Electrical Engineer... Not Your Average Electrician

"Oh cool you are going to school for Electrical Engineering! My fiance just got his Journeyman's license." Whoa! Hold on there hair stylist! When I said I'm at NDSU for Electrical Engineering I think I lost you for a sec. Although I normally just go with it and switch the focus of the always interesting haircut small-talk, I feel like its important to correct this little mixup. Being mistaken for an Electrician has happened more than a few times so I'd like to help outline the Electrical Engineering profession to clear things up.

I think the mix up between Electrical Engineering and electrician is more of a familiarity issue than a true misunderstanding. It seems that everyone knows at least one close family member or friend who makes a living as an electrician. I have a few good friends in that field and my grandpa worked all the way up until retirement as an electrician. So when Electrical Engineering is brought up their minds automatically go towards what's familiar and that tends to be electrical infrastructure work done by electricians. Things like wiring buildings and working on power lines.

So what exactly is in the job description of an Electrical Engineer? A 4-year bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering opens many doors in many different fields. Electrical Engineers are broadly grouped into sub-disciplines such as power, control, electronics, and communications.

Power:

Electrical Engineers in the power systems field deal with the generation and distribution of electricity. They are the ones who design entire power grids, which means designing transformers, electric motors, and generators. So this sub-discipline directly overlaps with electricians who deal with high voltage power lines. In this case think of the Electrical Engineer as an architect who lays out and specifies blueprints and the electricians as the builders who construct the house.

Electric Motor Rotor

 

Control:

This field is all about designing systems to control dynamic objects. This could involve programming devices such as microcontrollers to utilize feedback such as pressure/temperature/voltage/etc in order to control an output. Cruise control in your vehicle is a great example of a system designed by an Electrical Engineer. The system reads in the speed of the vehicle and adjusts the throttle in order to maintain that speed.

Electronics:

This is my favorite and most familiar area. Electronic design engineers deal in the world of circuit boards. They deal with the design, layout, and programming of the components that populate circuit boards. The circuit boards known as PCB's are often comprised of thousands of components that are connected through traces which are interweaved through the boards which are often 8 to 12 layers thick. A completed PCB will offer a variety of functions but of course the most common thing people picture is the circuit board inside of your computer.



Example of a PCB



Communications:

Electrical Engineers in the communications field are the minds behind wireless internet, cell phones, radios, tv's, and of course much more! They are all about data transmission with expertise in not only how the information is transmitted and deciphered but also the design of antennas and cabling used.

My personal focus has been the electronics area and I have designed a handful of boards through my recent Electrical Engineering co-op. I got to work on quite a few different board designs of my own and learned the entire process. I used programs such as Altium for schematics and board layout. Then after ordering boards I did some hands on soldering of the components and went through functionality testing.

 

Small touchscreen controller PCB I designed

 Of course this is just a taste of what goes on in the Electrical Engineering world but I hope it brings a little more clarity to the field. Hope you guys enjoyed this quick overview and don't hesistate to post any questions you might have below! I'm happy with my choice in majoring in Electrical Engineering and would be greatful to provide any help to those looking to enter the field as well!