My engineering education challenged me
to reach for the stars. And one day
I found myself standing on the moon...
Gene Cernan, Commander, Apollo XVII
In the 1700s, Benjamin Franklin, Alessandro Volta, Luigi Galvani, and other early thinkers sought to understand the nature of an unseen, unnamed energy. Their test materials consisted of such things as kites, frogs' legs, zinc, and salt water. But their findings allowed pioneers in the 18OOs--Ampere, Faraday, Ohm, and Oersted--to discover the electrical properties known as charge, resistance, potential, and current, and the dynamics among them.
Within the next hundred years, Charles Wheatstone and Samuel F. B. Morse had developed electrical communication, resulting in networks of telegraph lines over land and under the sea. The telephone was beginning to transform the concept of communication within cities, while Edison's incandescent light shone in factories, stores, schools, and homes. In 1904 John Ambrose Fleming's diode tube harnessed the electron in a revolutionary way. Electronics was born.
As the heirs to Faraday's and Flemings work, today's electrical, electronics, and computer engineers, technologists, and technicians continue to revolutionize the way we live. We depend on the hundreds of thousands of these individuals who design, produce, operate and maintain a vast array of equipment and services.
Radio, television, telephones, computers, airplanes, space vehicles, automobiles, refrigerators and heaters, office machinery and home appliances, life-saving medical equipment and Martian battles fought with joysticks represent a mere sampling of the now familiar facets of life made possible by engineers, technologists and technicians. In our age of satellite-transmitted television and transcontinental computer networks, the challenges and opportunities in this dedicated profession continue to mushroom. Today's careers, like electricity itself, have enormous potential.
The implementation of ideas through new products, systems, and services is the essence of engineering as a socially responsible profession. The rapid changes in electrical, electronics, and computer technology and the diversity of applications require a broad educational background and a lifelong commitment to learning new and specialized information.
This blog describes some of the many challenging careers in electrical, electronics, and computer engineering and the educational path necessary to become an engineer, technologist, or technician. Whether you're a student, faculty advisor, or parent, this information will help you make sound decisions about a lifetime pursuit.
Your Career as an Electrical Engineer
Electrical engineering is a profession that uses science, technology, and problem-solving skills to design, construct, and maintain products, services, and information systems. Electrical engineering is the historical name for what is now called electrical, electronics, and computer engineering.
Typically electrical engineers have earned a Bachelor's or Master's degree in engineering in areas that include electronics, electrical engineering, or computer engineering. A junior engi- neer may spend the first year or two on the job learning the company's products and design procedures before choosing a technical specialty. Job responsibilities include specification, design, development, and implementation of products or systems, as well as research to create new ideas. This role provides a number of challenges ranging from problem identification and the selection of appropriate technical solutions, materials, test equipment, and procedures, to the manufacture and production of safe, economical, high-performance products and services.
An electrical engineer may choose to couple the technical aspects of a position with management responsibilities. The technical expertise required for management today is increasing because of the explosion of knowledge in engineering, technology, and science.
A Bachelor of Science degree in engineering with a specialty in electrical engineering may also serve as a starting point for careers in many other diverse fields, ranging from business to law, medicine, and politics, since the problem-solving skills acquired in an electrical engineering program provide an extraordinarily valuable asset. The same skills will equip you to assume leadership roles in your community and in professional circles outside the workplace.
In addition to the primary fields of electrical, electronics, and computer engineering, a Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering serves as an appropriate base for several allied fields. These include, for example, biomedical engineering, com- puter science, and aerospace engineering.
Here are some typical job titles for engineers:
- Design Engineer
- Project Engineer
- Engineering Specialist
- Chief Engineer
- Quality Control Engineer
- Software Engineer
- Development Engineer
- Reliability Engineer
- Research Engineer
- Systems Design Engineer
- Field Engineer
- Test Engineer
- Sales Engineer
Your Career as a Computer Scientist
Computer science may be a viable alternative for those who are interested in applying mathematics and science toward the solution of technical problems and who enjoy working with computers but do not desire to pursue a career in engineering. Computer science stresses the more theoretical aspects of both computers and computation.
In many instances, the computer science program is part of the school (college) of engineering or the school of engineering and applied science. In this situation, the first year or two of the computer science program may have considerable commonality with the computer engineering program. After that, the two paths diverge, with the computer science program placing more emphasis on data structures involving additional mathematics, programming languages, and other software concepts.
In other situations, the computer science program may be part of another department of the university and have little if any commonality with the computer engineering program.
Your Career as a Technologist or Technician
Career paths for engineers, technologists, and technicians vary in many ways. Just as the amount and content of education required for these three positions vary, so do professional responsibilities. In general, an engineer's position stresses theory, analysis, and design. A technologist's job incorporates applications of theory, analysis, and design, and a technician is involved with fabricating, operating, testing and troubleshooting, and maintaining existing equipment or systems.
Engineers, technologists, and technicians join together to form a problem-solving and solution-implementing team. A possible scenario could be described this way. An engineer uses theory and design methods to develop products and systems. The design concept is then given to a technologist, who has the responsibility for transforming the concept into a prototype or product. The device is passed to a technician, who is responsible for testing it to confirm the specifications or operation as originally designed. In actual practice, the interactions among members of the team can vary considerably.
Your Education and Employment as a Technologist
Typically, a technologist will have completed a Bachelor of Engineering Technology (BET) or Bachelor of Science in Engineering Technology (BSET) in the field of electrical, electronics, or computer engineering. Employment opportunities range from design operations or sales to project management.
Your Education and Employment as a Technician
Technicians are generally required to complete one to two years of specialized education, usually leading to ail Associate's degree. While technicians are not responsible for designing products or systems, job satisfaction comes from "hands-on" involvement with these products and systems. Technicians typically install, test, and maintain products in the field and are integral to the manufacturing process.
Typical job titles for technologists and technicians include:
Technologist:
| Technician:
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