Electrical Engineering 

By on

Digital Scope
Electrical Engineering
Electrical engineering is a field that covers a wide variety of different areas and technology, including electricity and electronics. Modern electrical engineering covers everything from basic electronics to more advanced areas, such as power distribution, control systems and telecommunications.

It is a field that goes back over experiments throughout several centuries.  Today, electrical engineering is a mature and highly regulated discipline.

Depending on your interest, working in electrical engineering could see you creating billions of microscopic components on a computer chip to working on some of the largest and most powerful machines on the planet.  There is not a single industry or activity which is not touched by electrical engineering. 

People of all works of life take an active involvement in electrical engineering, from hobbyists building circuits and using armature radio to professional electricians and electrical engineers working in industry. Most hobbyists are self taught, whereas professionals invariably have formal training.

Electricians will generally have carried out apprenticeships, including practical works, course works and examinations. Electrical engineers typically have university degrees from three or four year courses.  For people intending to pursue a career in electrical engineering, a formal qualification is required.

Professional institutions also play a role, with qualified electricians and engineers joining these.  Membership of an appropriate institution recognises not only the educational background, but all time and experience gained working in the profession.

Typing ‘Electrical Engineering’ into Google brings up 176 million results; testament to the broad reach and appeal of the subject.  By finding your way to this needle in the haystack, you have found a great source of electrical engineering knowledge and community from which the learn or share your experiences.

myElectrical.com is dedicated to electrical engineering.  If you are looking to broaden your knowledge, or just find out a little bit about the subject hopefully our site will help.  If you are looking for something in particular you can try the search function.  If you just looking to browse the subject, try starting at our notes index



Steven McFadyen's avatar Steven McFadyen

Steven has over twenty five years experience working on some of the largest construction projects. He has a deep technical understanding of electrical engineering and is keen to share this knowledge. About the author

myElectrical Engineering

comments powered by Disqus

  1. ElecMan88's avatar ElecMan88 says:
    9/1/2011 2:11 PM

    Nice to see the blogs are back.

  2. ManjoloPhiri's avatar ManjoloPhiri says:
    9/1/2011 2:11 PM

    Agreed. As an experienced electrical Engineer I have found myself dealing more with instrumentation, electronic, networks, and process automation problems. Dont be surprised to hear that I have looked after mechanical aspects of crushers, diesel mining equipment, pump chambers, civil construction projects etc. In third world countries when you are an electrical engineer you can do anything!

  3. Steven's avatar Steven says:
    9/1/2011 2:11 PM

    I've also looked after chair lifts in mines, conveyor belts, rock hoisting systems and pumping systems. Electrical engineers are obviously a pretty versatile bunch of people. :) Experience outside our area of expertise is always good as it make us better engineers (and keeps us thinking).


Comments are closed for this post:
  • have a question or need help, please use our Questions Section
  • spotted an error or have additional info that you think should be in this post, feel free to Contact Us



Lightning Protection and Earth Electrode Resistance

Most installations involve some form of lightning protection system which is connected to an earth electrode.  The function of the earth electrode is to...

1,000 kV UHV First for China

At the beginning of the year China put the world's first 1,000 kV UHV transmission system into operation. Transmitting power at over a million volts is...

Earth Electrode Resistance

Earthing of electrical systems is essential for the correct functioning and the protecting of life and equipment in the event of faults.  The earth electrode...

New Mail Chimp

We've been sending out Newsletters on a regular basis for a few weeks now. To do this we have been using Google's Feedburner service. While Feedburner...

Power Transformers - An Introduction

One of the fundamental requirements of an alternating current distribution systems it to have the ability to change the magnitude of voltages.  It is more...

How D.C. to A.C. Inverters Work

Traditionally generation of electricity has involved rotating machines to produce alternating sinusoidal voltage and current (a.c. systems). With the development...

IEC 61439 Verification Methods

The (relatively new) switchgear and control gear standard, IEC 61439 'Low-voltage switchgear and controlgear assemblies' has three methods which can be...

Star-Delta Motor Starting - Performance

Many questions sent in to the site are in connection with motor starting and in particular star-delta.  For all but the simplest application, there is...

Low Voltage Circuit Breakers

Circuit breakers are switching devices whose primary function is to isolate parts of an electrical distribution system in the even of abnormal conditions...

DC Motor Operation

Coils of wire on the rotor carry a d.c. current which generates a magnetic field. A stator magnetic field is created using either permanent magnets or...

Have some knowledge to share

If you have some expert knowledge or experience, why not consider sharing this with our community.  

By writing an electrical note, you will be educating our users and at the same time promoting your expertise within the engineering community.

To get started and understand our policy, you can read our How to Write an Electrical Note