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What is Electrical Engineering? Popular Fields, Major Courses, Scope, Jobs and Salary

Hello friends, I hope you are having a good time. In today's tutorial, I am going to discuss detailed information about what is Electrical Engineering? We will cover the following contents; Electrical Engineering fields, major & minor courses, Scope, Jobs, Salary, famous electrical engineers & their contributions and top universities that offer Electrical Engineering degrees.

Before further discussing our topic, let me ask you a question. Did you ever imagine your life without electricity? We can’t, right? That’s why, I always find electrical engineering, including its FE Electrical aspect, the most developed and broad field of engineering, provides thousands of job opportunities in different companies. For example, from smartphones to power generation houses, companies everywhere require electrical engineers. Are you also interested in the development and design of electrical devices? Then, I’m sure this tutorial is for you.

Now, let’s come to the point: what is Electrical Engineering?

What is Electrical Engineering?

• Electrical engineering (the engineering discipline) deals with the production & distribution of electricity as well as designing & developing complex electrical systems.
• Electrical engineering also involves the term electronics engineering, deals with electronic circuits (i.e. transistors, integrated circuits etc.), While the electrical engineers work with high power generation.
• Electrical engineers gets highly paid jobs in renewable energy projects, lighting & transport systems, power production & transmission etc.

Major courses of Electrical Engineering

Every university has a different curriculum but there are some major subjects, common in almost every electrical engineering syllabus. Let's discuss them out:

1. Electrical Machines: This subject is all about AC and DC motors and generators.
2. Power Systems: This subject teaches you about generation & distribution of electricity from Power house.
3. Control System: In this subject, you will learn about how to control, manage and regulate the electrical system and devices using various control loops.
4. Basic Electronics & communication subjects: This course will focus on analog & digital communications and electronic circuit.
5. Network Theory/Signal: This course focuses on teaching you the basic electrical principles.

Some other major subjects are:

• Introduction to Engineering.
• Basic electronics.
• Power Engineering.
• Electrical Machines theory.
• Circuit Theory.
• Computer Architecture.
• Non-conventional energy.
• Electrical installations.
• Electrical machines drawing.
• Power Circuits and Systems.
• Electrical control system.
• Digital Systems.
• Electrical lighting..
• Microprocessor Applications.
• Electric Circuits.
• Microprocessor.
• Principles of Programming.
• Switch gears and protection.
• Electromagnetics.
• Electrical instruments & materials.
• Signals and Systems.
• Microelectronic Circuits.
• Communication Systems.

Minor courses of Electrical Engineering

Minor courses also depend on university or also the choice of students. Let’s discuss some common minor courses choose by electrical engineering students.

Minor Courses of Electrical Engineering
Logic Design	Dynamic System Theory
Signals & Systems	Introduction to Learning from Data
Control Systems	Stochastic Processes
Electronics	Wireless Communication
Analog Electronics	Digital Communication
Machine Learning	Digital Signal Processing
Communication Systems	Introduction to Information Theory
Electrical Energy Systems	Speed Processing
Electromagnetics	Digital Image Processing & Communication
Physics of Semiconductor Devices	Computational Optical Imaging
Deep Learning	Optical Fibers and Waveguides
Optimization Theory and Methods	Introduction to Subsurface Imaging
Sustainable Power Systems	Lasers and Applications
Introduction to Biomedical Optics	Computational Methods (Materials Science)
Optical Spectroscopic Imaging	Solar Energy Systems
Introduction to Photonics	Physics of Semiconductor Materials
Engineering Optics	Semiconductor Devices
Electromagnetic Fundamentals	Electronic Optical & Magnetic Properties of Materials
Fabricating Technology for Integrated Circuits	Analog VLSI (Circuit Design)
Nano & Micro-Electronic Devices Technology	Analog Design Fundamentals

Branches of Electrical Engineering

Let’s find out some popular fields of electrical engineering and briefly discuss them.

1. Power and energy

Let me tell you, this field of electrical engineering, mainly deals with the generation and transmission of electricity on large scale.  Further, this is also working on the manufacturing of electrical generators, electrical motors and transformers. They also focus on the projects under governments such as power grid.

