When groups of engineers are pressed to explain to a layperson how the challenges they face differ from those of other engineering disciplines, they tend to seize on the notion of size.
Electronics engineering involves working with components and circuits that can be miniscule and not even visible to the naked eye, while civil engineers have the task of working with large-scale structures: from bridges and roads, to tower blocks and land reclamation.
For some it brings to mind Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels in which the miniature folk of Lilliput use their civil engineering skills to harness Lemuel Gulliver when he is washed ashore. When Gulliver travels to the land of the giants, the Lilliputian engineering analogy is reversed, and our hero takes on the scale of a component. Now, in an age of advanced technology, scale and how space can be saved still matters in electronics engineering.
'Students coming on to our courses have probably never observed an electron; they need a mindset that understands you may have to deal with an object you can't hold in your hand. It's a high abstraction level,' said Dr Li Chi-kwong, deputy chairman of the Electronics Discipline Advisory Panel of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers (HKIE) and associate professor at Hong Kong Polytechnic University's department of electronic and information engineering.
Abstract it may be, but electronics stays close to us physically more than we care to think, whether it be inside watches, mobile phones, other hand-held communication devices or the television remote control, and inside items the size of household appliances and computer hardware, to circuit boards on aircraft, missile-defence systems and satellite communications.
With the emphasis on tiny, intricate systems forming a part of the big picture, electronics engineers have become eager exponents of the 'people person' school of engineering. Innovation and getting systems to function require teamwork, while explaining often unseen, abstract concepts demands good presentation skills in front of investors, designers, salespeople, fellow engineers and the wider public.