Undergraduate Education

Undergraduate Courses

The total credits for the undergraduate training program in the major of “Electrical Engineering and Automation” in 2023 are 157, including 47 credits for university-level general education (courses in ideology and politics, physical education, English, and cultural literacy) and 110 credits for professional education (33 credits for basic courses in mathematics, physics, chemistry, and biology, 49 credits for required courses in the major, 7 credits for elective courses in the major, 11 credits for practical training, and 10 credits for comprehensive thesis training). The characteristic of the curricula is the combination of strong electricity with weak electricity, software with hardware, devices with systems, and information with energy.

Overview of Main Courses:

(1) Humanities and Social Sciences: covering politics, economics, management, and English.

(2) Natural Science Foundation Courses: covering mathematics, physics, chemistry, and biology.

(3) Professional Foundation Courses: fundamentals of engineering graphics, circuit theory and experiments, electromagnetic fields, fundamentals of analog electronics, fundamentals of digital electronics, signals and systems, principles of automatic control, computer and network technology, fundamentals of computer programming, and advanced circuit analysis B.

(4) Core Professional Courses: electromechanics, analysis of power systems, high voltage engineering, and fundamentals of power electronics technology.

(5) Exploratory Learning Courses: motor design, analysis and control, analysis and control of power systems, design and control of power electronics, and new materials for high voltage and insulation.

(6) Interdisciplinary Courses: principles and technology of energy conversion, big data technology and applications, introduction to energy internet.

(7) Professional Elective Courses: digital signal processing, fundamentals of low-carbon power technology, relay protection of power systems, stability and control of power systems, automation of power system dispatch, introduction to power markets, overvoltage and its protection, DC transmission technology, power transmission and control, dielectric materials and insulation technology, solar photovoltaic power generation and its applications, energy storage technology in smart grids, new energy generation and grid connection, etc.

In the wave of energy revolution, there is a significant demand from the nation and society for internationalized and compound high-end innovative talents in the field of energy. In the context of the energy revolution, the Department of Electrical Engineering and Applied Electronics at Tsinghua University proposed and established the International Energy Internet Class in April 2017, based on the training program of the major in Electrical Engineering and Automation, and formulated a special training program suitable for students of the International Energy Internet Class. This training program customizes some courses of the major in Electrical Engineering and Automation, adds compulsory and elective courses such as engineering thermodynamics, energy economics, and energy policy, and emphasizes internationalization in various aspects such as training objectives (future employment in global important energy organizations), training process (one semester of overseas exchange), course content (international frontier, global perspective), and teaching methods (English or bilingual teaching). The first enrollment started in September 2017.

In September 2020, in response to the major national demand, the training of talents with a double degree in mathematics and electrical engineering began, with approximately 40 students enrolled each year.

The International Class and the Double Degree have separate training programs. The core courses are basically the same as those of the major in Electrical Engineering and Automation, but there are different requirements for courses such as mathematics foundation and interdisciplinary courses to reflect the characteristics of training different types of talents.

Practical Teaching

Both undergraduate and graduate training programs in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Applied Electronics have a large number of practical components. Compulsory practical components for undergraduates include basic experiments in single-chip microcomputers, embedded system practices, software programming project training, metalworking internships, electronic technology project design, tool software usage, comprehensive thesis training, and production internships, while the first year of graduate students also has compulsory concentrated practical components during summer vacation. This combination of theory and practice in experiments and training is very beneficial for improving students' practical skills, innovation capabilities, and awareness of serving society.

The Department of Electrical Engineering and Applied Electronicsactively utilizes its cooperative advantages in the electrical industry and has established long-term strategic partnerships in talent training with many top enterprises in the electrical field over the years. It has successively established distinctive production internship bases such as Shanghai Electric, Schneider Electric, Inner Mongolia Energy Base, and Xi’an Electric. It has initially formed a production internship model for undergraduates with voluntary selection, focusing on concentrated internships supplemented by dispersed internships. It has won the Tsinghua University School Practice Gold, Silver, and Bronze Awards several times. Among them, the “Dream Network” practice team of our department has successively built photovoltaic microgrids in remote unelectrified areas such as Xinjiang and Sichuan since 2015, benefiting society with the knowledge they have learned, and has won the titles of “Excellent Team for Capital College Students’ Summer Social Practice”, “Excellent Practice Award (Flowing Cup) for Tsinghua University Students’ Social Practice”, and “Gold Award Squad for Tsinghua University Students’ Social Practice”.

Teaching Laboratory Construction

In accordance with the needs of talent training and scientific research, the Department of Electrical Engineering and Applied Electronics at Tsinghua University continuously improves the conditions for teaching and research, promotes the improvement and transformation of platforms such as the State Key Laboratory of Power Systems, Electrical Engineering Experimental Teaching Center, and Electrical and Electronic Experiment Center, and gradually realizes the goal of improving research conditions, having complete hardware and software functions, and sufficient teaching equipment, laying a solid foundation for key technology research, talent training, and the achievement of high-level academic results.

For many years, the State Key Laboratory of Power Systems has adhered to the major needs of the power industry, actively participated in national key research topics around the three major themes of “safety, economy, and environmental friendliness”, carried out important forward-looking basic research, applied basic research, and key technology research, and actively used relevant scientific research results to promote talent training, such as the power system simulation software CloudPSS and the electrical and electronic simulation software DSIM. In 2019, the Energy Internet Research Institute of Tsinghua University's State Key Laboratory and the Wind and Solar Energy Storage Sub-Laboratory of Xinjiang University were successively established, further enhancing the support capacity for talent training.

The State Electrical Engineering Experimental Teaching Demonstration Center was established in 2008 based on the Electrical Engineering and Automation Laboratory, focusing on teaching and research responsibilities in various laboratories, providing important support for the teaching and research of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Applied Electronics.

The Electrical and Electronic Experimental Teaching Center is a municipal-level and university-level experimental teaching demonstration center in Beijing, offering experimental courses to undergraduate and graduate students from three electrical departments (Department of Electrical Engineering and Applied Electronics, Department of Automation, Department of Computer Science) and 17 non-electrical departments (including the Department of Biomedical Engineering). It undertakes experimental teaching tasks for more than 130 classes each year, with a student-hour of up to 220,000/year, offering 16 courses in electrical and electronic experimental teaching. The center consists of four laboratories: basic electrical engineering, applied electrical engineering, electronic technology, and EDA.