2. Automation and control

This field is actually all about developing, controlling different complex systems as well as controllers, and is responsible for their proper functioning. To design such controllers, they take helps form electrical engineers. The control engineers have all over in the airliners as well as in the modern automobile companies.

They also work in designing robotics using control algorithms.

3. Electronics

Electronic engineers are focusing on the designing of integrated electronic circuits & their components, transistors, capacitors, resistors, diodes and many more.

4. Microelectronics and nanoelectronics

They deal with the fabrication and designing of micro size electronic circuits components; such as semiconductor transistors.

5. Signal processing

They are working on the analysis techniques and testing of communication signals. It may be analog signals or digital signals.

In the case of analog signals, the signal processing mainly relates to amplification and filtering for telecommunications. Besides, In digital signals, signal processing involves in compression, detection of error & correction of error.

6. Telecommunications

They focus on the communication channels in space through coax cable, optical fiber or free space.

Some other popular fields of electrical engineering are:

• Radio-frequency engineering.
• Electronics.
• Systems engineering.
• Computer engineering.
• Photonics.
• Telecommunications.
• Signal processing.
• Power engineering.
• Optics.
• Instrumentation.

Electrical Engineering jobs and salaries

We have already discussed the fields of electrical engineering. According to BLS, mostly electrical engineers getting hired by research & development companies and popular engineering industries. Moreover, the federal government and other manufacturing industries are also interested in young electrical engineers. Electrical engineers generally worked indoors in any company, but the experienced & senior engineers may also get the position of just visiting sites. The manufacturing industries hired electrical engineers are:

• Defense.
• Marine.
• Commercial construction.
• Computers & components.
• Automotive.
• Lighting.
• Aerospace.
• Consumer electronics.
• Telecommunications & traffic control.
• Railroad.

There are also government departments, offer employments to electrical engineers in national laboratories, transportation departments as well as in the military. As you are well aware, each company has its own qualification criteria for job. Some firms need bachelor degree in electrical engineering.  But a master degree will enhance the chance of promotion and salary. Most importantly, most famous companies require the certificate from good institutes such as Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers or Institution of Engineering and Technology. Let’s talk about the estimated salary of an electrical engineer. In 2014, the estimate salary range of a bachelor degree holding electrical engineer was $55,570 to $73,908 according to research. The electrical engineers holding master degree with 5-10 years experience were paid with $$74,007 to $108,640. Additionally, a senior engineer with 15 years of experience with a doctorate degree was getting $97,434 to $138,296 salary. This is amazing; isn’t it?

What are the Key Skills of Electrical Engineering?

Common skills gained with an electrical engineering degree include:

• Develop a strong numeracy.
• Provides basic IT skills.
• Technical expertise.
• Self-management (such as planning & meeting deadlines).
• Allow to design and analyze technical diagrams.
• Teach how to do Team work & communication skills.
• Allow the flexibility.
• Make you able to identify and solve problems.
• Budgeting.
• Professional communication, spoken and written.
• Data analysis.
• Deeply understanding about how to deal with high electrical power systems & safety regulations.
• Provide awareness of other stuff; such as business and environmental issues.

Top reasons why you should choose Electrical Engineering?

1. Job opportunities

The famous companies all over the world are hiring young electrical engineers, give then good training with a great salary package. That’s why I think, this is one the most valued profession.

2. Bright job offers from abroad

Getting an electrical engineering degree, means you have a lot of job opportunities all around the world. A lot of technical firms are willing to hire people from other countries. Well! I must say, you will have a bright future ahead.

3. Other specialized fields

It may seem like doing an electrical engineering means you are just going to deal with electricity. But, the truth is, you will definitely have chances to learn about other specialization fields such as;

• Signal Processing.
• Power Engineering.
• Telecommunications.
• Microelectronics.
• Control Systems.
• Radio-Frequency Engineering.

