Технические науки/5. Энергетика
Koval O., Chala K.
National University of Food Technologies (Kiev, Ukraine)
Electrical
engineering
Electrical engineering is a field of engineering that generally deals with the study
and application of electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. This field first
became an identifiable occupation in the latter half of the 19th century after
commercialization of the electric telegraph,
the telephone, and electric power distribution and use. Subsequently, broadcasting and recording
media made electronics part of
daily life. The invention of the transistor and, subsequently, the integrated circuit brought down the
cost of electronics to the point where they can be used in almost any household
object. The personal computer and information
technology are the most complex
electronics yet to be used in everyday life.
Electrical engineering has now subdivided into a wide
range of subfields including electronics, digital computers, power engineering, telecommunications, control systems, RF engineering, signal processing, instrumentation, and microelectronics. The subject of electronic engineering is often treated as its own subfield
but it intersects with all the other subfields, including the power electronics of power engineering.
Electrical engineers typically hold a degree in electrical engineering or
electronic engineering. Practicing engineers may have professional certification and be members of a professional body. Such bodies include
the Institute of Electrical and
Electronic Engineers (IEEE) and
the Institution of Engineering
and Technology (IET).
Electrical engineers work in a very wide range of
industries and the skills required are likewise variable. These range from
basic circuit theory to the management skills required of project manager. The tools and
equipment that an individual engineer may need are similarly variable, ranging
from a simple voltmeter to a top end analyzer to sophisticated
design and manufacturing software.
Electricity has been a
subject of scientific interest since at least the early 17th century. The first
electrical engineer was probably William
Gilbert who designed the versorium: a device that detected the presence of statically charged
objects. He was also the first to draw a clear distinction between magnetism
and static electricity and is credited with establishing the term electricity. In 1775 Alessandro Volta's scientific experimentations devised the electrophorus, a device that produced a static electric charge, and by
1800 Volta developed the voltaic
pile, a forerunner of the electric battery.
Power engineering
deals with the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity as well as the design of a range of
related devices. These include transformers, electric generators, electric motors, high voltage
engineering, and power
electronics. In many regions of the world, governments maintain an electrical
network called a power grid that connects a variety of generators
together with users of their energy. Users purchase electrical energy from the
grid, avoiding the costly exercise of having to generate their own. Power
engineers may work on the design and maintenance of the power grid as well as
the power systems that connect to it. Such systems are called on-grid power systems and may supply the grid
with additional power, draw power from the grid or do both. Power engineers may
also work on systems that do not connect to the grid, called off-grid power systems, which in some cases are
preferable to on-grid systems. The future includes Satellite controlled power
systems, with feedback in real time to prevent power surges and prevent
blackouts.
Microelectronics engineering
deals with the design and micro
fabrication of very small
electronic circuit components for use in an integrated
circuit or sometimes for use on
their own as a general electronic component. The
most common microelectronic components are semiconductor transistors, although all main
electronic components (resistors, capacitors etc.) can be created at a microscopic
level. Nanoelectronics is the further scaling of devices down
to nanometres levels. Modern devices are already in
the nanometres regime, with below 100 nm processing having been standard
since about 2002.
Microelectronic components are created by chemically
fabricating wafers of semiconductors such as silicon (at higher frequencies, compound semiconductors like gallium arsenide and indium
phosphide) to obtain the desired transport of electronic charge and control of
current. The field of microelectronics involves a significant amount of
chemistry and material science and requires the electronic engineer working in
the field to have a very good working knowledge of the effects of quantum mechanics.
Signal processing deals
with the analysis and manipulation of signals. Signals can be either analogue, in which case the signal
varies continuously according to the information, or digital, in which case the signal
varies according to a series of discrete values representing the information.
For analogue signals, signal processing may involve the amplification and filtering of audio signals for audio equipment
or the modulation and demodulation of signals for telecommunications. For digital
signals, signal processing may involve the compression, error detection and error
correction of digitally sampled
signals.
Signal Processing is a very mathematically oriented
and intensive area forming the core of digital
signal processing and it is
rapidly expanding with new applications in every field of electrical
engineering such as communications, control, radar, audio engineering, broadcast engineering, power
electronics and bio-medical engineering as many already existing analogue
systems are replaced with their digital counterparts. Analog signal processing is still important in the design of
many control systems.
Literature:
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_engineering
2. https://www.eecs.mit.edu/
3. http://www.rwth-aachen.de/go/id/bkuh/?lidx=1
4.
United
States Navy Electricity and Electronics Training Series
by Robert A Gray , 1998