<p>Hi,
I'm planning to go into EE, but I want to know more about its subfield, digital signal processing. Can someone please explain to me what that really is? Also, how well would I have to know electromagnetism if I want to go into that subfield? Should I take a course just in electromagnetism? Finally, what other types of EE subfields are popular right now? </p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>I found this in Wikipedia;</p>
<p>'' Electrical engineering has many sub-disciplines, the most popular of which are listed below. Although there are electrical engineers who focus exclusively on one of these sub-disciplines, many deal with a combination of them. Sometimes certain fields, such as electronic engineering and computer engineering, are considered separate disciplines in their own right.</p>
<p>Power</p>
<p>Power engineering deals with the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity as well as the design of a range of related devices. These include transformers, electric generators, electric motors 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. 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.</p>
<p>Control</p>
<p>Control engineering focuses on the modelling of a diverse range of dynamic systems and the design of controllers that will cause these systems to behave in the desired manner. To implement such controllers electrical engineers may use electrical circuits, digital signal processors and microcontrollers. 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. It also plays an important role in industrial automation.</p>
<p>Control engineers often utilize 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 speed accordingly. Where there is regular feedback, control theory can be used to determine how the system responds to such feedback.</p>
<p>Electronics</p>
<p>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. 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 (of a pneumatic signal conditioner) is shown in the adjacent photograph.</p>
<p>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. 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.</p>
<p>Before the invention of the integrated circuit in 1959, 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 numberoften millionsof tiny electrical components, mainly transistors, into a small chip around the size of a coin. This allowed for the powerful computers and other electronic devices we see today.</p>
<p>Microelectronics</p>
<p>Microelectronics engineering deals with the design of very small electronic components for use in an integrated circuit or sometimes for use on their own as a general electronic component. The most common microelectronic components are semiconductor transistors, although all main electronic components (resistors, capacitors, inductors) can be created at a microscopic level.</p>
<p>Most components are designed by determining processes to mix silicon with other chemical elements to create a desired electromagnetic effect. For this reason microelectronics involves a significant amount of quantum mechanics and chemistry.</p>
<p>Signal processing</p>
<p>Signal processing deals with the analysis and manipulation of signals. 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.</p>
<p>Telecommunications</p>
<p>Telecommunications engineering focuses on the transmission of information across a channel such as a coax cable, optical fibre or free space. Transmissions across free space require information to be encoded in a carrier wave in order 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. The choice of modulation affects the cost and performance of a system and these two factors must be balanced carefully by the engineer.</p>
<p>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. If the signal strength of a transmitter is insufficient the signal's information will be corrupted by noise.</p>
<p>Instrumentation engineering</p>
<p>Instrumentation engineering deals with the design of devices to measure physical quantities such as pressure, flow and temperature. The design of such instrumentation requires a good understanding of physics that often extends beyond electromagnetic theory. For example, radar guns use the Doppler effect to measure the speed of oncoming vehicles. Similarly, thermocouples use the Peltier-Seebeck effect to measure the temperature difference between two points.</p>
<p>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. For this reason, instrumentation engineering is often viewed as the counterpart of control engineering.</p>
<p>Computers</p>
<p>Computer engineering deals with the design of computers and computer systems. This may involve the design of new hardware, the design of PDAs or the use of computers to control an industrial plant. 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. 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 devices including video game consoles and DVD players. ''</p>
<p>
[quote]
Hi,
I'm planning to go into EE, but I want to know more about its subfield, digital signal processing. Can someone please explain to me what that really is? Also, how well would I have to know electromagnetism if I want to go into that subfield? Should I take a course just in electromagnetism? Finally, what other types of EE subfields are popular right now?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Check out this wikipedia article. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_signal_processing%5B/url%5D">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_signal_processing</a> </p>
<p>You won't need to know electromagnetism if you are interested in DSP. Microprocessors and signal theory (basically Fourier analysis) is what you will need to know backwards and forwards. However, you will have to take an electromagnetics course to graduate with an EE degree. </p>
<p>I would say present popular EE fields are nanodevices, robotics, and biomedical applications.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the replies. But I have another question: Does signal processing require much knowledge in Calc II (specifically series and sequences).
