Electrical and Electronic Engineer Career Description

There are many similarities though also differences, between electrical and electronics engineering. In earlier years electronics engineering was known as "low-voltage' and electrical engineering as "high-voltage'. This classification is not correct or relevant any more. The difference lies in terms of information associated with electronics engineering and electrical energy that goes together with electrical engineering. With the above-mentioned as basis we can now look at what electrical and electronics engineering exactly are.

Electronic engineering :

Electronic engineering is that branch of engineering that has the specific goal of extending and supplementing the human senses and skills. It has to do with the obtainment, assimilation, control, transmission and distribution of information. Examples of electronic engineering are as follows:


» The use of an infra-red camera to "see" in the dark - an example of obtaining information. Phenomena that cannot be observed by humans, are transformed by electronic technology to observable phenomena.

» The use of computers to solve complicated problems and to assimilate signals assimilation of information.

» The control of mechanical and chemical processes through electronic systems control of information.

» International telephone conversations and video phones - transference of information.

» Mass media such as radio and television distribution of information.

Electrical engineering :

Electrical engineering is a wide field of study, which comprises all aspects of energy systems. It has to do with the generation, distribution and optimal application of electrical energy. Examples of these are:

» Thermic coal power-stations - here chemical energy is transformed to electrical energy - an example of the generation of electrical energy.

» The use of sun cells and wind-chargers to transform wind and sun energy into electrical energy - two examples of alternative ways to generate electrical energy .

» Transmission lines that cross the country, substations and eventually the separation box in a residence - distribution of electrical energy.

Just think for a moment how your day would be during a total power failure - this will give you a good idea of how electrical energy is applied to benefit all people. Even for those who do not have electricity at home it will be easy to see the advantages of electrification.

New technologies such as new materials, super computers, super-wiring and driving electronics are responsible for great innovations / strides in electrical energy techniques.

Electrical and electronic engineers are busy with the fulfilment of a phase (or phases) of the engineering process, especially with relation to the electrical and electronic related disciplines. This process comprises various aspects including studying, problem formulation, setting up specifications, pre-studies and analysis, design, simulation, research, development, testing, realisation, marketing, maintenance of electrical and electronic components, subsystems and systems. Electrical and electronic engineers are not necessarily involved with all the phases mentioned above, but usually specialise in one or more.

Within electrical and electronic engineering there are various disciplines in which the engineer can specialise. This includes electromagnetism, energy systems, computer engineering, bio-engineering, electrical machinery, signal assimilation, telecommunication, control systems, photonics, acoustics and micro-electronics. Many engineers are in management positions where they, to some extent do technical engineering work.

Electronic and electrical engineers typically work in offices or design centres. Depending on the nature of the work, the engineers usually spend a lot of time in the laboratory. The electrical engineers frequently find themselves in large constructions and / or installations such as power-stations. The nature and range of modern electrical and electronic engineering are such that practising engineers are usually always close to a computer.

Requirements

What kind of personality do I need? The electrical and electronic engineer should have the following characteristics: independent thoughts, an urgency to create, imagination and vision, above-average intelligence and a keenness to learn, combined with logical reasoning. The engineer must be capable of identifying a problem and must then try to find the best solution as fast as possible and at the lowest cost. Sometimes the optimum solution requires unlogical thinking. They must also have a aptitude and a liking for Mathematics, be innovative and have the potential to work independently, as well as part of a team.

Where can I work?

The electronic and electrical industries are nowadays the fastest growing. Electrical and electronic engineers work in a wide spectrum of organisations and firms. This includes private consultation firms and development laboratories, large and small private companies involved with design, development, production and marketing of electronic systems, subsystems and components of products, as well as government and semigovernment organisations.

Can I work for myself in this occupation?

Electrical and electronic engineers are being trained to see themselves not only as potential employees, but also as potential employers. By becoming entrepreneurs they can create a better society through the creation of jobs. Through the use of modern technology the electrical or electronic entrepreneur can compete on the international market. Exports, surely the most important form of creating prosperity for a country, can be affected. Another potential market for the young entrepreneur is import replacement.

http://www.career-descriptions.co.uk/
http://wikipedia.org

Finding Erasmus Internship Company

Erasmus Student Mobility Program provides international internships for students in European region.An International internship is so beneficial for an engineer's career.

