Electrical engineering

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Not to be confused with Electronic engineering.

Electrical engineering

A long row of disconnectors

Occupation

Names Electrical engineer

Activity Electronics, electrical

sectors
circuits, electromagnetics, power
engineering, electrical
machines, telecommunication, control
systems, signal
processing, optics, photonics,
and electrical substations

Description
Compete Technical knowledge, management
ncies skills, advanced mathematics, systems
design, physics, abstract thinking,
analytical thinking, philosophy of logic
(see also Glossary of electrical and
electronics engineering)

Fields of Technology, science, exploration, militar

employ
y, industry and society
ment

Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the

study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which
use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an
identifiable occupation in the latter half of the 19th century after
the commercialization of the electric telegraph, the telephone, and electrical
power generation, distribution, and use.

Electrical engineering is divided into a wide range of different fields,

including computer engineering, systems engineering, power
engineering, telecommunications, radio-frequency engineering, signal
processing, instrumentation, photovoltaic cells, electronics,
and optics and photonics. Many of these disciplines overlap with other
engineering branches, spanning a huge number of specializations including
hardware engineering, power electronics, electromagnetics and
waves, microwave engineering, nanotechnology, electrochemistry,
renewable energies, mechatronics/control, and electrical materials science.
[a]

Electrical engineers typically hold a degree in electrical engineering,

electronic or electrical and electronic engineering. Practicing engineers
may have professional certification and be members of a professional
body or an international standards organization. These include
the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), the Institute of
Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the Institution of
Engineering and Technology (IET, formerly the IEE).

Electrical engineers work in a very wide range of industries and the skills
required are likewise variable. These range from circuit theory to the
management skills of a project manager. The tools and equipment that an
individual engineer may need are similarly variable, ranging from a
simple voltmeter to sophisticated design and manufacturing software.

History
[edit]
Main article: History of electrical engineering
Electricity has been a subject of scientific interest since at least the early
17th century. William Gilbert was a prominent early electrical scientist, and
was the first to draw a clear distinction between magnetism and static
electricity. He is credited with establishing the term "electricity".[1] He also
designed the versorium: a device that detects the presence of statically
charged objects. In 1762 Swedish professor Johan Wilcke invented a
device later named electrophorus that produced a static electric charge. By
1800 Alessandro Volta had developed the voltaic pile, a forerunner of the
electric battery.[2]
19th century
[edit]

The discoveries of Michael Faraday formed the

foundation of electric motor technology.
In the 19th century, research into the subject started to intensify. Notable
developments in this century include the work of Hans Christian Ørsted,
who discovered in 1820 that an electric current produces a magnetic field
that will deflect a compass needle; of William Sturgeon, who in 1825
invented the electromagnet; of Joseph Henry and Edward Davy, who
invented the electrical relay in 1835; of Georg Ohm, who in 1827 quantified
the relationship between the electric current and potential difference in
a conductor; of Michael Faraday, the discoverer of electromagnetic
induction in 1831; and of James Clerk Maxwell, who in 1873 published a
unified theory of electricity and magnetism in his treatise Electricity and
Magnetism.[3]

In 1782, Georges-Louis Le Sage developed and presented

in Berlin probably the world's first form of electric telegraphy, using 24
different wires, one for each letter of the alphabet. This telegraph
connected two rooms. It was an electrostatic telegraph that moved gold leaf
through electrical conduction.

In 1795, Francisco Salva Campillo proposed an electrostatic telegraph

system. Between 1803 and 1804, he worked on electrical telegraphy, and
in 1804, he presented his report at the Royal Academy of Natural Sciences
and Arts of Barcelona. Salva's electrolyte telegraph system was very
innovative though it was greatly influenced by and based upon two
discoveries made in Europe in 1800—Alessandro Volta's electric battery for
generating an electric current and William Nicholson and Anthony Carlyle's
electrolysis of water.[4] Electrical telegraphy may be considered the first
example of electrical engineering.[5] Electrical engineering became a
profession in the later 19th century. Practitioners had created a
global electric telegraph network, and the first professional electrical
engineering institutions were founded in the UK and the US to support the
new discipline. Francis Ronalds created an electric telegraph system in
1816 and documented his vision of how the world could be transformed by
electricity.[6][7] Over 50 years later, he joined the new Society of Telegraph
Engineers (soon to be renamed the Institution of Electrical Engineers)
where he was regarded by other members as the first of their cohort.[8] By
the end of the 19th century, the world had been forever changed by the
rapid communication made possible by the engineering development of
land-lines, submarine cables, and, from about 1890, wireless telegraphy.

