Expert: Daniel Mazur - 5/16/2005

Question
I am 16 and considering the possiblilty of going to university when I am 18.
I am particularly interested in:
Physics (electricity/electronics in particular)
Computer Studies
And I'm not too bad at mathematics either!
What is the difference between studying electronics and studying electrical engineering at university?
Does electrical engineering have more to do with power stations and electronics have more to do with microelectronic/semiconductors/microprocessors?
Thanks for your time :)


Answer
Hi, thank you for your question.

Electronics studied from the physics perspective is considerably different from the one you come around through electrical engineering. In fact, everything you have mentioned - power stations, microelectronics, microprocessors and other semiconductor devices - belong to the engineering. You see, all these are applications (consider this word in bold and underlined) of what we know about materials (metals, semiconductors and insulators) plus quite a lot of know how in putting them together. In elecrical engineering you WILL be required to understand the physics of the materials at some point, but will quickly move on to applications, to integrated circuitry design, power grid design, problems of transmition and reception of radio/TV/microwave signals and so on. Most of the physical principles underlying all the application will arrive early in your undergraduate years and with a Bachelor degree you'll have your specialization rather well outlined - at least to the extent, whether microchips or power plants are your beat. If maths is your strong point, it will help, but most of what you'll learn will be user-ready equations, ones that you can use right away to design a simple diode or a transistor, for example.

On the other hand, if you consider physics as a starting point to your electronics education, you will be learning ALL physics known to mankind (or so it will seem, when you go through it:-)) at first. You know, starting with Newtonean mechanics, proceed to electromagnetics and optics, learn all about radiation, about thermodynamics.... and loads of advanced mathematics that is necessary to handle the physical laws as we know them. Only in the third and fourth year you will get to lay your hands on "electronics" and here the meaning can differ a lot from the microchip stuff I discussed in the previous paragraph.At institutes of technology it might come along similar lines as if you were actually studying engineering. At universities (because they tend to be more "academic") you will be studying electrons as charge carriers, how they behave in different materials or in vacuum, in the presence of electric/magnetic fields... You will, for example, study in the most detailed way, how come a light bulb works (it's not as simple as it seems, I promise), why fluorescent tubes are completely different,... and all in all why anything works the way it does.

When you are have the Bachelor degree in physics, it is half assumed that you will take another education step - either Master's or Doctorate. I mean to say, an electrical engineer with a Bachelor degree is already considered a professional (in the U.S., Europe is more demanding), while as a Bc. physicist you are still too unspecialized to be of a use in the industry. This might be a drawback, should you want or have to finish your studies at that point. The big advantage of studying physics is that you still have a variety of careers open, scientific and technical/engineering, if you are willing to throw in some two, three or five more years of school. Then you will be able to learn all the engineering stuff much faster than a freshman electrical engineer, because you will know the physical principles by heart and all those user-ready equations will come as a natural extension to the knowledge you already have.

I hope this helps you, and please don't hesitate to rate my answer.

Good luck!
Daniel