Broadcast engineering

roadcast engineering is the field of electrical engineering, and now to some extent computer engineering and information technology, which deals with radio and television broadcasting. Audio engineering and RF engineering are also essential parts of broadcast engineering, being their own subsets of electrical engineering.

Broadcast engineering involves both the studio end and the transmitter end (the entire airchain), as well as remote broadcasts. Every station has a broadcast engineer, though one may now serve an entire station group in a city, or be a contract engineer who essentially freelances his services to several stations (often in small media markets) as needed.

The conversion to digital broadcasting means broadcast engineers must now be well-versed in digital television and digital radio, in addition to analogue principles. New equipment from the transmitter to the radio antenna to the receiver may be encountered by engineers new to the field. Furthermore, modern techniques place a greater demand on an engineer's expertise, such as sharing broadcast towers or radio antennas among different stations (diplexing).

Digital audio and digital video have revolutionized broadcast engineering in many respects.^[4] Broadcast studios and control rooms are now already digital in large part, using non-linear editing and digital signal processing for what used to take a great deal of time or money, if it was even possible at all. Mixing consoles for both audio and video are continuing to become more digital in the 2000s, as is the computer storage used to keep digital media libraries. Effects processing and TV graphics can now be done much more easily and professionally as well.

Other devices used in broadcast engineering are telephone hybrids, broadcast delays, and dead air alarms. See the glossary of broadcast engineering terms for further explanations

Audio engineering

Audio engineering is a part of audio science dealing with the recording and reproduction of sound through mechanical and electronic means. The field draws on many disciplines, including electrical engineering, acoustics, psychoacoustics, and music. Unlike acoustical engineering, audio engineering generally does not deal with noise control or acoustical design. However, an audio engineer is often closer to the creative and technical aspects of audio rather than formal engineering. An audio engineer must be proficient with different types of recording media, such as analog tape, digital multitrack recorders and workstations, and computer knowledge. With the advent of the digital age, it is becoming more and more important for the audio engineer to be versed in the understanding of software and hardware integration from synchronization to analog to digital transfers.

Educational technology

Educational technology is most simply and comfortably defined as an array of tools that might prove helpful in advancing student learning. Educational Technology relies on a broad definition of the word "technology". Technology can refer to material objects of use to humanity, such as machines or hardware, but it can also encompass broader themes, including systems, methods of organization, and techniques. Some modern tools include but are not limited to overhead projectors, laptop computers, and calculators. Newer tools such as "smartphones" and games (both online and offline) are beginning to draw serious attention for their learning potential.

Those who employ educational technologies to explore ideas and communicate meaning are learners or teachers.

Consider the Handbook of Human Performance Technology.^[2] The word technology for the sister fields of Educational and Human Performance Technology means "applied science." In other words, any valid and reliable process or procedure that is derived from basic research using the "scientific method" is considered a "technology." Educational or Human Performance Technology may be based purely on algorithmic or heuristic processes, but neither necessarily implies physical technology. The word technology, comes from the Greek "Techne" which means craft or art. Another word "technique", with the same origin, also may be used when considering the field Educational technology. So Educational technology may be extended to include the techniques of the educator

Information technology

Information technology (IT), as defined by the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), is "the study, design, development, implementation, support or management of computer-based information systems, particularly software applications and computer hardware."^[1] IT deals with the use of electronic computers and computer software to convert, store, protect, process, transmit, and securely retrieve information.

Today, the term information technology has ballooned to encompass many aspects of computing and technology, and the term has become very recognizable. The information technology umbrella can be quite large, covering many fields. IT professionals perform a variety of duties that range from installing applications to designing complex computer networks and information databases. A few of the duties that IT professionals perform may include data management, networking, engineering computer hardware, database and software design, as well as the management and administration of entire systems.

When computer and communications technologies are combined, the result is information technology, or "infotech". Information Technology (IT) is a general term that describes any technology that helps to produce, manipulate, store, communicate, and/or disseminate information. Presumably, when speaking of Information Technology (IT) as a whole, it is noted that the use of computers and information are associated.

