Electrical engineering mainly deals with the generation and distribution of power and maintenance of large power systems. It has been known in the past to encompass electronic engineering, which has obtained an identity of its own only in the recent years. In most cases, both of these disciplines are offered through a combined course of study.
History of Electrical Engineering
Electrical engineers are responsible mainly for power generation and power transmission. The importance of electrical engineering was recognized only in the 19th century. Some of the main contributors to the field of electrical engineering were George Ohm, Micheal Faraday, James Clark Maxwell, Thomas Elva Edison and Nikola Tesla. However, there were many people who played their own part in bringing electrical engineering to the level it is at today.
Applications of Electrical Engineering
The main aim is to ensure the safe usage of electricity. For this purpose they are given the responsibility of designing electrical appliances as well as the wiring system of electricity to ensure supply of electricity to these appliances. Many times electrical engineers have to work on projects that involve a certain degree of electronics engineering. Electrical engineers are concerned with designing the flight systems of aircrafts and rocket propulsion systems. Industrial automation and automobile control system design are also a part of electrical engineering.
We can see that the process of manufacturing has become extremely streamlined in the recent years. In the earlier days, workers where used to perform each and every task. This lead to greater manufacturing time, and output also suffered in quality at times. However, since the process of automation has been implemented to many manufacturing plants, the efficiency of manufacturing has increased rapidly. The dependence on human work force has decreased, with time wastage reduced and quality of output increased.
Role of Electrical Engineering
Electrical engineering has an important role to play in many other fields of study. For instance, signal processing makes use of the principles of electrical engineering in modifying the digital and analog nature of the signals to obtain the required output. Telecommunications is another area that benefits from electrical engineering. It deals with the transmission of information through different channels to enable communication. Instrumentation engineering has developed as a field of study where devices are used to take reading of pressure, temperature, current, etc. in the electrical equipment.
In today’s world, all branches of engineering have a specific role to play. This means electrical engineering is important for the development of all other branches of engineering too.
