Global Journal of Engineering, Design & Technology
Open Access

Electrical Engineering and Related Subfields

Adriana K Cushnie^{* *}Correspondence: Adriana K Cushnie, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, Email:

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Description

Electrical engineering is a branch of engineering that focuses on the research, development, and usage of machinery, gadgets, and systems that rely on electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism.

Electronics, photovoltaic cells, computer engineering, systems engineering, power engineering, telecommunications, radiofrequency engineering, signal processing, instrumentation, and optics and photonics are just a few of the many subfields of electrical engineering that exist today.

These disciplines cover a wide range of specializations, including hardware engineering, power electronics, electromagnetics and waves, microwave engineering, nanotechnology, electrochemistry, renewable energies, mechatronics/control, and electrical materials science. Many of these disciplines also overlap with other engineering branches.

Subfields

Electricity has the ability to transmit information and energy, which is one of its many beneficial features. Additionally, electrical engineering was first created in these fields. The most popular subspecialties in electrical engineering today are shown below.

Power and energy: Electricity generation, transmission, and distribution, as well as the design of a variety of associated devices, are all covered within the field of power and energy engineering. These include power electronics, electric motors, electric generators, high voltage engineering, and transformers. Governments operate an electrical network known as a power grid in many parts of the world that links various energy producers and consumers. Users buy electrical energy from the grid to avoid the expensive process of producing their own.

The design and upkeep of the power grid and the power systems that connect to it may be the responsibility of power engineers. These devices, sometimes known as on-grid power systems, can draw power from the grid, add power to it, or do both. Power engineers can also work on off-grid power systems, which can sometimes be more advantageous than on-grid systems because they are not connected to the grid. Satellite-controlled power systems with real-time feedback to prevent power surges and blackouts are part of the future.

Telecommunications: Information transfer across a communication channel, such as a coax cable, optical fibre, or free space, is the focus of telecommunications engineering. Information must be modulated into a carrier signal for transmission across empty space in order to be shifted to a carrier frequency suitable for transmission. Amplitude modulation and frequency modulation are two common types of analogue modulation. The cost and performance of a system are impacted by the modulation choice, and the engineer must carefully balance these two criteria.

Telecommunication engineers design the transmitters and receivers required for such systems after the transmission characteristics of a system are established. A transceiver, a twoway communication device, is occasionally created by combining these two. The power consumption of transmitters is an important factor to take into account throughout the design process because it is closely related to the signal intensity. If the transmitted signal's power is insufficient when it reaches the antennas of the receiver, noise, notably static, will usually destroy the signal's information.

Control engineering: Control engineering is primarily concerned with modeling a wide variety of dynamic systems and creating controllers that will make these systems behave as intended. Electronic circuits, digital signal processors, microcontrollers, and programmable logic controllers are some of the tools electronics control experts may employ to construct such controllers. The use of control engineering is widespread, from the propulsion and flight systems of commercial aircraft to the cruise control found in many contemporary cars. It is crucial to industrial automation as well.

Feedback is a common tool used by control engineers while creating control systems. An automobile with cruise control, for instance, continuously monitors the vehicle's speed and feeds that information back to the system, which then modifies the motor's power output accordingly. Using control algorithms that interpret sensory feedback to operate actuators that move robots such as autonomous vehicles, autonomous drones, and other types utilized in a number of sectors, control engineers also work in robotics to build autonomous systems.

Microelectronics and Nano electronics: Engineering of very small electronic circuit components for use in integrated circuits or occasionally for use on their own as a general electronic component is the focus of microelectronics.

Although all major electronic parts can be produced at a microscopic scale, silicon transistors are the most prevalent microelectronic component. The further scaling of devices to Nano scale levels is known as Nano electronics.