Electrical engineers are probably some of the most overlooked masterminds in our society. They have been such a large part in developing the inventions that we take for granted in the modern-day, and now more than ever due to the recent pandemic crisis.
But sadly, not many people know all that much about electrical engineers, let alone what they’ve helped to invent, and what ideas they have made work. This can be frustrating and upsetting for them to know that the credit for their work completely passes them by.
So, what is an electrical engineer and what do they do?
An electrical engineer is someone who holds an engineering degree and works in the fields specializing in electronics and electronic systems. They also help design, make and test these devices and systems to ensure they work. These can be components such as capacitors or JFETs.
Anything that you might find in the hardware (or otherwise known as the physical system within your laptop or your mobile phone), has been developed, tested, and designed by a team of electrical engineers to make our lives easier.
What have they invented or helped to invent that make our lives easier?
Electrical engineers have helped make every single piece of technology that we have today. But you might be wondering, ‘what are the specific things that go into our laptops, computers and other parts of technology have they designed?’. The answer to that is generally things we take for granted and things we overlook in our day to day lives.
Here are four inventions that you didn’t know electrical engineers helped to develop and create that make our modern-day lives so much easier.
#1 Eye-tracking technology
Eye-tracking technology is the technology behind devices knowing where a person is looking. This is generally used in scientific research to pick up observations that might be too subtle for a human to see. Eye-tracking technology helps understand the focus of the participant, their body language and their eye movement, and their main line of sight.
#2 Virtual Reality gaming
Virtual Reality gaming is a lot more complex than you might think. It has many electrical elements that allow it to work- such as motion sensors, immersive screens, virtual surround sound headphones as well as the running of the actual game itself. All of these things have an electrical engineer team involved, especially when it comes to putting them all together.
#3 Global Positioning System (GPS)
Our GPS is used in a lot more things than google maps and tracking services for our deliveries on Amazon. The way it works is remarkable, though the use of receptors and satellites. It all took the work and thinking of electrical engineers to accomplish all of that.
GPS helps our phones know where we are and helps us keep in contact with other phones in the area. It also helps websites and apps know our location, so we can use them more effectively.
