In addition to co-op opportunities for undergraduates the department, through its extensive industrial contacts often can provide opportunities for American graduate students whereby they spend three months or thereabouts in industry during the summer immediately prior to beginning their graduate studies. These positions are sometimes found for the students by the department. Increasing, the high demand for electric power engineers is also making it possible for overseas students to obtain Co-op opportunities and industrial deployments through visa extension for industrial experience. The Ph.D. is awarded for work of a more basic nature, whereas the D.Eng. is granted for successfull applied research. At any time there are typically between 50 and 80 graduate students in the department, of whom about 20 are pursuing doctoral programs.
Opportunities exist for post-doctoral work within the department.