Practical applications and advances in such fields created an increasing

need for standardized units of measure. They led to the international
standardization of the units volt, ampere, coulomb, ohm, farad, and henry.
This was achieved at an international conference in Chicago in 1893.[9] The
publication of these standards formed the basis of future advances in
standardization in various industries, and in many countries, the definitions
were immediately recognized in relevant legislation.[10]

During these years, the study of electricity was largely considered to be a

subfield of physics since early electrical technology was
considered electromechanical in nature. The Technische Universität
Darmstadt founded the world's first department of electrical engineering in
1882 and introduced the first-degree course in electrical engineering in
1883.[11] The first electrical engineering degree program in the United States
was started at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the physics
department under Professor Charles Cross, [12] though it was Cornell
University to produce the world's first electrical engineering graduates in
1885.[13] The first course in electrical engineering was taught in 1883 in
Cornell's Sibley College of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanic Arts.[14]

In about 1885, Cornell President Andrew Dickson White established the

first Department of Electrical Engineering in the United States.[15] In the
same year, University College London founded the first chair of electrical
engineering in Great Britain.[16] Professor Mendell P. Weinbach at University
of Missouri established the electrical engineering department in 1886.
[17]
Afterwards, universities and institutes of technology gradually started to
offer electrical engineering programs to their students all over the world.

During these decades the use of electrical engineering increased

dramatically. In 1882, Thomas Edison switched on the world's first large-
scale electric power network that provided 110 volts—direct current (DC)—
to 59 customers on Manhattan Island in New York City. In 1884, Sir
Charles Parsons invented the steam turbine allowing for more efficient
electric power generation. Alternating current, with its ability to transmit
power more efficiently over long distances via the use of transformers,
developed rapidly in the 1880s and 1890s with transformer designs
by Károly Zipernowsky, Ottó Bláthy and Miksa Déri (later called ZBD
transformers), Lucien Gaulard, John Dixon Gibbs and William Stanley,
Jr. Practical AC motor designs including induction motors were
independently invented by Galileo Ferraris and Nikola Tesla and further
developed into a practical three-phase form by Mikhail Dolivo-
Dobrovolsky and Charles Eugene Lancelot Brown.[18] Charles
Steinmetz and Oliver Heaviside contributed to the theoretical basis of
alternating current engineering.[19][20] The spread in the use of AC set off in
the United States what has been called the war of the currents between
a George Westinghouse backed AC system and a Thomas Edison backed
DC power system, with AC being adopted as the overall standard.[21]
Early 20th century
[edit]
Guglielmo Marconi, known for his pioneering work on
long-distance radio transmission
During the development of radio, many scientists and inventors contributed
to radio technology and electronics. The mathematical work of James Clerk
Maxwell during the 1850s had shown the relationship of different forms
of electromagnetic radiation including the possibility of invisible airborne
waves (later called "radio waves"). In his classic physics experiments of
1888, Heinrich Hertz proved Maxwell's theory by transmitting radio
waves with a spark-gap transmitter, and detected them by using simple
electrical devices. Other physicists experimented with these new waves
and in the process developed devices for transmitting and detecting them.
In 1895, Guglielmo Marconi began work on a way to adapt the known
methods of transmitting and detecting these "Hertzian waves" into a
purpose built commercial wireless telegraphic system. Early on, he sent
wireless signals over a distance of one and a half miles. In December
1901, he sent wireless waves that were not affected by the curvature of the
Earth. Marconi later transmitted the wireless signals across the Atlantic
between Poldhu, Cornwall, and St. John's, Newfoundland, a distance of
2,100 miles (3,400 km).[22]

Millimetre wave communication was first investigated by Jagadish Chandra

Bose during 1894–1896, when he reached an extremely high frequency of
up to 60 GHz in his experiments.[23] He also introduced the use
of semiconductor junctions to detect radio waves,[24] when he patented the
radio crystal detector in 1901.[25][26]

