Electrical engineering

Electrical engineering is a field of engineering that involves the design, development, and maintenance of large-scale electrical systems, including power generation, transmission, and motor control. It has sub-divisions such as electronics, telephony, and satellite communications, as well as interdisciplinary applications with mechanical engineering to design turbines, generators, transmission lines, motors, and other related equipment. It is distinguished from electronic engineering, which focuses on the production of small-scale electronic systems such as communications, consumer electronics, computers, and integrated circuits.From: A path forward for the engineering and technology [2023], Control and Mechatronics [2018]

Introduction to Mechatronic Systems

View Chapter

Purchase Book

Published in Bogdan M. Wilamowski, J. David Irwin, Control and Mechatronics, 2018

Ren C. Luo, Chin F. Lin

The distinction between electrical and electronic engineering is usually confused. Generally, electrical engineering is considered to deal with the equipments associated with large-scale electrical systems, such as for power generation, power transmission, and motor control, whereas electronic engineering deals with the production of small-scale electronic systems including communications, consumer electronics, computers, and integrated circuits (ICs). Alternatively, electrical engineers are usually concerned with using electricity to convert energy, as in heaters, motors, and transformers, while electronic engineers are concerned with using electricity to transmit information, as through microchips and sensors.

A path forward for the engineering and technology

View Article

Journal Information

Published in Drying Technology, 2023

Farah Mneimneh, Seeram Ramakrishna

Electrical engineering may be said to have emerged as a discipline in 1864 when the Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell mathematically defined the basic rules of electricity and demonstrated that electromagnetic energy radiation moves through space at the speed of light. The demand for electrical engineers was not recognized until 40 years later when Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone (1876) and Thomas A. Edison invented the incandescent lamp (1878). Electrical engineering has now been sub-divided into electronics, telephony and satellite communications, electric light, power and their interdisciplinary applications with mechanical engineering to design turbines, generators, transmission lines, motors, etc.

Electrical engineering

Explore chapters and articles related to this topic

Introduction to Mechatronic Systems

A path forward for the engineering and technology