The term Information Technology (IT) is sometimes said to have been coined by Jim Domsic of Michigan in November 1981.^{[citation needed]} Domsic, who worked as a computer manager for an automotive related industry, is supposed to have created the term to modernize the outdated phrase "data processing". The Oxford English Dictionary, however, in defining information technology as "the branch of technology concerned with the dissemination, processing, and storage of information, esp. by means of computers" provides an illustrative quote from the year 1958 (Leavitt & Whisler in Harvard Business Rev. XXXVI. 41/1 "The new technology does not yet have a single established name. We shall call it information technology.") that predates the so-far unsubstantiated Domsic coinage.

In recent years ABET and the ACM have collaborated to form accreditation and curriculum standards for degrees in Information Technology as a distinct field of study separate from both Computer Science and Information Systems. SIGITE is the ACM working group for defining these standards.

Information and communication technologies

ICT capabilities vary widely from the sophistication of major western economies to lesser provision in the developing world. But the latter are catching up fast, often leapfrogging older generations of technology and developing new solutions that match their specific needs.

The expression "information and communication technologies" cannot refer only to contemporary automated technological artefacts. Paper-based writing, being itself a technology (Ong, 1988: Chapter 4), can also be included in such ontological category, as can pre-digital means of generating, transmitting and archiving sonic utterances. The common usage of the term, as stated without further investigation, does not warrant its encyclopaedic mention.

The ICT may not survive in its present form for long. Sooner than later developing countries would get over the PC mania prevalent now in the developed world, unless there is a remarkable change in the economy of owning a PC. Any technology that requires the masses to own a PC, in its present form, to access information is unlikely to be successful in the foreseeable future. Possibilities appear to exist, however, in the mobile phone technology, which is fast becoming very affordable by the masses, is voice based and can be integrated with the Information Technology at the server end of a computer network. For example, in the field of education ^[1] people can ask question through a mobile phone, a database of answers to such questions can be generated using the technologies used currently in Wikipedia and call centers and the text in these databases could be converted into voice, by developing text to voice technologies in the various languages. The person seeking information can be informed when the answer is available and better answers sought based on his/her feedback. The emerging 3G and 4G mobile phone technologies can indeed facilitate such developments. An alternative technology could be to integrate the mobile phone with the television screen, so that visual information can be viewed easily. Similarly, there is a possibility for developing interactive radio, on the lines of interactive TV.

Environmental Engineering Science

Students in Environmental Engineering Science typically combine scientific studies of the biosphere with mathematical, analytical and design tools found in the engineering fields

Environmental Engineering Science (EES) is a multidisciplinary field of engineering that combines the biological, chemical and physical sciences with the field of engineering. This major traditionally requires the student to take many basic engineering classes in fields such as thermodynamics, advanced math, computer modeling and simulation as well as technical classes in subjects such as statics, mechanics, hydrology, and fluid dynamics. As the student progresses, the upper division elective classes define a specific field of study for the student with a choice in a wide range of science, technology and engineering related classes^[1]:

Engineering physics

Engineering physics (EP) is an academic degree, available mainly at the levels of B.Sc., M.Sc. and Ph.D. Unlike other engineering degrees (such as aerospace engineering or electrical engineering), EP does not necessarily include a particular branch of science or physics. Instead, EP is meant to provide a more thorough grounding in applied physics of any area chosen by the student (such as optics, nanotechnology, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, control theory, aerodynamics, or solid-state physics). This is why in some countries only the B.Sc. part of the degree is called a degree in Engineering Physics.

Engineering physics degrees are respected degrees taught in many countries. It is notable that in many languages the term for Engineering Physics would be directly translated into English as "technical physics". In some countries, both what would be translated as "Engineering physics" and what would be translated as "Technical physics" are disciplines leading to academic degrees, with the former specializes in nuclear power research,^[1] and the latter closer to engineering physics.^[2]

More recently, as an apparent attempt to stress the interdisciplinary nature of such degrees, some institutions now use the term Engineering science.