In 1897, Karl Ferdinand Braun introduced the cathode-ray tube as part of

an oscilloscope, a crucial enabling technology for electronic television.
[27]
John Fleming invented the first radio tube, the diode, in 1904. Two years
later, Robert von Lieben and Lee De Forest independently developed the
amplifier tube, called the triode.[28]

In 1920, Albert Hull developed the magnetron which would eventually lead
to the development of the microwave oven in 1946 by Percy Spencer.[29]
[30]
In 1934, the British military began to make strides toward radar (which
also uses the magnetron) under the direction of Dr Wimperis, culminating in
the operation of the first radar station at Bawdsey in August 1936.[31]

In 1941, Konrad Zuse presented the Z3, the world's first fully functional and
programmable computer using electromechanical parts. In 1943, Tommy
Flowers designed and built the Colossus, the world's first fully functional,
electronic, digital and programmable computer.[32][33] In 1946,
the ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) of John Presper
Eckert and John Mauchly followed, beginning the computing era. The
arithmetic performance of these machines allowed engineers to develop
completely new technologies and achieve new objectives.[34]

In 1948, Claude Shannon published "A Mathematical Theory of

Communication" which mathematically describes the passage of
information with uncertainty (electrical noise).
Solid-state electronics
[edit]
See also: History of electronic engineering, History of the
transistor, Invention of the integrated circuit, MOSFET, and Solid-state
electronics
A replica of the first working transistor, a point-

contact transistor Metal–oxide–semiconductor

field-effect transistor (MOSFET), the basic building block of
modern electronics
The first working transistor was a point-contact transistor invented by John
Bardeen and Walter Houser Brattain while working under William
Shockley at the Bell Telephone Laboratories (BTL) in 1947.[35] They then
invented the bipolar junction transistor in 1948.[36] While early junction
transistors were relatively bulky devices that were difficult to manufacture
on a mass-production basis,[37] they opened the door for more compact
devices.[38]

The first integrated circuits were the hybrid integrated circuit invented
by Jack Kilby at Texas Instruments in 1958 and the monolithic integrated
circuit chip invented by Robert Noyce at Fairchild Semiconductor in 1959.[39]

The MOSFET (metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor, or MOS

transistor) was invented by Mohamed Atalla and Dawon Kahng at BTL in
1959.[40][41][42] It was the first truly compact transistor that could be
miniaturised and mass-produced for a wide range of uses.[37] It
revolutionized the electronics industry,[43][44] becoming the most widely used
electronic device in the world.[41][45][46]

The MOSFET made it possible to build high-density integrated circuit chips.

[41]
The earliest experimental MOS IC chip to be fabricated was built by Fred
Heiman and Steven Hofstein at RCA Laboratories in 1962.[47] MOS
technology enabled Moore's law, the doubling of transistors on an IC chip
every two years, predicted by Gordon Moore in 1965.[48] Silicon-gate MOS
technology was developed by Federico Faggin at Fairchild in 1968.[49] Since
then, the MOSFET has been the basic building block of modern
electronics.[42][50][51] The mass-production of silicon MOSFETs and MOS
integrated circuit chips, along with continuous MOSFET
scaling miniaturization at an exponential pace (as predicted by Moore's
law), has since led to revolutionary changes in technology, economy,
culture and thinking.[52]

The Apollo program which culminated in landing astronauts on the

Moon with Apollo 11 in 1969 was enabled by NASA's adoption of advances
in semiconductor electronic technology, including MOSFETs in
the Interplanetary Monitoring Platform (IMP)[53][54] and silicon integrated
circuit chips in the Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC).[55]

The development of MOS integrated circuit technology in the 1960s led to

the invention of the microprocessor in the early 1970s.[56][57] The first single-
chip microprocessor was the Intel 4004, released in 1971.[56] The Intel 4004
was designed and realized by Federico Faggin at Intel with his silicon-gate
MOS technology,[56] along with Intel's Marcian Hoff and Stanley Mazor and
Busicom's Masatoshi Shima.[58] The microprocessor led to the development
of microcomputers and personal computers, and the microcomputer
revolution.