Thanks</p>
<p>Yes.</p>
<p>You'll be dealing with Fourier series and transforms a lot.</p>
<p>Ditto for yes.</p>
<p>My knockout course as an EE major (before I switched to being a Math major) was the Signals course (called Deterministic Communication Systems) and the Fourier Analysis will have integrals most of the time...which is Calc II.</p>
<p>I do not remember if vectors and double/triple integrals (Calc III) was in that course.</p>
<p>DSP is one of the most math-intensive branches of EE (and indeed, all of engineering). Most transforms you will have to learn to analyze signals involve complex integrals (in both senses), and you will use the notion of infinite series over and over again (for example, you will learn about Fourier Series).</p>
<p>I'm good in Calc III but not in Calc II, so does that mean that I should not even consider going into EE?</p>
<p>lol of course not.</p>
<p>The problem is that I am still undecided.........my interests, however, definitely lies in engineering, but I'm still not sure which one. However, I did narrow it down somewhat to: EE, CompE, MechE, Civ E, and IE. My other interests include: Multivariable Calc, physics, music, art. Not interested in: probability, chem, series and sequences. I know it's a pretty random list of my interests, but just based on this, which type of engineering should i really consider going into or eliminate from my list? I need serious help, since I have to declare my major soon.
Thanks</p>
<p>bump............</p>
<p>"Not interested in: probability, chem, series and sequences. I know it's a pretty random list of my interests, but just based on this, which type of engineering should i really consider going into or eliminate from my list? "</p>
<p>probability is a essential part of DSP, you can't do DSP without doing probability first, whether the there is interest or not.</p>
<p>Thank you for the reply, but what do you think i should go into based on my interests?
And also, about DSP, how well do we have to know probability?</p>
<p>The problem is that your list does not really lead to a single engineering discipline. What kind of design projects are you interested in? Bridges? Computers? Aircrafts? </p>
<p>My best guess from your list would have to be civil engineering, since you like physics and art. Perhaps look into that.</p>
<p>Thanks GatorEng23 for the help. Well, rt. now, I further narrowed my list to: MechE, Civ E, and EE. However, I'm still kind of stuck between my interests: music vs. art, since music has more to do with audio eng/EE, and art has more to do with CivE and MechE. Also, I'm not really good at chem, which has to do with CivE and MechE, as well as probability + series and sequences, which has to do with EE.</p>
<p>You only need one semester of chem for EE, mechE, or civE. Only a few areas in civil require a knowledge of chemistry, so I wouldn't worry about it.</p>
<p>GatorEng23,
do you know whether Rutgers has a good CivE program? How does their CivE program rank?</p>
<p>And one more question,
do we have to be really good at probability to be good at EE (DSP)?
thanks</p>
<p>Rutgers has a reasonable CivE program. It's not powerhouse, but it's good. You'd get a good education and you'd have good job offers if you end up with a decent GPA.</p>
<p>Don't worry about there being a lot of chem in civil engineering. Pretty much the only thing I use chemistry for nowadays is soil composition and corrosion and stuff. Whee, oxidation... Leo the Lion goes Ger.</p>
<p>Thank you, but do you think I should pursue CivE or should I stick with EE based on my interests?</p>
<p>"And one more question,
do we have to be really good at probability to be good at EE (DSP)? "</p>
<p>EE is too broad, if you want to stay away from probability, then you MUST stay away from digital (maybe analog as well) communication....actually you WOULD have to stay away from pretty much anything related to any sort of signal processing.</p>
<p>i dont know CivE very well, but i tink CivE is better shielded from offshoring-outsourcing.</p>