I also did my internship in Germany with this program. The part for winning this internship with scholarship is not so diffucult. But as most students know to find a company is so diffucult.

If someone had chance to go abroad with this program ,s/he has to find the company. International Office does not help about this situation.

After exam, I started to look international companies about my field (Electrical /Electronics Engineering) , I prepared a CV and a Cover Letter . And I sent this two documents with my transcript to companies. I found these companies on google. I just searched for "The best engineering companies" , "electrical engineering institutes" . I sent mails approximately to 150 companies. Most of them sent me answer and said "we don't have available position fixed with your CV". But I didn't give off , I sent atgain and again. At the last I found a international institute in Germany. And We signed some documents and I was accepted to this institute.

So, If you want to find some companies to do your international Erasmus internship , you must look for institutes at first. Beucause they benefits from your experiences and they do not pay you money. So It is more possible that they can accept you . If you want to find a company ,you must be so succesful and you must have very good language skills. It is diffucult.

If you want to do your internship in abroad, just look for institutes related with your field.

BUILDING MORE EFFICIENT SOLAR CELLS

Solar cells must become efficient and less expensive in order to better compete with tradional, non-renewable sources of energy. Important steps have been taken toward realising this goal by researches in Spain and Germany. Solar cells fabricated from Copper Indium Gallium diSelenide(CIGS),significantly more efficient and converting incident sunlight into electricity and conventional cells made from amorphous Silicon (a-Si). The problem is that they are considerably more expensive to manufacture.


Two Spanish (CEMAT and INASMENT) and two German (IPE and ZSW) organisations specialising in renewable energy research combined their resources and knowledge to adress this challenge. Part of their research focused on various treatments of the metals used as supstraight for the CIGS film. The smoother the substrate, the better. Different methods, including electrochemical and mechanical polishing as well as SiOx deposition were tested on two metals :ferritici chromium steel and titanium.

The resulting foils were assessed for smoothness using atomic-scale analysis methods like Scanning Electon Microscopy(SEM), Atomic Force Microscopy(AFM) and Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry(SIMS). The results of the analysis indicate that mechanical polishing is preferable. The Spanish and German scientist also evaluated the effectiveness of adding the electric and conductive layers on top of the foils to block contamination of CIGS film by the metallic substrate. The outcome of the joint effort is a new chemical treatment that eliminates harmfull elements before they accumulate to destructive levels. The consortium is looking to extend this researches further in order to ultimately make CIGS technology economically competitive with that of a-Si.

Future of Fossil Fuels

EIA's latest numbers shows a continuous growth in energy consumption, led by China and India.

For those hoping for a quick transition to cleaner energy sources, the numbers are sobering. The world's energy consumption is projected to continue to rise at a rapid pace, increasing by 53 percent by 2035, with much of that growth coming from China and India, according to numbers released by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Fossil fuels will continue to be, by far, the dominant source of that energy, supplying 78 percent of the world's energy in 2035, says the EIA.


But it is in the renewables statistics that are truly revealing. Even though it they the fastest growing source of energy, renewables will still represent only 15 percent of the world's energy in 2035 (up from 10 percent today). Oil, coal, and natural gas will still dominate—and will grow at a relatively robust rate over the next two decades. Though no surprise, the EIA's numbers are reality check on the challenge ahead for clean technologies if they are to make an impact in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

EIA's important caveat: its projection "does not incorporate prospective legislation or policies that might affect energy markets."

technologyreview.com

Windows 8

Microsoft has previewed Windows 8, described as “a reimagining” of the platform that’s now designed to scale from small screens to large, with or without touch and/or a keyboard. In a new video demo, which you can see after the cut, Microsoft shows its new Windows 8 Start screen, heavily influenced by the Metro UI from Windows Phone with Live Tiles that include notifications and app content previews. Many of the more obvious changes seem intended to make Windows 8 more tablet-friendly, allowing Microsoft to take on not only OS X on the desktop but iOS on the iPad.