Subfields
[edit]
One of the properties of electricity is that it is very useful for energy
transmission as well as for information transmission. These were also the
first areas in which electrical engineering was developed. Today, electrical
engineering has many subdisciplines, the most common of which are listed
below. Although there are electrical engineers who focus exclusively on
one of these subdisciplines, many deal with a combination of them.
Sometimes, certain fields, such as electronic engineering and computer
engineering, are considered disciplines in their own right.
Power and energy
[edit]
Main articles: Power engineering and Energy engineering
The top of a power pole
Power & Energy engineering deals with the generation, transmission,
and distribution of electricity as well as the design of a range of related
devices.[59] 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.[60] 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.
Telecommunications
[edit]
Main article: Telecommunications engineering

Satellite dishes are a crucial component in the

analysis of satellite information.
Telecommunications engineering focuses on the transmission of
information across a communication channel such as a coax cable, optical
fiber or free space.[61] Transmissions across free space require information
to be encoded in a carrier signal to shift the information to a carrier
frequency suitable for transmission; this is known as modulation. Popular
analog modulation techniques include amplitude modulation and frequency
modulation.[62] The choice of modulation affects the cost and performance of
a system and these two factors must be balanced carefully by the engineer.

Once the transmission characteristics of a system are determined,

telecommunication engineers design the transmitters and receivers needed
for such systems. These two are sometimes combined to form a two-way
communication device known as a transceiver. A key consideration in the
design of transmitters is their power consumption as this is closely related
to their signal strength.[63][64] Typically, if the power of the transmitted signal
is insufficient once the signal arrives at the receiver's antenna(s), the
information contained in the signal will be corrupted by noise, specifically
static.
Control engineering
[edit]
Main articles: Control engineering and Control theory

Control systems play a critical role in spaceflight.

Control engineering focuses on the modeling of a diverse range of dynamic
systems and the design of controllers that will cause these systems to
behave in the desired manner.[65] To implement such controllers, electronics
control engineers may use electronic circuits, digital signal
processors, microcontrollers, and programmable logic
controllers (PLCs). Control engineering has a wide range of applications
from the flight and propulsion systems of commercial airliners to the cruise
control present in many modern automobiles.[66] It also plays an important
role in industrial automation.
Control engineers often use feedback when designing control systems. For
example, in an automobile with cruise control the vehicle's speed is
continuously monitored and fed back to the system which adjusts
the motor's power output accordingly.[67] Where there is regular
feedback, control theory can be used to determine how the system
responds to such feedback.

Control engineers also work in robotics to design autonomous systems

using control algorithms which interpret sensory feedback to control
actuators that move robots such as autonomous vehicles, autonomous
drones and others used in a variety of industries.[68]
Electronics
[edit]
Main article: Electronic engineering

Electronic components
Electronic engineering involves the design and testing of electronic
circuits that use the properties of components such
as resistors, capacitors, inductors, diodes, and transistors to achieve a
particular functionality.[60] The tuned circuit, which allows the user of a radio
to filter out all but a single station, is just one example of such a circuit.
Another example to research is a pneumatic signal conditioner.

Prior to the Second World War, the subject was commonly known as radio
engineering and basically was restricted to aspects of communications
and radar, commercial radio, and early television.[60] Later, in post-war
years, as consumer devices began to be developed, the field grew to
include modern television, audio systems, computers,
and microprocessors. In the mid-to-late 1950s, the term radio
engineering gradually gave way to the name electronic engineering.

Before the invention of the integrated circuit in 1959,[69] electronic circuits

were constructed from discrete components that could be manipulated by
humans. These discrete circuits consumed much space and power and
were limited in speed, although they are still common in some applications.
By contrast, integrated circuits packed a large number—often millions—of
tiny electrical components, mainly transistors,[70] into a small chip around the
size of a coin. This allowed for the powerful computers and other electronic
devices we see today.
Microelectronics and nanoelectronics
[edit]
Main articles: Microelectronics, Nanoelectronics, and Chip design

Microprocessor
Microelectronics engineering deals with the design and microfabrication of
very small electronic circuit components for use in an integrated circuit or
sometimes for use on their own as a general electronic component.[71] 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 nanometer levels.

Modern devices are already in the nanometer regime, with below 100 nm
processing having been standard since around 2002.[72]

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.[73]
Signal processing
[edit]
Main article: Signal processing
A Bayer filter on a CCD requires signal
processing to get a red, green, and blue value at each pixel.
Signal processing deals with the analysis and manipulation of signals.
[74]
Signals can be either analog, 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 analog 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.[75]

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 biomedical engineering as many already existing
analog systems are replaced with their digital counterparts. Analog signal
processing is still important in the design of many control systems.

