This blog post explores the technological innovations achieved through the convergence of electricity and engineering, and how they contribute to modern society and various industries.
What field of study do you think the Department of Electrical Engineering researches? Typically, when people hear the word ‘electricity,’ they first think of static electricity felt on cold winter days. Or they might think of the power needed to light up a bright space on a dark night or to operate household appliances. Like this, electricity is an essential commodity in modern society, easily accessible all around us. However, many people are often unaware of what can be achieved when electricity and engineering come together.
Long ago, the name “Department of Electrical Engineering” was used, but recently it has been changed to “Department of Electrical and Information Engineering.” Why were electricity and information linked together? There are several reasons, but I’ll explain what the Department of Electrical and Information Engineering does through my perspective.
In electrical engineering, electricity can be broadly divided into two categories. One is electricity as energy, and the other is electricity as a signal. I am interested in the field that deals with electricity as a signal. This technology is already highly developed and has a significant impact on various industries. It is even applied in the field of electrical energy. First, let me explain the electrical energy field.
Energy can be understood as the power source that moves objects. Electricity as energy is generated at power plants, transmitted nationwide, and used to operate various devices. Those specializing in electrical energy research how to efficiently produce electricity, store it in batteries, and transmit it cheaply with minimal loss.
Electric energy is more organized compared to other forms of energy, such as thermal energy. Therefore, even when transmitted over long distances, its original form remains largely unchanged, resulting in minimal loss. Furthermore, electric energy can be easily converted into other forms of energy, making it well-suited for handling the vast quantities of energy humanity consumes. The reason it’s hard to imagine life without electric energy is because power engineers have developed it to this point.
Next, I will explain electricity as a signal. Electricity as a signal is a more comprehensive concept than electricity as power. In electrical engineering, a signal is defined as a physical quantity that carries information. It specifically uses electrical physical quantities, such as voltage, as a medium for information. There are fields like signal processing, which efficiently handles signals and converts them into a form we can understand, and communication, which transmits and receives signals, like in radio or telephones. These fields deal with the signal itself.
To enable us to use this technology anytime, anywhere, even more sophisticated technology is required. There is the field of circuitry, which creates circuits capable of amplifying and storing small signals sent over long distances via communication. There is also the field that manufactures the semiconductor devices that compose these circuits. There are also fields like display devices and electronic physics that convert processed signals into visual output, the systems field that ensures stable system operation, and the computer field that processes the information contained within the signals. Thus, the discipline of handling voltage as signals has developed with high precision.
The scope of electrical engineering continues to broaden, and its diversity is such that even introducing its subfields alone would require extensive coverage. This time, we will explain the electrical engineering technologies applied to MRI. MRI can be considered a collection of electrical engineering technologies. Fundamentally, MRI uses powerful electromagnets. You may have seen in elementary school science class how iron filings are attracted to an electromagnet when placed near it. The electromagnets built into an MRI machine are far more powerful than that, making it impossible to undergo an MRI scan while carrying any metal objects.
These powerful electromagnets align the water molecules in our bodies along the direction of the magnetic field. Normally, electromagnetic forces are in equilibrium, making them imperceptible to us. However, when this equilibrium is disrupted, astonishing phenomena occur, such as static electricity or lightning. In MRI, electromagnetic waves of a specific frequency are used to stimulate water molecules, causing them to emit electromagnetic waves in response. The intensity of these emitted waves varies depending on the density of the water, allowing the state of tissues within the body to be inferred and visualized.
Early MRI machines took a long time to acquire signals, sometimes causing patients to experience claustrophobia. However, advances in signal processing technology have enabled high-resolution imaging in a short time, and now even the beating heart can be observed in real time. In this way, MRI is a culmination of electrical engineering technology, playing a crucial role in the precise processing of biological information.
Electrical engineering is already deeply integrated into our daily lives and applied across diverse fields such as medicine, 3D imaging, and artificial intelligence. Its scope continues to expand, and future developments will extend beyond signal processing to enable computers to process signals more intelligently.
