Electronic Engineering
When we look around we see many a products that are made or influenced by electronics engineering.
This branch of electronic engineering developed after
Nikola Telsa made the first public demonstration of radio communication and
Marconi made the first wireless radio transmission in the late 18th century.
Even day to day products like Televisions, cell phones, video games, computers
etc owe their origin to electronics engineers.
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It all started with Lee Dee Forest
inventing the Vacuum tube in 1907. In fact it was the electronic engineers who
invented the vacuum tubes, transistors, integrated circuits and
microprocessors. It is these products that led to the invention of early
computers. The electronic engineer Konrad Zuse invented Z3 which was the first
functional computer and this was followed by ENIAC( Electronic
Numerical integrator and Circuit) made by John Presper and John Mauchly which
marked the beginning of the computer era.The transitors were invented by
Shockley, Bardeen and Brattain which led to the reduction in size of the
computers. This was followed by Jack Kilby who invented the integrated Circuit,
for which he received the Nobel prize.
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The microprocessor as we know it today was made by Marcian Hoff that ignited
the development of computer engineering. Well, all the above mentioned people
were electronics engineers.
Before the IC was invented, electronic circuits were constructed from discrete
components and consumed large amounts of space. This was replaced by smaller
chips which had a large number of circuits, often millions on them, in the size
of a coin. So the next time you, relax in your couch and press the remote to
flip the channel, remember that it is an electronic engineer who has gifted you
this luxury.
An electronics engineering degree
involves the study of design and testing of electronic properties of components
such as transistors, capacitors, inductors and diodes for achieving a
particular function. An electrical engineer studies areas like electro
magnetics, Network theory, electronic devices and circuits, signals and
systems, control systems and communication. The electronic engineering is a
very broad filed and encompasses many subfield including computer systems,
embedded software, control systems etc.
In fact the electrical engineering stream has gifted mankind with many
inventions and companies that has made the life of a person more comfortable.
Amar Bose the man behind the Bose sound systems, William Hewlett and David
Packard, the people behind HP computers, Bill Joel the co founder of Sun
Microsystems and Steve Whitney the co founder of apple computers are all
electronic engineers.
The mouse that we take for granted when we operate a computer has been gifted
to the mankind by none other than another electronic engineer, Douglas Bradley.
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