In this blog post, we will look at how the convergence of electricity and engineering has led to technological innovation and how it contributes to modern society and various industries.
When you think of the Department of Electrical Engineering, what kind of studies do you think it conducts? When people hear the word “electricity,” they usually think of static electricity, which can be felt on a cold winter day. And we also think of the power needed to light up a dark night and create a bright space or to operate home appliances. Electricity is an essential resource in modern society and is easily accessible. However, many people are not aware of what can be done when electricity and engineering come together.
In the past, the department was called the Department of Electrical Engineering, but it was recently renamed the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Why were electricity and information combined? There are many reasons, but I will explain what the Department of Electrical Engineering does using the reasons I think are the most important.
In electrical engineering, electricity can be divided into two main categories: electricity as energy and electricity as a signal. I am interested in the field of electricity as a signal, and this technology has already developed a lot and is having a big impact on various industries. It is even sometimes applied in the field of electrical energy. First, I will explain the field of electrical energy.
Energy can be understood as the driving force that makes objects move. Electricity, as energy, is generated at power plants, transmitted across the country, and used to operate various devices. People who major in electrical energy study how to efficiently produce electricity, store it in batteries, and transmit it without loss and at low cost.
Electric energy is more organized than other forms of energy, such as thermal energy. This means that even when it is transmitted over long distances, the original shape of the energy remains largely unchanged, resulting in less loss. Electric energy can also be easily converted into other forms of energy, making it suitable for handling the vast amount of energy used by humans. It is difficult to imagine life without electric energy because power engineers have developed it.
Next, I will explain electricity as a signal. Electricity as a signal is a more comprehensive concept than electricity as power. In electrical engineering, a signal is defined as a physical quantity that carries information. In particular, electrical physical quantities such as voltage are used as a medium of information. There are two fields: signal processing, which efficiently processes signals and converts them into a way that we can understand, and communication, which transmits and receives signals, such as radio and telephone. It can be said that it is a field that deals with signals themselves.
In order for us to be able to use this technology anytime, anywhere, we need more sophisticated technology. There is also a field of circuits that creates circuits that can amplify and store small signals sent to distant places through communication, and a field that creates semiconductor devices that make up the circuits. There are also devices that convert the processed signals into images and the field of electrophysics, as well as the field of systems that ensure that the system operates stably and the field of computers that process the information contained in the signals. As such, the discipline of handling voltage as a signal has developed to a high degree of precision.
The scope of electrical engineering is becoming wider and wider, and it is so diverse that even if we were to introduce only the detailed fields, we would need to devote a lot of space to them. This time, I would like to explain the electrical engineering technology applied to MRI. MRI can be said to be a collection of electrical engineering technologies. Basically, MRI uses a powerful electromagnet. You may have seen iron filings being attracted to the electromagnet in elementary school science class. The electromagnet built into MRI is much more powerful, so you cannot take an MRI with a metal object.
This powerful electromagnet aligns the water molecules in our bodies in the direction of the magnetic field. Normally, the electromagnetic force is in equilibrium and we cannot feel it, but when this equilibrium is broken, electrostatic phenomena occur or amazing things happen, such as lightning. In MRI, electromagnetic waves of a specific frequency are used to stimulate water molecules, which in turn emit electromagnetic waves. The strength of the electromagnetic waves emitted varies depending on the density of water, so this can be used to estimate the condition of the tissues in the body in the form of images.
In the early days of MRI, it took a long time to obtain signals, which sometimes caused patients to suffer from claustrophobia. However, as signal processing technology has advanced, it has become possible to obtain high-resolution images in a short period of time, and now it is even possible to see the beating of the heart in real time. As such, MRI is an amalgamation of electrical engineering technology and plays an important role in the precise processing of biological information.
Electrical engineering is already deeply ingrained in our daily lives and is being applied to various fields such as medicine, 3D imaging, and artificial intelligence. The field of electrical engineering is expanding, and in the future, it will develop into a field where computers can process signals more intelligently, not just signal processing.
