What Is Hardware Engineer?

Hardware engineers are the people who keep your computer from falling apart in your hands. You know when you're using your computer, and suddenly it starts to slow down? Or it's freezing up. Those are probably hardware issues. A hardware engineer must be able to troubleshoot problems like this by looking at the "guts" of any IT system—from servers to RAID or storage media, from PLCs to routing hardware—and figuring out what needs fixing. That's not all they do! They also design new technologies to make their jobs more accessible (and yours too). You might think that software engineers only work on operating systems and applications, but those guys need hardware engineers too! Vice versa: If a software engineer requires a new piece of hardware for their software project, he'll usually work with a hardware engineer first. A modern hardware engineer is a bit like a plumber or electrician. You don't see them until something goes wrong, but if it does, you need them. The role of the hardware engineer is changing over time. As more of the design process shifts to software systems, hardware engineers concentrate on building effective and supporting data-crunching with physical hardware systems. For example, a modern hardware engineer may spend much time walking around a data center, checking on biological systems—and then talking to software engineers and artificial intelligence workers about what they see. In other words: while it's true that they're no longer designing circuits from scratch (a practice that has been replaced mainly by computer modeling), they still have an essential role in ensuring these designs work when they hit the field! So next, There's no need to panic if your computer or phone malfunctions. A hardware engineer will take care of it for you.