Unofficial electrical engineering

04/09/2016

Electrical Engineer
What is this job like?
A global positioning system that can pinpoint a car's location. Giant generators that can power entire cities. A new design for an airplane's electrical system. Electrical and electronics engineers work on high-tech projects like these.

Electrical engineers design new and better electronics. They also test equipment and solve problems. A project starts by deciding what the new electronics will do. Then, the engineer designs the circuits and other parts of the electronics. Engineers might draw their designs using a computer.

Later, the engineers test their designs and make them better. Many projects don't work at first. The engineers have to figure out why and then fix them.

Electrical engineers work on many kinds of products. They might work on cars, robots, cell phone systems, the lighting and wiring in buildings, and radar and navigation systems, for example.

Engineers work in offices, labs, or industrial plants. Many work a normal 40-hour week. At times, they work longer to meet deadlines.

How do you get ready?
You need a college degree in engineering for almost all engineering jobs.

Getting into engineering school takes good grades in math and science. Students also need courses in English, social studies, and computers.

Engineers should be creative, curious, logical, and detail-oriented. They should also be able to work as part of a team.

04/09/2016

Development of Engineering

Until the Industrial Revolution there were only two kinds of engineers. The military engineer built such things as fortifications, catapults, and, later, cannons. The civil engineer built bridges, harbors, aqueducts, buildings, and other structures. During the early 19th cent. in England mechanical engineering developed as a separate field to provide manufacturing machines and the engines to power them. The first British professional society of civil engineers was formed in 1818; that for mechanical engineers followed in 1847. In the United States, the order of growth of the different branches of engineering, measured by the date a professional society was formed, is civil engineering (1852), mining and metallurgical engineering (1871), mechanical engineering (1880), electrical engineering (1884), and chemical engineering (1908). Aeronautical engineering, industrial engineering, and genetic engineering are more modern developments.

The first schools in the United States to offer an engineering education were the United States Military Academy (West Point) in 1817, an institution now known as Norwich Univ. in 1819, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1825. An engineering education is based on a strong foundation in mathematics and science; this is followed by courses emphasizing the application of this knowledge to a specific field and studies in the social sciences and humanities to give the engineer a broader education.

04/09/2016

Electrical engineering encompasses all aspects of electricity from power engineering, the development of the devices for the generation and transmission of electrical power, to electronics. Electronics is a branch of electrical engineering that deals with devices that use electricity for control of processes. Subspecialties of electronics include computer engineering, microwave engineering, communications, and digital signal processing. It is the engineering specialty that has grown the most in recent decades.

01/09/2016