The electrical engineering department at IIT-Delhi is ranked 45th in the world (QS Ranking 2016), so what is it like to be an electrical engineer at IIT-Delhi? Let’s look at some exciting aspects of this field in this brief write-up.
The field is a wonderful blend of electrons, computers and electricity. Let’s understand what we do by considering the example of our smartphones. Our phones have antenna, Wi-Fi, cellular network support, all these have been developed in the fields of communications and electro-magnetics. The audio and video recording features find their roots in image and signal processing. Siri or Cortona are based on the works done in the field of voice recognition and signal processing. Battery, touch screen, speakers, logic board, processor and flash memory is the reason why we study a lot of electronics in our curriculum. They are based on semiconductors and integrated circuits. Now the operating systems like iOS, Android or Windows are the brain of our devices and are built by electrical and computer engineers on the principles of software systems and embedded systems.
Now that you know why this branch is so in-demand nowadays, let’s go through the curriculum. It starts with the basic courses in electrical engineering where you learn about the basic circuits & components and a programming course. Then we move on to study how do we go about solving any kind of circuit we encounter and what are signals and how do we represent them. Basic electronics class is a must because we need to know what a transistor is because that’s what is going to drive everything we build. We also study about the architecture of computers and then we go on to study more electronics, digital electronics where we study about the 1s and 0s of a computer i.e. the logic gate circuits and then analog electronics. Also, we get glimpses of physics in between where we do a course on electromagnetism. We then study how the signals we learned to represent are communicated in a course on communications. A very important component of the curriculum are the courses on power engineering where we understand how is electricity generated and transmitted. The two important tools we require are Mathematics and Programming.
You also get a chance to take up the electives (choose few out of many) through which you can learn about Machine Learning, Signal Processing, Embedded Systems, and many other interdisciplinary fields.
All in all electrical engineering is about information and energy. We control things, sense things, power things, design and build electronic devices, process signals, design computers, connect things and people and lots more. If you are amazed at all the technology in your cellphone, if you dream of helping people by helping develop advanced medical devices or if you are amazed by the prospect of working on next generation cars and transportation systems or sustainable energy sources or adaptable robots or making sense of big data or work on how we communicate and share information or if you love math and physics or computers or electronics or simply, if you just want to major in something secure and cool, then Electrical Engineering at IIT-Delhi is a great launchpad for your dreams.