For instance, there’s hardware-optimized browsing in Internet Explorer 10, redesigned to suit touch-navigation, and indeed Windows 8 supports hardware acceleration with ARM-based SoCs. NVIDIA, Texas Instruments and others have announced their support for Windows on ARM, and we can expect slates and ultraportables using the Microsoft platform and frugal ARM chips like Kal-El and the OMAP4470. Of course, there’ll be plenty of x86 Intel and AMD support too, and at Microsoft’s demo at D9 2011 this week they used Intel-based PCs rather than ARM.

Multitasking is a key part of Windows, and one Microsoft intends to preserve across on tablets. There’s the ability to snap and resize an app to the side of the screen, allowing two apps – say, one intended for mobile and one a desktop app that you’d more normally find on a regular PC – to be shown at the same time, while Microsoft is also readying a Windows Store for on-device downloads.

Those apps can either be the regular “full fat” type we’re already familiar with from Windows 7, or they can be coded in HTML5 and JavaScript, “full-screen and touch-optimized” according to VP of Windows Experience Julie Larson-Green.

Still no word on exact release dates, and even “Windows 8″ is getting the inverted-commas treatment since Microsoft says the name isn’t finalized yet.

Press Release:

Previewing ‘Windows 8’

Article by Julie Larson-Green, corporate vice president, Windows Experience.

REDMOND, Wash. – June 1, 2011 – Today, at the D9 Conference, we demonstrated the next generation of Windows, internally code-named “Windows 8,” for the first time. Windows 8 is a reimagining of Windows, from the chip to the interface. A Windows 8-based PC is really a new kind of device, one that scales from touch-only small screens through to large screens, with or without a keyboard and mouse.

The demo showed some of the ways we’ve reimagined the interface for a new generation of touch-centric hardware. Fast, fluid and dynamic, the experience has been transformed while keeping the power, flexibility and connectivity of Windows intact.



Here are a few aspects of the new interface we showed today:

• Fast launching of apps from a tile-based Start screen, which replaces the Windows Start menu with a customizable, scalable full-screen view of apps.
• Live tiles with notifications, showing always up-to-date information from your apps.
• Fluid, natural switching between running apps.
• Convenient ability to snap and resize an app to the side of the screen, so you can really multitask using the capabilities of Windows.
• Web-connected and Web-powered apps built using HTML5 and JavaScript that have access to the full power of the PC.
• Fully touch-optimized browsing, with all the power of hardware-accelerated Internet Explorer 10.

We also showed effortless movement between existing Windows programs and new Windows 8 apps. The full capabilities of Windows continue to be available to you, including the Windows Explorer and Desktop, as does compatibility with all Windows 7 logo PCs, software and peripherals.

Although the new user interface is designed and optimized for touch, it works equally well with a mouse and keyboard. Our approach means no compromises — you get to use whatever kind of device you prefer, with peripherals you choose, to run the apps you love. This is sure to inspire a new generation of hardware and software development, improving the experience for PC users around the world.

Today, we also talked a bit about how developers will build apps for the new system. Windows 8 apps use the power of HTML5, tapping into the native capabilities of Windows using standard JavaScript and HTML to deliver new kinds of experiences. These new Windows 8 apps are full-screen and touch-optimized, and they easily integrate with the capabilities of the new Windows user interface. There’s much more to the platform, capabilities and tools than we showed today.

We are excited to bring an innovative new platform and tools to developers and see how their creativity jumpstarts a new generation of apps. Windows 8 apps can use a broad set of new libraries and controls, designed for fluid interaction and seamless connectivity. Apps can add new capabilities to Windows and to other apps, connecting with one another through the new interface. For example, we showed today how a developer can extend the file picker control to enable picking from their own app content or from within another Windows 8 app, in addition to the local file system and the network. We’re just getting started.

And this isn’t just about touch PCs. The new Windows experience will ultimately be powered by application and device developers around the world — one experience across a tremendous variety of PCs. The user interface and new apps will work with or without a keyboard and mouse on a broad range of screen sizes and pixel densities, from small slates to laptops, desktops, all-in-ones, and even classroom-sized displays. Hundreds of millions of PCs will run the new Windows 8 user interface. This breadth of hardware choice is unique to Windows and central to how we see Windows evolving.,

The video below introduces a few of the basic elements of the new user interface. Although we have much more to reveal at our developer event, BUILD (Sept. 13 – 16 in Anaheim, Calif.), we’re excited to share our progress with you.

