Engineering is the art of directing the great sources of power in nature for the use and convenience of humans. While scientists focus on the study of natural phenomena, engineers primarily concern themselves with directing natural phenomena to practical, safe and economical ends. Above all, engineering requires the creative imagination to discover new ways of harnessing natural phenomena. In its modern form engineering involves people, money, materials, machines, and energy. Engineers constantly look for better ways of using energy and materials to improve our standard of living.

As we have advanced technologically, engineering has divided into specific disciplines. Electrical Engineering is the branch of engineering that deals with electric and magnetic forces and their effects. Electrical engineering began with the development of batteries, electromagnets and electric motors. During the early nineteenth century physicists developed theories for both electricity and magnetism and showed that these were two aspects of a single phenomena (1832) and set the foundation for the development of electric machinery.

These initial developments in electric power engineering led to the development of formal power grids in the late nineteenth century and most famously the development of the electric light bulb (1879). Today, power engineers not only work with a wide variety of technologies to generate electricity (e.g. fossil fuels, wind, solar, nuclear) but also work to optimize how power is distributed amongst different networks and across national boundaries. Electrical communications engineering began with the invention of the telegraph (1844). The late nineteenth century and early twentieth century saw the development of the global telegraph, telephone and wireless communication systems. Today, communication engineers draw on the global web of fiber optic cables, wireless networks, and satellites to keep our global village in touch. While mechanical calculators had been employed since the development of the abacus, computer engineering came of age in the second half of the twentieth century after the development of digital techniques and solid-state technologies (1948). Today computer engineers develop computer systems from the large supercomputers used in weather prediction and computational fluid dynamics to the small microprocessors that power personal digital assistants.

While these three major specializations of electrical engineering (i.e. power, communication, and computer) are established, modern electrical engineers employ aspects of all three in the design and development of single engineering systems. In the information age, the development of smart mobile machines that can continually communicate with the world and carry their own power source, depends on the integration of ideas from all three subfields. The integration of computers into machines makes them more efficient as they operate smarter. As computers have become common in society the distinction between communications and computer engineering has been blurred. All aspects of electrical engineering have progressed with the discovery and development of new optical and electronic materials and technologies (e.g. transistors, integrated circuits, digital technology, laser diodes).

As the demands of our global society increase electrical engineers will provide many of the solutions that meet these needs and balance, utility, convenience and safety.