4. Get chance to study top universities

Getting a degree from a well-known university has a strong impact on your future. Many companies also hire stud nets graduates from good universities. There are so many famous universities offering this degree bachelor as well as master throughout the world. These universities not only provide you high level engineering skills but also groom your personality. Let me enlist some top universities of 2021.

• University of Portsmouth; U.K.
• Chalmers University of Technology; Sweden
• University of Birmingham; U.K.
• University of Leeds; U.K.
• University of Colorado Denver; U.S.
• University of Twente (UT); Netherlands
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
• University of California; Berkeley.
• California Institute of Technology.
• Georgia Institute of Technology.
• Stanford University.
• University of California; Berkeley.
• California Institute of Technology.
• University of Illinois; Urbana, Champaign.
• Georgia Institute of Technology.
• University of Texas; Austin (Cockrell)
• Carnegie Mellon University.
• University of Michigan; Ann Arbor.
• Tsinghua University; China
• Harbin Institute of Technology; China
• Aalborg University; Denmark
• Nanyang Technological University; Singapore
• Southeast University; China
• National University of Singapore; Singapore
• University of Technology Sydney; Australia
• Zhejiang University; China
• University of Electronic Science and Technology of China; China
• Huazhong University of Science and Technology; China

Popular Electrical Engineers and their Contributions

There are so many great electrical engineers who contributed in this field. Let's discuss a few of them for your better understanding with electrical engineering.

Popular Electrical Engineers of all Times
No.	Name	Contributions
1	Otto A. Knopp	He is the founder of standard transformers testing as well as compensation winding.
2	A. K. Erlang	He worked on communication signals and queuing.
3	Alan Blumlein	He was one of the greatest electrical engineer invented telecommunications, radar system, stereo, television and sound recording.
4	Albert H. Taylor	Was the first engineers, demonstrated the radar.
5	Alec Reeves	He was the inventor of pulse coding & modulation.
6	Alfred Rosling Bennett	He discovered the electric lighting & telephones.
7	Alessandro Volta	He invented electrical battery.
8	André Blondel	He worked on oscillography and give electrical machine theory.
9	Andy Bechtolsheim	He has contribution in the invention of sun Microsystems
10	Arnold Orville Beckman	Discovered pH meter, Beckman Instruments and Silicon Valley.
11	Hugo Hirst	He was the co-founder of General Electric Company plc.
12	Bern Dibner	He is the founder of Burndy Co., electrical connectors,

I want to enlist some more famous electrical engineers.

Charles Frederick Burgess	William Duddell
Alan Archibald Campbell-Swinton	Allen B. DuMont
John Renshaw Carson	J. Presper Eckert
James Kilton Clapp	Thomas Edison
Edith Clarke	Cyril Frank Elwell
Lynn Conway	Douglas Engelbart
Seymour Cray	Justus B. Entz
Sidney Darlington	Lloyd Espenschied
Lee de Forest	Federico Faggin
Jack Dennis	Michael Faraday

Popular books of Electrical Engineering

There are a vide variety of books about electrical engineering.  A good book about this field will better help you to understand it. Here are some book, I want to recommended.

• Automation and Robotics.
• Introduction to Electronic Engineering.
• Essential Engineering Mathematics.
• Introduction to Power Electronics.
• Electronic Measurements: Exercises and Assignments.
• Electrical Power.
• Control Engineering Problems with Solutions.
• Concepts in Electric Circuits.
• Nuclear Powered Generation of Electricity.
• Three Phase Electrical Circuit Analysis.
• Essential Electromagnetism: Solutions.
• Electromagnetism for Electronic Engineers.
• Advanced Topics in Electrodynamics.
• Fundamental Engineering Optimization Methods.
• Essential Electromagnetism.
• An Introduction to Nonlinearity in Control Systems.
• CMOS Integrated Circuit Simulation with LTspice.
• Electric Drive Dimensioning and Tuning.
• Essential Electrodynamics: Solutions.
• Introduction to Digital Signal and System Analysis.
• Thermal Modelling of Electric Machines.
• Essential Electrodynamics.

I hope this article helps you to better understand electrical engineering, its scope, fields, popular books and top electrical engineers & their contribution.