Subfields
Electrical engineering has many subfields, all of which center around
electromagnetism. This section describes seven of the most popular
subfields in electrical engineering. Although there are engineers
who focus exclusively on one subfield, there are also many who focus
on a combination of subfields. For more information on each of the
following, read the subfields of electrical engineering article.
Power engineering deals with the generation, transmission and distribution
of electricity as well as the design of a range of related devices.
These include transformers, electric generators, electric motors and
power electronics.
In many regions of the world, governments maintain an electrical network
that connects a variety electric generators together with users of
their power. This network is called a power grid. Users purchase electricity
from the grid avoiding the costly exercise of having to generate their
own. Power engineers may work on the design and maintenance of the
power grid as well as the power systems that connect to it. Such systems
are called on-grid power systems and may supply the grid with additional
power, draw power from the grid or do both. Power engineers may also
work on systems that do not connect to the grid. These systems are
called off-grid power systems and may be used in preference to on-grid
systems for a variety of reasons. Read more...
Control engineering focuses on the modelling of a diverse range of
dynamic systems and the design of controllers that will cause these
systems to behave in the desired manner. To implement such controllers
engineers may use electrical circuits, digital signal processors and
microcontrollers.
Control engineering has a wide range of applications from the flight
and propulsion systems of commercial airliners to the cruise control
present in many modern automobiles. It also plays an important role
in industrial automation.
Control engineers often utilize feedback when designing control systems.
For example, in an automobile with cruise control the vehicle's speed
is continuously monitored and fed back to the system which adjusts
the motor's speed accordingly. Where there is regular feedback, control
theory can be used to determine how the system responds to such feedback.
Read more...
Electronic engineering involves the design and testing of electrical
circuits that use the electromagnetic properties of components such
as resistors, capacitors, inductors, diodes and transistors to achieve
a particular functionality. The tuner circuit, which allows the user
of a radio to filter out all but a single station, is just one example
of such a circuit.
Before the invention of the integrated circuit in 1959, electronic
circuits were constructed from discrete components that could be manipulated
by hand. These non-integrated circuits consumed much space and power,
were prone to failure and were limited in speed although they are
still common in simple applications. By contrast, integrated circuits
packed a large number - often millions - of tiny electrical components,
mainly transistors, into a small chip around the size of a coin. This
allowed for the powerful computers and other electronic devices we
see today. Read more...
Signal processing deals with the analysis and manipulation of signals.
Signals can be either analog, in which case the signal varies continuously
according to the information, or digital, in which case the signal
varies according to a series of discrete values representing the information.
For analog signals, signal processing may involve the amplification
and filtering of audio signals for audio equipment or the modulation
and demodulation of signals for telecommunications. For digital signals,
signal processing may invovle the compression, error checking and
error detection of digital signals. Read more...
Telecommunications engineering focuses on the transmission of information
across a channel such as a coax cable, optical fiber or free space.
Transmissions across free space require information to be encoded
in a carrier wave in order to shift the information to a carrier frequency
suitable for transmission, this is known as modulation. Popular analog
modulation techniques include amplitude modulation and frequency modulation.
The choice of modulation affects the cost and performance of a system
and these two factors must be balanced carefully by the engineer.
Once the transmission characteristics of a system are determined,
telecommunication engineers design the transmitters and receivers
needed for such systems. These two are sometimes combined to form
a two-way communication device known as a transceiver. A key consideration
in the design of transmitters is their power consumption as this is
closely related to their signal strength. If the signal strength of
a transmitter is insufficient the signal's information will be corrupted
by noise. Read more...
Instrumentation engineering deals with the design of devices to measure
physical quantities such as pressure, flow and temperature. These
devices are known as instrumentation.
The design of such instrumentation requires a good understanding of
physics that often extends beyond electromagnetic theory. For example,
radar guns use the Doppler effect to measure the speed of oncoming
vehicles. Similarly, thermocouples use the Peltier-Seebeck effect
to measure the temperature difference between two points.
Often instrumentation is not used by itself, but instead as the sensors
of larger electrical systems. For example, a thermocouple might be
used to help ensure a furnace's temperature remains constant. For
this reason, instrumentation engineering is often viewed as the counterpart
of control engineering. Read more...
Computer engineering deals with the design of computers and computer
systems. This may involve the design of new hardware, the design of
PDAs or the use of computers to control an industrial plant. Computer
engineers may also work on a system's software. However, the design
of complex software systems is often the domain of software engineering,
which is usually considered a separate discipline.
Desktop computers represent a tiny fraction of the devices a computer
engineer might work on, as computer-like architectures are now found
in a range of devices including video game consoles and DVD players.
Read more...
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