DSP processor ICs are found in many types of modern electronic devices,
such as digital television sets,[76] radios, hi-fi audio equipment, mobile
phones, multimedia players, camcorders and digital cameras, automobile
control systems, noise cancelling headphones, digital spectrum analyzers,
missile guidance systems, radar systems, and telematics systems. In such
products, DSP may be responsible for noise reduction, speech
recognition or synthesis, encoding or decoding digital media,
wirelessly transmitting or receiving data, triangulating positions using GPS,
and other kinds of image processing, video processing, audio processing,
and speech processing.[77]
Instrumentation
[edit]
Main article: Instrumentation engineering
Flight instruments provide pilots with the tools to
control aircraft analytically.
Instrumentation engineering deals with the design of devices to measure
physical quantities such as pressure, flow, and temperature.[78] The design
of such instruments requires a good understanding of physics that often
extends beyond electromagnetic theory. For example, flight
instruments measure variables such as wind speed and altitude to enable
pilots the control of aircraft analytically. Similarly, thermocouples use
the Peltier-Seebeck effect to measure the temperature difference between
two points.[79]

Often instrumentation is not used by itself, but instead as the sensors of

larger electrical systems. For example, a thermocouple might be used to
help ensure a furnace's temperature remains constant.[80] For this reason,
instrumentation engineering is often viewed as the counterpart of control.
Computers
[edit]
Main article: Computer engineering

Supercomputers are used in fields as diverse

as computational biology and geographic information systems.
Computer engineering deals with the design of computers and computer
systems. This may involve the design of new hardware. Computer
engineers may also work on a system's software. However, the design of
complex software systems is often the domain of software engineering,
which is usually considered a separate discipline.[81] Desktop
computers represent a tiny fraction of the devices a computer engineer
might work on, as computer-like architectures are now found in a range
of embedded devices including video game consoles and DVD players.
Computer engineers are involved in many hardware and software aspects
of computing.[82] Robots are one of the applications of computer
engineering.
Photonics and optics
[edit]
Main articles: Photonics and Optics
Photonics and optics deals with the generation, transmission, amplification,
modulation, detection, and analysis of electromagnetic radiation. The
application of optics deals with design of optical instruments such
as lenses, microscopes, telescopes, and other equipment that uses the
properties of electromagnetic radiation. Other prominent applications of
optics include electro-optical sensors and measurement
systems, lasers, fiber-optic communication systems, and optical disc
systems (e.g. CD and DVD). Photonics builds heavily on optical
technology, supplemented with modern developments such
as optoelectronics (mostly involving semiconductors), laser
systems, optical amplifiers and novel materials (e.g. metamaterials).

Related disciplines
[edit]

The Bird VIP Infant ventilator

Mechatronics is an engineering discipline which deals with the
convergence of electrical and mechanical systems. Such combined
systems are known as electromechanical systems and have widespread
adoption. Examples include automated manufacturing systems,[83] heating,
ventilation and air-conditioning systems,[84] and various subsystems of
aircraft and automobiles.[85] Electronic systems design is the subject within
electrical engineering that deals with the multi-disciplinary design issues of
complex electrical and mechanical systems.[86]

The term mechatronics is typically used to refer to macroscopic systems

but futurists have predicted the emergence of very small electromechanical
devices. Already, such small devices, known as microelectromechanical
systems (MEMS), are used in automobiles to tell airbags when to deploy,
[87]
in digital projectors to create sharper images, and in inkjet printers to
create nozzles for high definition printing. In the future it is hoped the
devices will help build tiny implantable medical devices and improve optical
communication.[88]

In aerospace engineering and robotics, an example is the most

recent electric propulsion and ion propulsion.