Today’s demonstration followed our announcements earlier this year about Windows 8 running on System on a Chip (SoC) processors, and our browser engine innovations and significantly increased standards support in Internet Explorer 10. Windows 8 extends these innovations and reimagines every level of the Windows architecture — the kernel, networking, storage, devices, user interface — all building on the broadest and richest ecosystem of software, peripherals and devices.

We have so much more on the way! We’re working very hard to get the product ready for early testing, and we plan to kick off our engineering dialogue through our team blog, just as we did for Windows 7.

So please stay tuned — we have a lot of cool innovation coming in the months ahead.

By Julie Larson-Green
Corporate Vice President, Windows Experience

Cars Fuelled By Hydrogen !

New technology cars ended most of pollution and they used up fossil fuels. Future estimations are that hydrogen cars with combination of electricity and solar source, are the transportation future.

Some devices that are the size of microwave ovens may be all you need to fuel your car in future. Using small device,hydrogen could be cleanly obtained from water and power family car for up to 150 kilometers.



It's an interesting idea by using hydrogen as a fuel.But converting water into hydrogen and oxygen is a highly costly process and it is dangerous too.Because there is a high chance of explosion since it can be take place only at high pressure.



But there is a real prediction that hydrogen is definitely the fuel of future...

Interesting Facts About Ice

Ice the crystalline solid formed when water freezes covers 10 per cent of the Earth’s land mass, and forms seven per cent of the oceans.

Ever wondered what makes some ice cloudy? It’s tiny, trapped air bubbles which refract the light. This is particularly true in home-made ice cubes, because the water used is generally from the tap, which becomes aerated as it pours.
Water expands as it freezes, and freezes from the outside in, so the air is pushed to the centre of the cube, which is why ice cubes tend to have particularly opaque centres.

If you want to make perfectly clear ice, use bottled water, boil it briefly to drive out any air, and freeze it in the pan you’ve boiled it in to avoid incorporating any air.

Hot ice

Hot water freezes faster than cold water. Aristotle first noted this in the fourth century BC, but it was only accepted by modern science due to the persistence of a Tanzanian schoolboy called Erasto Mpemba who, in 1963, proved it by repeatedly demonstrating that a hot
ice-cream mixture set more quickly than cold. We still don’t know why.

Cold ice

Air is the key ingredient in ice cream; up to a quarter of the finished article is made from trapped particles of air. Beating the mixture incorporates more air but also prevents large ice crystals from forming, which would make it unpleasantly grainy and hard.

This difference in ice cream’s cooling texture has led Maria Brumm, an Earth scientist from Seattle, to describe it as a form of igneous or volcanic rock – under a microscope its structure is almost identical to that of lava.

Glass ice

Water doesn’t always freeze at 0C (32F): it needs something for its molecules to latch on to. Ice crystals form around “nuclei”, such as small particles of dust. If there are none of these, you can get the temperature of water down to -42C (-44F) before it freezes in a process known as “supercooling”.

It has to be done slowly, but cooling water extremely fast has a completely different effect. It bypasses the ice stage (which has a regular crystalline lattice structure) and transforms into a chaotic amorphous solid known as “glassy water” (so called because the random arrangement of molecules is similar to that found in glass).


To form “glassy water” you need to get the water temperature down to -137C (-215F) in a few milliseconds. You won’t find glassy water outside the lab on Earth, but it’s the most common form of water in the universe – it’s what comets are made from.

Lake ice

The most coveted ice at fancy dinner parties in late 19th-century London came from Lake Wenham in Massachusetts. The company, Wenham Lake Ice, had a shop in the Strand. Every day they put a fresh block of ice in the window with a newspaper behind it so that passers-by could marvel at how clear the ice was.


The shop window was regularly crowded with people staring at the ice. It was used by Queen Victoria and her entourage at Buckingham Palace and had the Royal Warrant. It was shipped to England insulated with sawdust. The first shipment of ice to Britain baffled customs officers who had no idea how to classify it; it was stuck at the border for so long all 300 tons of it melted.

Later, the Norwegians changed the name of Lake Oppegard near Oslo to Lake Wenham so they could tap into the market. By the Fifties most of the block ice sold in Britain was imported from Norway.

www.telegraph.co.uk

Building Rotates 360 Degrees!

