I Am the Very Model of an Engineer Electrical.

In honour of ECE (Electrical and Computer Engineering) day at CMU, I wrote the following song, to the tune of “Modern Major General” from Pirates of Penzance. (Actually I wrote it on a whim, but I like that other story better.)

Enjoy.

I am the very model of an engineer electrical
I shudder at imperial and work in units metrical
I conquer circuits with my use of methods analytical
And transfer functions with manipulation algebraical

I can solve equations second order and differential
I can relate electrostatic force to the potential
The steady state responses of my circuits I can estimate
With clever use of limits, nasty fractions I eliminate.

I revel in the mastery of complex vector calculus
The things I can accomplish with MATLAB seem so miraculous
And this is but a sample of my talents mathematical
For I’m the very model of an engineer electrical!

When making Bode plots I always keep my axes semilog
And I can synthesise ‘most any circuit using Verilog
When my oscilloscope shows my responses are off-kilter
I skilfully adjust the qual’ty factor of my filter

I know the properties of amplifiers operational
The circuits I design are full of logic combinational
My soldering iron and protoboard are indispensable to me
And never will I tire of ogling expensive gadgetry

For any project I can choose the fittest circuit elements
And mix them all in series or in parallel as relevant
When given half a chance, you see, I will wax pedagogical
For I’m the very model of an engineer electrical!

And matters computational are certainly within my ken
I compose code more beautif’ly than prose that flows from any pen
I’m versed in data structures, systems, graph theory and all that stuff
No IDE’s for me – you see, vi is far more than enough

Now, extensive debugging is a task from which I never shirk
I keep my programs modular and simple so they always work
My knowledge of computer architecture keeps them optimised
And mutexes ensure that my thread-safety’s never compromised

System control and feedback is a field I find enjoyable
My fervour for all things digital makes me most employable
Forget those engineers who are mechanical or chemical
My future seems much cooler as an engineer electrical!

-theCodeMaiden