efficient telecommunication networks that reliably deliver data
  • Classes include topics such as the principles of digital communications, layered protocol architectures in computer networks, and modulation and coding techniques for wired and wireless communications

Courses

Introduction to linear systems theory. Topics include linear vector spaces and linear operators, mathematical representation of dynamic linear systems, concept of state and solution of the state equation, controllability and observability, canonical forms of the state equation, state feedback, and state estimation.

Axioms of probability; conditional probability; independent events; sequential experiments. Single and multiple random variables. Discrete-valued and continuous-valued stochastic processes; discrete-time and continuous-time stochastic processes; mean, auto-correlation and autocovariance functions; multiple random processes; stationary stochastic processes and linear time-invariant systems; ergodicity; Markov chains. Examples from engineering applications.

Signal spaces and approximation. Orthogonal functions. Fourier series and transform. Bandpass signals and modulation. Hilbert transform and analytic signals. Time frequency analysis. Short-time Fourier transform. Linear systems properties. Laplace transform. Sampling and discrete-time signals. Discrete-time Fourier transform and z-transform. Wavelets.

Circuit elements and circuit analysis techniques. Circuit theorems for performing such fundamental computations for electrical engineering as sinusoidal steady-state analysis and maximum power or power dissipation calculations. Hands-on experience with CAD tools for designing circuits.

Introduction to linear algebra and vector spaces as applied to networks and electrical systems. Orthogonal bases, projections, and least squares. Fast Fourier transforms. Eigenvalues and eigenvectors with applications. Computations with matrices. Constrained optimization in electrical systems. Network models and applications. Special relativity.

Problems in managing projects; project management as planning, organizing, directing, and monitoring; project and corporate organizations; duties and responsibilities; the project plan; schedule, cost, earned-value and situation analysis; leadership; team building; conflict management; meetings, presentations, and proposals.

The Electrical Power and Energy area explores issues of electric power generation, transmission, and distribution. Students will gain hands-on experience with optimization techniques for solving some of the industry's most complex challenges, such as how to optimize power generation and distribution with renewable energy. Graduates of this focus area will be able to design and develop reliable, efficient, secure, and sustainable electric power delivery systems.

AC power grids, transmission line parameters, load flow, economic dispatch voltage, frequency, and power flow control. Voltage, current, and power limitations. Fault analysis and stability considerations. Effect of independent power producers and variable energy sources and energy storage.

Three-phase and single-phase AC rotating machines and transformers, DC machines, rotating machines as circuit elements, power semiconductor converters. Renewable generation, utility grid integration, smart grid applications. May be taken for graduate credit by students in fields other than electrical engineering.

The application of electronics to energy conversion. Principles of operation, analysis, and control of circuits including solid-state electronic switches. Methods of solving power electronic circuits and finding the steady-state values of important quantities. Deriving the linear model of the studied power electronic circuits and designing controllers for these devices. A general knowledge of electric circuits and linear control theory is required.

Overview of probability theory. Overview of basic power market reliability modeling and evaluation. Generation supply reliability techniques, modeling and evaluation. Reliability of transmission system and delivery of supply. Loss of load probability evaluation. Forced and maintenance outages and impact on system reliability. Load forecasting and probability of interconnected systems. Risk evaluation in power system operation. Operating reserve techniques and indices. Distribution system reliability including substations. Composite system reliability modeling. Reliability worth and value.

The Communications and Networks focus area examines the problem of efficient and safe transmission of information. Courses in information theory, stochastic processes, digital communication, networking, data encryption and compression, network protocols and technologies, and security can be applied in the construction and maintenance of local area networks, wide area networks, cellular and satellite communications, wireless networks, and the internet.

Layered protocol architectures. Digital transmission, fundamental limits. Error detection and ARQ protocols. Data link layer and control. Multiple access protocols. Circuit and packet switching. Multiplexing. Routing. Flow and congestion control, queue management. LAN standards. TCP/IP. Next-generation Internet.

Security concerns and best practices for cloud computing and cloud services; cloud computing architectures, risk issues and legal topics; data security; internal and external clouds; information security frameworks and operations guidelines.

Principles of digital communications. Channels, digital modulation; optimum receivers and algorithms in the AWGN; coherent, non-coherent, and fading channels. Correlation detectors, matched filters; diversity. Bounds on performance of communications, comparison of communications systems and implementation issues. Prerequisite: ECE 6015.

Characterization of mobile and wireless channels. Indoor and outdoor path loss models. Multipath propagation. Fading and fading countermeasures: coding, equalization. Power control. Cellular design and frequency reuse. Modulation and coding techniques. Spread Spectrum and OFDM. Random access methods. Code and Space Division Multiple Access, MIMO. Prerequisite: ECE 6510.

Program Learning Objectives

The comprehensive, online M.S. in Electrical Engineering aims to graduate students who will be able to:

  • Apply mathematics, science, and engineering knowledge to analyze and implement complex interdisciplinary engineering projects
  • Design and conduct engineering experiments, as well as analyze and interpret data
  • Design a system, component, or process to meet desired needs within realistic constraints such as economics, environmental, social, political, ethical, health and safety, manufacturing, and sustainability
  • Manage complex engineering projects for, and function on, multidisciplinary technical teams
  • Identify, formulate, and solve engineering problems
  • Communicate effectively
  • Leverage state-of-the-art techniques, skills, and tools necessary for engineering practice