Electrical engineers use quantum mechanics for applications?

[kramer733]

That's what a friend told me atleast. He said that electrical engineers are starting to use way more advance physics for applications. And if this is true, what are the applications of it in the eyes of a electrical engineer?

Also, do electrical engineers use mathematics such as banach space, groups, rings, fields and lie algebra?

 

[Shackleford]

Hardly.

 

[maverick280857]

Yes, quantum mechanics is used by electrical engineers for applications, definitely in solid state device modelling.

He said that electrical engineers are starting to use way more advance physics for applications.

At the research level, yes. But it's obviously not going to be as advanced or deeply theoretical as theoretical physics itself. Medical physics, accelerator physics, solid state physics routinely overlap with electrical engineering, and parts of those EE streams do involve a fair amount of 'advanced' EM theory, and (in the case of solid state devices and microelectronics) quantum mechanics.

Also, do electrical engineers use mathematics such as banach space, groups, rings, fields and lie algebra?

I know a few signal processing and network theorists who have tried to involve these things in their work (for good reason). Some parts of Lie algebra are used in control systems theory, as is differential geometry.

 

[kramer733]

How proefficient do i have to be in programming if i want to be an electrical engineer?

 

[jsgruszynski]

How proefficient do i have to be in programming if i want to be an electrical engineer?

Depends on the area. Programming is extremely useful but there are many areas where you don't need so much skill. In semiconductor manufacturing, they still use BASIC for programing most manufacturing test, for example.

 

[Shackleford]

I was referring to the more mundane EE tasks. Of course, the more advanced technologies would necessitate the use of some QM.

 

[maverick280857]

For starters, take a look at the book 'From Atom to Transistor' by Supriyo Datta.

 

[carlgrace]

I would say generally EEs do less QM than they used to because of the improvement of simulation and modeling tools. So, a lot of the QM is embedded in the tools. It's a bit like asking if EEs solve a lot of differential equations. Circuit designers do that all day, in a sense, but really it is the simulator solving them. The engineers are working at a higher level of abstraction.