Can someone clarify what the difference is between Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, and Computer Engineering is?
These 3 majors/fields are very closely related, and I'd like some more clarification on how exactly they differ. Specifically, is Computer Engineering really a mix between CS and EE? What careers would you pursue with a CE degree? #engineering #computer
2 answers
Shazia’s Answer
Great question!!! I was confused about this as well when I was going to college. I started out as an Electrical and Computer Engineering major and later changed to Information Technology.
Computer Science - This is basically programming - think JAVA, C++, etc. A sample career would be a Java Developer.
Electrical Engineering - This involves circuits - understanding voltage, impedance, current, resistance. A sample career in this field might be designing the next Intel processing chip.
Computer Engineering - This basically combines computer and electrical engineering to design both computer software and hardware. You could be a java developer with this as your major or be designing computer hardware, and many other IT careers as well. You would not go into as much depth with computer programming with this as your major.
College education provides you with a foundation to start your career, from there it's going to be about the work experience you gain and the path you take once you join the workforce.
Daniel’s Answer
I'll break this down into two sections, one for the academic side, and one for the professional side.
Academic side:
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Comp Sci
Programming, software design, computing theory, and then also fairly specific fields such as graph theory, networking, security, machine learning & AI, compilers, etc etc. It will require learning how to program in a bunch of different languages, and writing some software.
EE
Everything electrical. Like EVERYTHING. This will include basic circuits, digital circuits, analog circuits, high power stuff, transmission lines, radio / RF stuff, microcontrollers, etc. Again, there can be focus on specific fields as well. It will require learning how to program (a small bit) in C, and probably MATLAB. It will require a fairly high amount of higher level math (Calculus, Linear Algebra, Multivar calculus, Fourier/etc transforms, etc).
CompE
This can depend a lot on the individual academic institution. Some places it'll be a strict subset of the other two (Comp Sci & EE). Other places it will include bits from both, but then have some other stuff (For example a specific focus on Computer Architecture (which is sort of chip design)).
Professional side:
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This is where it gets a little fuzzy. Most companies won't actually care exactly what degree you have, but will instead care about your qualifications. For example, how good you are at writing software, or whether or not you have a professional engineering license (for EE). But, basically:
CS
Will allow you to get you in a position where you can apply for a lot of programming-heavy jobs. So that would be like software engineering, web development, etc. If you have specific skills (say from graduate study focus) you may be able to get in on more specific roles, such as security/crypto, etc. Note I say "allow you to" because the degree itself may not actually make you perfectly qualified. Depending on the strength of the degree program, it may require you to learn some things on the side, or get some internship experience. Most of Academic CS doesn't actually teach you s*** in terms of writing good software.
CompE
Again depends. If you want to do computer architecture (sort of the bridge between hardware & software, designing new chips), this is the degree. However, there aren't a whole lot of jobs here compared to the rest of the job space. CompE can also leave you qualified for a lot of other stuff, including basically everything in the CS section (though you may have to do more individual learning to catch up on better software practices). It can also leave you qualified for some stuff on the EE side, though likely not the more hard-core EE stuff like high power, or w/e. If you want to build embedded stuff (think like little tiny chips that control small devices), this is traditionally where you'd go to study it. But honestly small devices are so damn powerful now, that having the qualifications you get from studying CompE is less necessary here, and your average Joe CS person can get by here pretty well too (though you can grumble about battery life, etc, haha).
EE
Also very wide selection here. The person who designs your power flow for a city utility may be an EE. The person who writes code at Intel for some very low level hardware stuff may also be an EE. Everything in between. Most devices now require some significant amount of electronics (think like your fridge, dishwasher, etc), and a lot of that will be from embedded-focused EE or CompE people. And then for EE, there's also a LOT of defense contracting opportunities out there (LockMart, GD, Raytheon, etc). Dunno if that's your cup of tea though :P
I really did want to work in CompE specifically in computer architecture... but most of the really good jobs I could not get without going for a PhD, and even then it would have been difficult. Turns out not as many people are required to do the really cool chip design (small # of companies) than there are at the rest of the companies in the world using computers to write software to solve other problems :P Also turns out you'd be competing with EE who are doing chip design too, it's not just CompE people.
Daniel Moy