Is Electrical Engineering dying

Papabravo

Joined Feb 24, 2006
21,159
I think the more relevant question you should ask concerns selecting it as a career path. If you think or feel that it is dying, for whatever reason, then run for the exit. Why torture yourself doing something that you are unsure has a future.
 

#12

Joined Nov 30, 2010
18,224
But that (analogue) is where the fun is!:D:D:D

Best regards
HP:)
I think that's why I went for the throat when studying analog. Digital seems like it's just math and counting. Analog has so many ways to be elegant.
Yeah, math can be elegant, but look at the imaginative ways people have arranged analog circuits on this site! There is no catalog of the myriad ways you can do analog circuits. There are some basic building blocks, but when MikeML or crutschow teaches a TL431 how to control a battery charger, that's elegant.
 

Hypatia's Protege

Joined Mar 1, 2015
3,228
I think that's why I went for the throat when studying analog. Digital seems like it's just math and counting. Analog has so many ways to be elegant.
Yeah, math can be elegant, but look at the imaginative ways people have arranged analog circuits on this site! There is no catalog of the myriad ways you can do analog circuits. There are some basic building blocks, but when MikeML or crutschow teaches a TL431 how to control a battery charger, that's elegant.
I fully concur that analogue design is far and away the more 'expressive' discipline - as is the math 'embracing' same!:cool: --- As a plain (if rather opinionated) example - I offer the observation that differential equations and transforms are lots more fun (and, I might add, elegant) than Karnaugh maps and (applied) Boolean algebra:):):)

Best regards
HP:)
 

BR-549

Joined Sep 22, 2013
4,928
rim0360, you will have a great future, no matter what sub field you go into.

The analog and digital cross feed and sustain one another. You will need both skills.

If you work in only one, make the other a hobby. Keep up to date on both.

Be willing to move every few years and be willing to travel.

Listen and learn from your mentoring and senior engineers.

Unlike your professor, they know what they're talking about.

Real competence and training begins here, not in the classroom.

The mind set of an apprentice will make you a master.

You might feel hammered, but it's just the acceleration of a rocket.
 

BobaMosfet

Joined Jul 1, 2009
2,110
I am an electrical engineering student and unfamiliar with the industry post graduation. A professor told me that the era of circuit design is dying and that's what I'm really interested in. Does anyone in the industry have an opinion? That comment hit me like a hammer and it seems to have truth.
MCUs and FPGAs will not replace the majority of electronics, which usually consists of basic components and logic gates, in order to achieve something where anything 'smarter' is considered too expensive and a waste. For example-- you wouldn't use an MCU or FPGA for a light dimmer in a lamp. A few basic components can handle this fine-- for less money.
 

dl324

Joined Mar 30, 2015
16,845
I am an electrical engineering student and unfamiliar with the industry post graduation. A professor told me that the era of circuit design is dying and that's what I'm really interested in. Does anyone in the industry have an opinion? That comment hit me like a hammer and it seems to have truth.
Is this professor in the EE field?

As long as there are microprocessors, engineers will be needed to design them. The fields of computer architecture, electrical engineering (both digital and analog) will still relevant. Some aspects of the jobs will change, but I don't see the field going away any time soon.

People with an education in EE can put their knowledge and, more importantly, skills to good use in other fields of endeavor. I've known many EE's who have switched from hardware to software (as I did, but the same can't be said for CS people). Many of the process developers I worked with had EE/CE degrees.
 

ramancini8

Joined Jul 18, 2012
473
Back in 1968 I was advised to convert to digital design because digital would cause the phase-out of analog design. What a load of BS! Analog design has many more details to account for and requires a much stronger math capability than digital design, so most new college grads went into digital. This left a shortage of good analog engineers (they had techs designing circuits for a while) and my net income skyrocketed. I was in my 60's when I got a large bonus for changing companies (that is how bad the shortage of analog engineers was). Now, the majority of detailed analog design is done with computers; the IC, but analog engineers are required to process analog signals, understand analog systems theory, do some detailed analog design, troubleshoot any design (software and digital designers can't troubleshoot the analog problems they create), and understand the new analog circuits designed by computers.

This site is a testament to the difficulty of analog circuit design---just look at the number and complexity of analog questions asked. Analog designers are worth more now than they ever were! Furthermore, as long as humans survive, the first interface between man and machine will be analog. As digital electronics takes over the world more analog opportunities are created, so analog expects to be here as long as people are. Good luck and don't eat the BS!
 

Papabravo

Joined Feb 24, 2006
21,159
Strangely enough, analog computers were cheaper and more accessible to students when I was an undergraduate. I was probably among the last class of engineers at U of M that was so fortunate.
 

KL7AJ

Joined Nov 4, 2008
2,229
Back in 1968 I was advised to convert to digital design because digital would cause the phase-out of analog design. What a load of BS! Analog design has many more details to account for and requires a much stronger math capability than digital design, so most new college grads went into digital. This left a shortage of good analog engineers (they had techs designing circuits for a while) and my net income skyrocketed. I was in my 60's when I got a large bonus for changing companies (that is how bad the shortage of analog engineers was). Now, the majority of detailed analog design is done with computers; the IC, but analog engineers are required to process analog signals, understand analog systems theory, do some detailed analog design, troubleshoot any design (software and digital designers can't troubleshoot the analog problems they create), and understand the new analog circuits designed by computers.

This site is a testament to the difficulty of analog circuit design---just look at the number and complexity of analog questions asked. Analog designers are worth more now than they ever were! Furthermore, as long as humans survive, the first interface between man and machine will be analog. As digital electronics takes over the world more analog opportunities are created, so analog expects to be here as long as people are. Good luck and don't eat the BS!
And R.F. designers are even rarer. It's been a good living for me for 45 years....and I am busier now than ever.
 

shteii01

Joined Feb 19, 2010
4,644
I am an electrical engineering student and unfamiliar with the industry post graduation. A professor told me that the era of circuit design is dying and that's what I'm really interested in. Does anyone in the industry have an opinion? That comment hit me like a hammer and it seems to have truth.
Start listening to this podcast: http://theamphour.com/
They are mostly electronic hobby, but every few episodes they would have stuff from the industry.
 
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