Power engineering covers three complementary areas of electrical engineering:

• power transmission and distribution systems (in short, power systems)
• energy conversion (motors, generators, and electric drives)
• power electronics

The job market is booming for graduates in electric power engineering. The workforce in the electric power sector is aging and the industry faces massive retirements, yet many power engineering programs in the U.S. have been phased out. In addition, new opportunities are exploding thanks to developments in power electronics. Exciting new applications include electric cars, (more) electric aircraft and ships, renewable energy (wind power), and data centers.

Control systems make other systems do what we want them to do, without us having to do all the work. Examples of control systems in everyday life include the thermostat that regulates the temperature of a room and the cruise control that regulates the speed of a car. Typically, the core of a control system is an algorithm that computes the signal that must be applied at the input of a system so that its output follows certain reference values. Practical implementation involves a computer, a sensor (or sensors) that measures the output of the system, and an actuator (or actuators) that applies the required actions to the system. The actions may be physical forces, electrical signals, chemical products, or any other variables that affect the state of the system. To become an expert in control, you should be comfortable with mathematics and computing. You should also be curious enough to study closely a variety of engineering applications.

Two modern applications of control theory are flight control and active noise control. In the X-29 aircraft shown below, the dynamic behavior is so unstable that a human pilot is unable to maintain steady flight without the feedback actions implemented by a flight control computer. In the worst flight condition of the X-29, an angular deviation from horizontal flight doubles every 0.12 seconds (the stabilization task is equivalent to the one required to balance a 17.4 inch stick on a finger). Computations are performed 40 times per second to provide adequate stabilization and control of the aircraft.