Do electrical engineers only work with circuits?

[mpresic]

I believe I stated if you are an EE you need to understand circuits as part of your curriculum.

I now feel that I should probably express this more strongly. I think an EE should be proficient in circuit analysis and design even if this means going beyond the curriculum.

As far as the criticism, I have no university degree in EE or AE. My BS,MS,PhD are physics.

Over the last 30 years, I completed (Graduate) Stochastic Signal Processing, Linear Control Theory, Modern Control Theory, Advanced (Nonlinear) controls, Optimal Estimation and Filtering, Robust Estimation, (Undergraduate) Circuit Analysis, and Communications, and perhaps more I lost count.

You need not assess my personal ability, my employer does that.

Finally, the projects I am selected for involve cross-functional teams from many disciplines, including physicists, mathematicians electrical and aerospace engineers, software engineers and managers. In my experience no one worked (I emphasize only) on circuits. (I never solo-ed on any projects except my doctoral dissertation unless you count my thesis advisor as a second person).

 

[mpresic]

I do think .Scott's earlier points regarding analog circuits is well taken.

I have not been involved in circuit analysis since 1988. The main push in schools may be digital rather than analog (I do not know this , but I would not be surprised). In 1988 a EE professor at Virginia suggested to me he felt courses emphasized analysis rather than design and maybe this should (or has) changed.

However this gets away from the main point of the thread regarding exclusivity of studying circuits.

 

[Vite]

I'm a newly graduated EE and I work very little with circuits. I took all of the intro circuits courses in my undergrad but pursued computers, signals, and control systems as my focus. I'm now an automation/control engineer and I don't do much with circuits at all. I can look at simple ones and follow them fairly easily, but my work mostly involves programming devices to function the way I want them to. I am far more competent in analyzing/manipulating signals on a mathematical level than designing the circuitry that is actually implemented in hardware. That is to say I can calculate a system's equation to achieve a desired output given an input, but I don't know how to translate my equation into circuitry very well.

There are many fields included EE, circuits/electronics is just one.