Engineering Tech Requirements

Laptop

Each student is required to have a reliable laptop capable of running engineering and computer science software (provided by the university), such as AutoDesk Inventor, Spice, and software compilers. Therefore, we have established some minimum requirements for the major.

Operating system options:

• Windows 10+ (64 bit) with a VM for Linux or BSD as necessary
• Mac OS X with a VM or bootcamp for Windows
• Linux or BSD with a VM for Windows

Other requirements:

• RAM: 8 GB (16 GB recommended)
• CPU: modern 64 bit processor such as i5 or i7 with at least two physical cores
• Storage capacity: 200 GB (400 GB for a Mac, Linux, or BSD because students will need to run Bootcamp with a 200 GB partition for Windows)
• Connectivity: 2x USB2 or USB3 and 1000Base-T ethernet (adaptor OK)
• WiFi (IEEE 802.11n with WPA2-Personal and WPA2-Enterprise)
• Graphics card needs to support at least one external display via HDMI (preferred) or VGA (adaptor OK) to be able to use the projectors for presentations.

Note that these requirements can change without notice (but within reason) due to changes in the system requirements from the vendors of the software used within the program. Please keep in mind that these are minimum requirements and there are software packages that benefit from a more capable computer system. The minimum cost for a new Windows machine that meets the requirements is $900, and for an Apple machine is $1500. About half of students use Apple and the other half use Windows, including a few Linux users.

Calculator

Calculators are often allowed on exams and are needed for completing homework. The calculator needs to be able to graph functions, use complex numbers, and solve linear systems of equations with complex coefficients. It is also helpful if the calculator has a computer algebra system (CAS). One of the following (or equivalent) is required:

• TI-89 (recommended)
• TI-Nspire CX CAS

The average cost of the above calculators is approximately $130. Note that none of these calculators are currently allowed on the NCEES Fundamentals of Engineering exam (the allowed calculators have a much more limited capability and are relatively inexpensive at around $30).