A company in Brazil which name is Suite Vollard builded a building in which each floor can rotate 360 degrees. Each building has 11 apartments and each apartment can spin individually in any direction. One rotation takes a full hour, but apartment owner can set rotation speed through apartment control panel. Facades are made of three different types of glass which give wonderful effects when building spins during the sunset. Cost of each apartment is $US 300,000.000.

Guatemala Sinkhole

Heavy rains from tropical storm Agatha likely triggered the collapse of a huge sinkhole in Guatemala.

In the strictly geologic use of the word, a sinkhole happens when water erodes solid bedrock, carving an underground cavity that can then collapse. Many parts of the United States are at risk for that sinkhole dangerous.




The Guatemala sinkhole fits into a broader use of the term, which refers to any sudden slump of the ground’s surface. Instead of solid bedrock, much of Guatemala City rests a top a layer of loose, gravelly volcanic pumice that is hundreds of feet thick. And at least one geologist says leaking pipes,not nature,created the recent sinkhole.


Overall, the risk for repeat sinkholes in Guatemala City is high but highly unpredictable.

Tesla Coil !

Tesla coil is an awesome invention of Nikola Tesla; this material is actually a transformer. Transformers are usually step-up or step-down types which increase or decrease the input current respectively. The Tesla Coil is an air-core transformer with high frequencies.









It is a step up transformer which increases the given 120 volts AC to nearly 100,000 volts. The discharge is usually in the form of electrical arc. These unbelievable coils have in the past were known to light up florescent lights which were almost 50 feet away, wirelessly.


The other fact is that there is a direct conversion of electricity to light which does not need the electrodes, unlike the normal lights. What it means is that, the florescent lights which have already burnt out can also produce light.

How much power Google consumes !

The giant of the web Google revealed its energy use for the first time.

Google is the first web firm to reveal how much energy it consumes, this information will help researchers understand how the massive explosion of Internet consumption and cloud computing is contributing to global energy consumption.

Google consumes 260 million watts continuously across the world,the company reported on Wednesday. This is equivalent to the power used by all the houses in Richmond, Virginia, or Irvine, California (around 200,000 houses), and nearly a quarter of the output of a standard nuclear power plant.


Until now, the most of Google's energy use is tied up in its data storage centers, according to Jonathan Koomey who is a professor at Stanford University and a researcher who focuses on energy and IT. He says that nearly 220 million of these watts are used only by the company's data centers, based on figures Google showed him . Most of this energy is used in cooling data center systems. Google custom builds many data centers, for example a new one in Finland that uses a seawater cooling system, to cool the system.

This has made Google to be relatively energy efficient, says Koomey, who estimates that the company owns about 3 percent of servers worldwide and uses only 1 percent of electricity for data centers worldwide. "They're operating more efficiently than other data centers," he says.

In its report, Google compares the energy usage of companies' in-house computer systems to the energy used by its cloud servers. It estimates that running Gmail instead of an in-house e-mail system can be almost 80 times more efficient .Google says that 25 percent of its energy was generated by renewable fuels, from wind farm in 2011, and plan to increase that to 30 percent this year.

Sherif Akoush, a researcher at the University of Cambridge who studies IT energy consumption, indicates that Google could be even more energy efficient, and notes that the company's environmental works will continue to rise. "Google tackles this problem mainly by using power purchase agreements from green sources, which offset basically the emissions from its data centers," says Akoush. Instead, "it should just try to apply more radical solutions like green energy and be a zero-carbon company instead of pumping waste then trying to clean it up."

Bruce Nordman who is a researcher at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, notes that most IT-related energy usage occurs from homes and offices, and not major data centers.

Google says that an average search uses .3 watt-hours of electricity. But Nordman points out that cutting back on Google searches is not going to save a significant amount of energy. "Something like having your display go to sleep a little faster would probably save more energy," he says.

He adds, "since there's more consumption [in homes and offices], there's potentially more savings and yet that's not what gets the attention."

technologyreview.com

Car to Car Communication !

Recent technology would allow cars to talk each other,helping to prevent accidents and make better traffic flow that is about to get a real world road test following new which is funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Most of high technology cars already produced with sensors capable of spotting a vehicle in a driver's blind spot, or warning that the car is drifting out of lane,but these technologies, which use radar, laser, or video sensors are limited. Car to car communications could provide more well-rounded earlier warnings, for example, when a car several vehicles ahead brakes suddenly.