Education
[edit]
Main article: Education and training of electrical and electronics engineers

Oscilloscope
Electrical engineers typically possess an academic degree with a major in
electrical engineering, electronics engineering, electrical engineering
technology,[89] or electrical and electronic engineering.[90][91] The same
fundamental principles are taught in all programs, though emphasis may
vary according to title. The length of study for such a degree is usually four
or five years and the completed degree may be designated as a Bachelor
of Science in Electrical/Electronics Engineering Technology, Bachelor of
Engineering, Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Technology, or Bachelor of
Applied Science, depending on the university. The bachelor's
degree generally includes units covering physics, mathematics, computer
science, project management, and a variety of topics in electrical
engineering.[92] Initially such topics cover most, if not all, of the
subdisciplines of electrical engineering. At some schools, the students can
then choose to emphasize one or more subdisciplines towards the end of
their courses of study.

An example circuit diagram, which is useful

in circuit design and troubleshooting
At many schools, electronic engineering is included as part of an electrical
award, sometimes explicitly, such as a Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical
and Electronic), but in others, electrical and electronic engineering are both
considered to be sufficiently broad and complex that separate degrees are
offered.[93]

Some electrical engineers choose to study for a postgraduate degree such

as a Master of Engineering/Master of Science (MEng/MSc), a Master
of Engineering Management, a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Engineering,
an Engineering Doctorate (Eng.D.), or an Engineer's degree. The master's
and engineer's degrees may consist of either research, coursework or a
mixture of the two. The Doctor of Philosophy and Engineering Doctorate
degrees consist of a significant research component and are often viewed
as the entry point to academia. In the United Kingdom and some other
European countries, Master of Engineering is often considered to be an
undergraduate degree of slightly longer duration than the Bachelor of
Engineering rather than a standalone postgraduate degree.[94]

Professional practice
[edit]
Belgian electrical engineers inspecting the rotor of a 40,000
kilowatt turbine of the General Electric Company in New York City
In most countries, a bachelor's degree in engineering represents the first
step towards professional certification and the degree program itself is
certified by a professional body.[95] After completing a certified degree
program the engineer must satisfy a range of requirements (including work
experience requirements) before being certified. Once certified the
engineer is designated the title of Professional Engineer (in the United
States, Canada and South Africa), Chartered engineer or Incorporated
Engineer (in India, Pakistan, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Zimbabwe),
Chartered Professional Engineer (in Australia and New Zealand)
or European Engineer (in much of the European Union).

The IEEE corporate office is on the 17th floor

of 3 Park Avenue in New York City.
The advantages of licensure vary depending upon location. For example, in
the United States and Canada "only a licensed engineer may seal
engineering work for public and private clients".[96] This requirement is
enforced by state and provincial legislation such as Quebec's Engineers
Act.[97] In other countries, no such legislation exists. Practically all certifying
bodies maintain a code of ethics that they expect all members to abide by
or risk expulsion.[98] In this way these organizations play an important role in
maintaining ethical standards for the profession. Even in jurisdictions where
certification has little or no legal bearing on work, engineers are subject
to contract law. In cases where an engineer's work fails he or she may be
subject to the tort of negligence and, in extreme cases, the charge
of criminal negligence. An engineer's work must also comply with
numerous other rules and regulations, such as building codes and
legislation pertaining to environmental law.

Professional bodies of note for electrical engineers include the Institute of

Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the Institution of
Engineering and Technology (IET). The IEEE claims to produce 30% of the
world's literature in electrical engineering, has over 360,000 members
worldwide and holds over 3,000 conferences annually.[99] The IET publishes
21 journals, has a worldwide membership of over 150,000, and claims to
be the largest professional engineering society in Europe.[100]
[101]
Obsolescence of technical skills is a serious concern for electrical
engineers. Membership and participation in technical societies, regular
reviews of periodicals in the field and a habit of continued learning are
therefore essential to maintaining proficiency. An MIET(Member of the
Institution of Engineering and Technology) is recognised in Europe as an
Electrical and computer (technology) engineer.[102]

In Australia, Canada, and the United States, electrical engineers make up

around 0.25% of the labor force.[b]

Tools and work

[edit]
From the Global Positioning System to electric power generation, electrical
engineers have contributed to the development of a wide range of
technologies. They design, develop, test, and supervise the deployment of
electrical systems and electronic devices. For example, they may work on
the design of telecommunication systems, the operation of electric power
stations, the lighting and wiring of buildings, the design of household
appliances, or the electrical control of industrial machinery.[106]

Satellite communications is typical of what

electrical engineers work on.
Fundamental to the discipline are the sciences of physics and m