The future of electrical engineering

Employment of electrical and electronics engineers is projected to grow by 4 percent between now and 2022, because of these professionals' "versatility in developing and applying emerging technologies," the BLS says.

The applications for these emerging technologies include studying red electrical flashes, called sprites, which hover above some thunderstorms. Victor Pasko, an electrical engineer at Penn State, and his colleagues have developed a model for how the strange lightning evolves and disappears.

Another electrical engineer, Andrea Alù, of the University of Texas at Austin, is studying sound waves and has developed a one-way sound machine. "I can listen to you, but you cannot detect me back; you cannot hear my presence," Alù told LiveScience in a 2014 article.

And Michel Maharbiz, an electrical engineer at the University of California, Berkeley, is exploring ways to communicate with the brain wirelessly.

The BLS states, "The rapid pace of technological innovation and development will likely drive demand for electrical and electronics engineers in research and development, an area in which engineering expertise will be needed to develop distribution systems related to new technologies."

Texts for mechanical Engineers What is Mechanical Engineering?

Mechanical engineering is one of the oldest branches of engineering, dating back to when the first wheels were put to practical use by mounting them on an axle to make a cart. Throughout recorded history, people have been inventing and building increasingly more

sophisticated devices and machines in order to improve the conditions of life. Many of the machines we encounter every day ‒ cars, appliances, tools and climate control systems ‒ were made possible by mechanical engineers.

"Mechanical engineering dates to ancient Greece and China, where mechanisms like screw pumps, steam engines, clocks, seismometers and even differential gears were invented,” according to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). Pioneers in the field ‒ people who built the machines for which they became famous ‒ include Archimedes (Archimedes’ screw pump, block-and-tackle pulley, etc.), Johannes Gutenberg (movable-type printing press), James Watt (steam engine), Robert Fulton (steamboat), Eli Whitney (cotton gin) and Henry Ford (automobile assembly line).

One of the most significant drivers of innovation in the field of mechanical engineering, particularly in its earliest stages, has been war, according to the Viterbi School of Engineering at the University of Southern California.

“Mechanical engineers can create basic commodities that an every-day person would use, or other highly valued items for the military or government,” the school's website states. Catapults, battering rams, chariots and siege towers were all the products of mechanical engineering. Many of the machines of modern warfare, such as armored vehicles, ships, aircraft, artillery and firearms, also owe their existence to mechanical engineers.