International exchange programs
At the Faculty of Engineering and the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, you can tap into any number of international exchange opportunities.
General principles governing exchange programs
If you take part in an international exchange, you can complete a full session or a full academic year of your program at a foreign institution—a fulfilling, eye-opening experience, to say the least. Indeed, thanks to specific agreements between the Faculty of Engineering, the School of EECS and highly regarded institutions abroad, whatever time you spend on an exchange can be credited toward your own the School of EECS program.
You choose your exchange courses along with authorities from the two institutions involved, namely the School of EECS and the foreign university you attend. The objective is to assemble an array of courses that match those you would have normally taken in your the School of EECS program.
Students from all the School of EECS programs can take part in international exchanges, provided that their host university does indeed offer courses that apply well to their the School of EECS program.
You don’t pay tuition to the foreign institution, only to the University of Ottawa, as you would normally do. However, you are responsible for living expenses and other related costs when you go on an exchange. To help with this, the University offers $2000 mobility scholarships to exchange students; in addition, host universities often open their residences to you, where lodging costs much less than on the private rental market.
An example: Télécom Paris
The school
The École Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications, located in the heart of Paris, is highly renowned for the training it offers to future engineers.
The Faculty of Engineering’s exchange agreement with this institution goes back to 1991. Though geared primarily to fourth-year electrical-engineering and computer-engineering students, the agreement does allow for exchanges in other areas.
The academic year is divided into two 17-week sessions, and each of these sessions also breaks down into two periods. Thus, you have four periods, called P1 and P2 in the first session, and P3 and P4 in the second session.
Over a given period you can complete either two 60-hour teaching units, or four 30-hour teaching units, or one 60-hour and two 30-hour teaching units.
You choose your teaching units from one or two areas out of a possible seven, namely communications (COM), electronics (ELEC), informatics (INF), networking (RES), signalimaging (SI), engineering mathematics (MDI), social sciences and economics (SES).
Sample exchange program
For example, a the School of EECS student taking electrical engineering with a specialization in telecommunications could take the following course of studies at Télécom-Paris for his or her fourth year:
- ELG4139 Electronics III could be replaced by ELEC200 Electronique analogique intégrée.
- ELG4177 Digital Signal Processing could be replaced by SI200 Bases du traitement du signal.
- ELG4176 Communication Systems could be replaced by COM200 Physique des systèmes de télécommunications.
- ELG4156 Linear Systems could be replaced by MDI223 Algèbre.
- PHY2361 Modern Physics could be replaced by MDI223 SI224 Bases de la mécanique quantique.
- Both project courses, ELG4912 et ELG 4913, could be replaced by any number of the project courses taught at Télécom-Paris (ComElec, robotics, software, etc.).
- Finally, the two compulsory electives can be replaced by the wide array also offered at Télécom-Paris.
More information?
For details or more information, contact Robert Laganière, head of Francophonie exchanges. Also consult the University’s national and international exchanges.