Co-op program details

Program details

Credential: 4-Year Bachelor of Engineering

This four-year degree program focuses on the design, development, and integration of hardware and software into electronic systems used in a variety of commercial, industrial, control, telecommunications and networking applications.

Students gain a solid background in electronics, software, and systems, building on a foundation of mathematics and science, as well as covering manufacturing, applied business and management practices. The practical application of theory includes effective written and verbal communication, problem solving, teamwork and leadership skills. Design projects in every semester are a key feature of the program, and allow students to apply the high-level theoretical concepts they are learning to solve practical problems throughout their studies. As students progress through the program, they develop and reinforce the engineering knowledge and practical skills required to succeed and advance in the high-tech software and electronics industries.

Graduates are qualified to register as Engineering Inters / Engineers-in-Training (EIT) as part of the process to full licensure as practicing Professional Engineers (P.Eng.).

Work term capabilities

Specific skills and abilities that students are typically capable of performing during a given work term are listed below.

Work term 1

Electronics and hardware

• Design, layout, simulate, prototype and test electronic circuits and PCBs
• Perform professional level electronics design transfer from development to manufacturing including manufacturability, gerber file translation, and appropriate part selection
• Perform production and prototype assembly using appropriate electronics manufacturing standards and practices
• Troubleshoot and repair electronic circuits and microcontroller boards
• Design, build, program and test microcontroller-based systems
• Develop sensor & signal conditioning circuits and interface them with microcontroller system
• Consider safety, serviceability and enclosure requirements during system design
• Design and implement an embedded system for a motion control application - DC motors, stepper motors, servo-actuators

Software

• Develop, debug and modify program code in C to meet design specifications
• Participate in analyzing and defining system specifications based on system and user requirements
• Use structured programming techniques in the design and solution of basic engineering problems
• Produce complex multi-file programs that utilize advanced data structures such as linked-lists, trees, heaps, stacks, graphs
• Develop and analyze (Big-O) complex algorithms (e.g. search, sort, route, map etc.) using linear and recursive programming techniques
• Design software with consideration for space (memory management) and processing limitations
• Use Windows and Linux based integrated development environments to develop and debug program code for native and cross-platform application
• Use the LINUX operating system to develop multitasking and multi-threading (GUI and text-based) applications
• Design and implement low-level embedded software for real-time applications
• Experience with data framing, packet communication protocols, error control, data compression techniques

Communications

• Provide technical writing for user and system documentation
• Present and justify design decisions

Project management

• Schedule projects and analyze dependency relationships
• Apply engineering design process techniques
• Create and maintain project planning documents including project schedules in Microsoft Project
• Track project progress through regular status reporting

Generic skills

• Participate effectively as a member of an engineering team
• Apply creative thinking strategies to given problems
• Use problem solving methods in the solution of given problems

Tools used

• Altium Designer, Keil uVision for ARM (STM32), Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code, MultSim, Linux, Terminal (Linux), Windows and Linux audio libraries, MATLAB, VHDL (Quartus), Git and GitHub, Electronic bench instruments including oscilloscope, signal generator, power supply, multimeter, inspection microscopes, hand-soldering of through-hole and SMT components

Work term 2

The following skills are in addition to those listed in work term 1:

Electronics and hardware

• Design and debug Op-amp circuits
• Integrate electronic and mechanical sub-systems to a system-level prototype
• Develop software for control of electromechanical systems
• Perform product testing, verification and validation
• Design and develop client-server applications for embedded Linux systems

Project management

• Use a Source Code / Version Control (Git, GitHub, GitLab) system to maintain multi-developer, multi-target projects
• Develop and monitor test plans for sub-system and system-level applications

Communications

• Present results using PowerPoint and advanced audio and video techniques

Tools used

• MATLAB, Simulink, Embedded Linux development toolchains including Raspberry Pi

Work term 3

The following skills are in addition to those listed in previous work terms:

Network implementation

• Specify, install and configure a variety of network communication devices such as switches, routers, servers, firewalls, and network address translation
• Specify, setup and configure a variety of sensor and computer networks such as a controller area network (CAN), local area network (LAN), virtual local area network (V-LAN), and a virtual private network (VPN)
• Specify and setup Internet subnets and gateway routers
• Analyze, specify, install, and configure security elements of a network, including OS configuration, proxy servers, and other devices
• Interface with and troubleshoot a variety of data communications and networking protocols such as CAN, Ethernet LAN, TCP/IP protocols suite
• Use real-time communication protocols to establish multimedia streaming over the Internet
• Use remote access protocols for secure remote access
• Apply encryption technologies for secure data communications and information security
• Use protocol analyzers and statistics gathering tools for analyzing network performance
• Apply techniques for queuing, information encoding and encryption, and network capacity analysis

Software

• Design and develop client-server applications to run over Internet using Object-Oriented techniques and languages
• Design and develop network and distributed computing applications using Object-Oriented techniques and languages
• Design and develop the Front and Back End (Full Stack) of a web-based application
• Apply modern software engineering methodologies to develop complex software

Tools used

• Programming languages: JavaScript, HTML, CSS, PHP, Python, C/C++, SQL; server stacks: Linux Apache MySQL PHP (LAMP), Cross Platform (Windows/Linux) Apache MySQL PHP (XAMP); source code control systems Git and GitHub; logging systems; LINUX terminal development; CAN, LAN and TCP/IP protocol analyzers (WireShark); firewall and VPN tools, flat file and SQL data bases, UML, Object Oriented Programming / Design Patterns, JSON / XML

Sample job titles

• Developer - IOT
• Device Driver Developer
• DSP Developer
• Electronic Systems Designer
• Embedded Hardware Designer
• Embedded Software Designer
• Firmware Designer
• Hardware Platform Developer
• Hardware Test Associate
• Quality Assurance Associate
• Software Test Associate
• Systems Test Developer
• Technical Support
  

Program courses

To see a typical course list for this program, see the current program course information.

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Contact information

Do you need help developing a recruitment plan or job posting, accessing wage information, or connecting with a talented co-op student? Contact:

Hemant Chauhan, P.Eng., MCPM
Employer Relations Consultant
hchauhan@conestogac.on.ca
226-898-1242