Introduction To Electrical Engineering

Electrical engineering, a field of engineering that generally deals with the study and application of electricity, electronics and electromagnetism. The field became an identifiable occupation in the late nineteenth century after commercialization of the electric telegraph and electrical power supply. It covers a wide range of subtopics including power, electronics, control systems, signal processing and telecommunications.

Electrical engineering includes electronic engineering. Where distinctions are made, usually outside of the United States, electrical engineering is considered to deal with the problems associated with large-scale electrical systems such as power transmission and motor control, whereas electronic engineering deals with the study of small-scale electronic systems including computers and integrated circuits. Electrical engineers usually are concerned with using electricity to transmit energy, while electronic engineers are concerned with using electricity to process information. The distinction recently has become blurred by the growth of power electronics.

Use of Electrical Engineering

Telecommunications:

Telecommunications engineering concentrates on the transmission of information across a channel such as a coax cable, optical fiber or free space. Transmissions across the 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 commonly used analog modulation techniques include amplitude modulation and frequency modulation. The modulation choice affects the cost and performance of a system and these two factors must be balanced carefully by the engineer.

Immediately after the transmission characteristics of a system are determined, telecommunication engineers design the transmitters and receivers needed for such systems. They both are combined to form a two-way communication device known as a transceiver. It is a matter of consideration in the design of transmitters that their power consumption is closely related to their signal strength. When the strength of the signal in the transmitter is insufficient, the signal's information will be corrupted by noise.