Electrical Engineering

ExperientiAL toOl

Electrical Engineering

Personal Orientation Project (POP)

Electrical engineering

Activity Guide

This tool kit is intended solely as a guide; the information found herein is not meant to be exhaustive. The websites mentioned in this tool kit may no longer be active or may direct you to sites containing information you may find inappropriate. Please check these links before using them with students, as we cannot guarantee they will work. Moreover, the Commission scolaire de la Beauce-Etchemin cannot be held responsible for the contents of these sites, nor for any omissions, errors or inaccuracies found in this tool kit or for any consequences arising from such omissions, errors or inaccuracies. Note that Activity 2 is excluded from the Creative Commons licence. Any use or modification of Activity 2 for purposes other than for the Personal Orientation Project program, in whole or in part, is strictly forbidden.

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Document number: 1

Document version: 3.0

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Electrical engineering

Table of Contents

Electrical engineering

General Information 1

Credits 3

activity 1

What is electrical engineering? 4

activity 2

Power engineering: Getting
electricity into your home 6

activity 3

Telecommunications 12

activity 4

Encryption and secret codes 20

activity 5

Robots in action 22

Answer key

Activity 1 25

electrical engineering

General information

electrical engineering

List of materials:

The following list itemizes all the materials and resources required to complete this tool kit on electrical engineering:

· Electrical Engineering Activity Guide

· Multimedia computer

· Four (4) ceramic magnets

· Magnet wire

· Miniature light bulb

· One (1) cardboard strip (about 8 cm by 31 cm)

· Medium Allen key

· Sandpaper

· Adhesive tape

· Scissors (student’s own)

· Ruler (student’s own)

· Two (2) blocks of wood

· One (1) cardboard strip (about 1 cm by 5 cm)

· Hammer

· Nail

· Two (2) alligator clips

· Battery pack

· Four (4) AA batteries

· Paper clip

Websites for activities:

The AQUA robot at McGill University:

www.aquarobot.net

The Field and Space Robotics Laboratory at MIT:

http://robots.mit.edu

The Humanoid Robotics Group at MIT:

www.ai.mit.edu/projects/humanoid-robotics-group

Monoalphabetic Substitution Cipher:

http://liensppo.qc.ca

The USC Robotics Research Lab:

www-robotics.usc.edu

Websites for activities (cont’d):

Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org

Other recommended websites:

CRC Robotics Challenge:

www.robo-crc.ca

Engineers Without Borders Canada:

www.ewb.ca

McGill University Electrical and Computer Engineering:

www.mcgill.ca/ece/research

Recommendz:

http://recommendz.mcgill.edu

Credits

electrical engineering

Conception:

Isabel Deslauriers PhD candidate in Electrical Engineering and Let’s Talk Science Partnership Program Coordinator, McGill University

Adaptation:

Nancy Kerec POP contract professional

Avis Anderson Reviser and researcher

Marsha Gouett Proofreader

Special thanks:

William Beatty For permission to reproduce his activity and images (figures 2.1 and 2.2) in Activity2

© Figures 2.1 and 2.2 are excluded from the Creative Commons licence and are copyright protected. Any use or modification of these images for purposes other than for the Personal Orientation Project program, in whole or in part, is strictly forbidden.

Activity

What is electrical engineering?

Engineers are professionals who have studied science, mathematics and technology, and who use their knowledge and experience to design, analyze and build items of practical use. For example,

· Mechanical engineers design and improve cars, airplanes and robots.

· Chemical engineers design fuel cells and waste treatment facilities.

· Computer engineers invent new processors and software.

· Civil engineers design bridges, roads and buildings.

In this tool kit, we will explore a specific kind of engineering: electrical engineering. Electrical engineers study and use electricity, electronics and electromagnetism in their work. They work on projects that involve lasers, robots, power lines, motors, satellites, cell phones and more. Of course, it is not possible for an electrical engineer to be familiar with all of these topics at once, so students of electrical engineering tend to choose a specialty.

For example, at McGill University (www.mcgill.ca/ece/research), students choose from one of nine specialties:

1) Bioengineering: The study of how electronics and computers can help us understand the human body so that we can build prosthetics and computer databases for hospitals, as well as design robots.

2) Nano-electronic devices and materials: The design of tiny electronic devices that can act as batteries and sensors. These devices could one day be part of the human body, fabrics or smart paint.

3) Intelligent systems: The use of artificial intelligence to build robots or smart computer programs that can recognize faces or signatures, or act as a team.

4) Microelectronics and computer systems: The design of electronics components to power computers, cell phones and more.

5) Photonic systems: The study of how fibre optics can be used inside computers or to communicate over long distances.

6) Power engineering: The design of better ways of converting wind or solar energy into electricity and ways to transmit this electricity efficiently into homes.

7) Software for analysis and design: The design of faster or more powerful computer programs.

8) Systems and control: The invention of methods to control how robots move, how production plants are controlled or how heating systems react.

9) Telecommunications and signal processing: The design of satellites, cell phone networks and secret codes.

Hire a famous electrical engineer for your new company

Engineers from all of these specialties often work together in companies or at universities to create new inventions or improve existing ones. Here is a list of famous electrical engineers:

· Nikola Tesla, pioneer of electrical engineering

· Julie Payette, Canadian astronaut

· Douglas Engelbart, inventor of the computer mouse

· U.S. Congressman Cliff Stearns, member of the Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet

· David Bradley, inventor of Control-Alt-Delete who worked on the original IBM PC

· Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple Computer (now Apple Inc.)

Use the Internet to research one of these engineers. A good place to start is Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org). Answer the following questions:

1) What is this engineer most famous for? Which specialty of electrical engineering would they most likely have studied?

2) Imagine that you could partner with one of these engineers to create a new company. Which person would you want to partner with? What type of company would you want to start? What other people (from this list, other engineers you know about, or people from other professions such as accountants, investors, marketers, etc.) would you need to hire to make this company work? Write up an action plan for your company in as much detail as you like.

3) Take a moment to reflect on your company plan. Which aspects of creating and running this company would you enjoy the most, and which ones would you enjoy the least? What have you learned about yourself during this exercise?