Last days, the DOT awarded $14.9 million to the University of Michigan's Transportation Research Institute to test the technology, known as vehicle to vehicle and vehicle to defense system communication. The system to be tested relies on dedicated short-range radio communication to allow cars to signal one another and take messages from traffic equipment.

The DOT estimates that 80% accidents could be prevented by this technology. "This is the next big security progress, one that is comparable with safety belts, airbags and electronic stability control," said Scott Belcher, President and CEO of Intelligent Transportation Society of America, a nonprofit established to promote advanced vehicle technologies.

The technology will be tested in a lot of situations, it will warn driver when it is unsafe to pass, and if someone is approaching an intersection with a speed could cause an accident. Each car comes with a radio that its speed and direction, as determined GPS, signals are fitted to other vehicles. It will also send this information to suitably equipped traffic equipment.

The University of Michigan is partnering with eight automakers, a number of which began working collaboratively to develop a uniform platform for implementing the technology in 1995. These carmakers will provide 64 cars equipped with the radios, while an additional group of ordinary cars will be fit with devices so they can transmit signals, making up a total of nearly 3,000 vehicles. Drivers will be recruited from among the 20,000 employees of the university's medical center.

Peter Sweatman, director of the Transportation Research Institute, says Ann Arbor is an ideal test environment because it is a concentrated area with only three main roads out of town, making it likely that the cars are equipped regularly meet. The driving portion will run for one year, and data are collected and may be used to decide from the DOT National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, until 2013, when the technology has enough advantages to be approved. This should be approved, the technology would be updated from more than 10 years, says Sweatman

technologyreview.com

Power is under your foots!

An interesting idea would be useful to generate electricity by footsteps. It is interesting that anymore generating electricity by foots are real. Have you ever thought that you will charge your laptop or mobile phone by the energy of your foots.

University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers have come up with a technique that collects considerably more energy from human footfalls and converts it into electric power.Previous researches has yielded with less than 1 watt power but it wasn't enough for charging, but the new approach could lead to a shoe-mounted generator that produces up to 10 watts, says Tom Krupenkin a mechanical engineering professor who works on this project.

"A lot of energy is simply wasted as heat while we walk," says Krupenkin. "If one can convert this into electrical energy, numbers come out to be up to 10 watts per foot." Cell phones and smart phones need about one to two watts, while small laptops need 10 to 12 watts. Power-generating shoes could be an important breakthrough for soldiers, who currently carry heavy batteries to power their radios, GPS units, and night-vision goggles.

Energy collecters keep this force and convers displacement into electrical energy. The most promising approaches to tap into the human gait have involved piezoelectrics and electroactive polymers, materials that convert mechanical stress into electric power. But neither material works well with the relatively high displacements, but low frequency, of footfalls, Krupenkin says.

Finishing project could take in one or two years then, you can buy a power-generating shoes, though. So far the researchers have only an array of 150 drops that made ​​a few milliwatts of power. However, they calculate that a 1,000-unit drop in a four-meter-long, one millimeter-wide channel that would cover an area of ​​40 square centimeters and could fit in a shoe sole to produce a few watts.

"The process is interesting, and the work itself is very good," says Paul Wright, a mechanical engineering professor at the University of California at Berkeley. However, he says, "to be useful to society, they would need to scale up the approach and show that it still works."

Krupenkin and his colleagues have established a startup, InStep NanoPower, to develop and possibly commercialize the technology. The company has a first-generation benchtop-sized prototype device. They expect the third generation harvester could be embedded in footwear. "This kind of product will have to be a collaborative project between Instep and a shoe manufacturer," Krupenkin says. "We can't expect anything on the market earlier than two years."

technologyreview.com

What is Induction Coking?

Induction cooking is not a new invention; it has been widely used all around the world. With recent improvements in technology and the reduction of component costs, induction cooking equipment is now more affodable than ever. The design provides an opportunity to understand how an induction cooker works and make an in-depth examination of various blocks and parts of this type of cooking application such as the driving topology, how the resonant tank works, how the pot gets hot and how to remove it safely from the cooking element. The design is entirely controlled by PWM signals.