Embedded Engineering
Embedded engineering involves the development and testing of software that operates commercial and consumer devices, from an aircraft display to a cardiac pacemaker to the Bluetooth radio in a smartphone. Embedded engineering requires expertise in a different set of operating systems, programming models, communication protocols and regulatory requirements than for standalone computers. Embedded engineering can reduce time to market and accelerate regulatory compliance, enabling manufacturers to gain the first-mover advantages of premium pricing and increased market share. It also increase profitability by reducing the cost of developing and testing software, and reduce supports costs by increasing the quality of the embedded software.
Key Components:
- Embedded engineering uses software engineering to control devices and machines (such as mobile phones, microwaves, airbag systems and biomedical devices) that differ from traditional computers.
- The integration of software engineering with these devices allows them to the develop embedded systems comprised of programming tools, microprocessors, and operating systems. The impacts of this are felt in real time operations related to medical and manufacturing science, consumer electronics and automotive technology, among others.
- This is where the embedded software engineer comes in. As a result of the growing movement to connect every device to the internet and expand the internet of things (IoT), as technologies evolve and increase in complexity, so has the demand for embedded application engineers.
- Embedded engineering brings with it a host of micro-level smart solutions, from diagnosing medical conditions to improving cell phone communications, managing neighborhood traffic, or impacting automated systems critical to manufacturing processes, streamlining processes to save organizations time and money.
- Creates easily manageable systems. Because embedded systems generally perform a single task, the elements of any embedded system are inexpensive, durable and require less maintenance, and do not require additional memory or added storage space, making them much easier to house them.
- Improves overall performance of dedicated tasks. Embedded engineering focuses on creating embedded tasks, those that perform one task at a time, which collectively can result in greater efficiencies in any number of business operations. Smart farm automation, for example, employs sensors throughout the farming process to perform individual tasks in concert, to assess soil conditions, weather impacts, light levels, irrigation and more.