What is Electrical Engineering all about?

I, as a budding Electrical Engineer would say, “It is the heart of Engineering.”

 Electrical engineering is an engineering field that in general studies electricity, electronics and electromagnetism, it also covers their applications The field first became an identifiable occupation in the late nineteenth century after commercialization of the electric telegraph and electrical power supply. 

It covers a range of subtopics including:
 - Power
 - Electronics
 - Control systems
 - Signal processing
 - Telecommunications

Electrical Engineering is vast as it covers from large-scale electrical systems like power generation and transmission, motor control etc. to very small scale systems including integrated circuits, computers etc. In many countries it is divided as Electrical Engineering (large-scale) and Electronic Engineering (small-scale).

An Electrical Engineer designs methods, devices, technologies etc to make everything simpler for everyone. I said it is the heart of engineering because we design techniques to help other engineering fields work more sufficiently. While designing, we always have to keep in mind how to make the device small (to increase mobility), less power consuming, more efficient, user friendly and last but not the least how to minimize the cost of production.

Like any other profession, an Electrical engineers typically possess an academic degree with a major in electrical engineering. The same fundamental principles are taught in all programs, though emphasis may vary according to title. The length of study for such a degree is usually four or five years. The degree generally includes units covering physics, mathematics, computer science, project management and specific topics in electrical engineering. Initially such topics cover most, if not all, of the sub-disciplines of electrical engineering. Students then choose to specialize in one or more sub-disciplines towards the end of the degree.
Some electrical engineers choose to pursue a postgraduate degree such as a Master of Engineering/Master of Science (M.Eng./M.Sc.), a Master of Engineering Management, a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.). The Master and Engineer's degree may consist of either research, coursework or a mixture of the two.
 
The first Electrical Engineer was  William Gilbert  who designed the versorium ( the first crude electroscope, the first instrument that could detect the presence of static electric charge). There on the numerous achievements in Electrical engineering began. There are plenty of objects, ideas, and concepts which deserve sitting on a list like this but right from the top of my head, I could name some of the obvious candidates, such as (in no particular order…) Electric Battery, Telegraphy, Radio, Television, Radar, Microwave Oven, Diode, Transistors, Integrated Circuits, Microprocessors which presaged the personal computers, cell phones, GPS etc.

If you consider how much of modern life is predicated upon these devices, it is amazing how few people know about most of these, in anything other than an extremely superficial or just a cursory manner…
Usually people think that an Electrical Engineer is same as an Electrician, who would fix wiring problems or repair broken electronic devices etc. But I hope after reading this post they would be able to differentiate.