Do you think Computer Engineering might be for me?

[deathbow2134]

Hello all!

I am trying to decide if I should go into CS or CE. I use to think that I definitely wanted to be a software engineer, but recently I've been considering computer engineering. I really like the idea of designing a piece of hardware and then being able to program it. But the thing is, I've never really been much of a hands on person. I haven't taken apart too many electronics and I haven't played around with making my own circuits like I know many other people who go into engineering have. But I am interested in it. I just can't decide if I want to be involved with hardware or not. I just feel like CE people have to be really hands on and I'm not. If that makes any sense. :p But I do find it interesting. And I LOVE mathematics and physics, and I like the idea of those things being more involved with my career.

Do you think I would well suited for computer engineer, or do you think I'd prefer computer science / software engineering?

Thanks for your time!

[TerranceN]

From my experience taking all the computer engineering courses at my highschool (well almost, I skipped the grade 10 one), I found that the things that made the most difference to me are how low level the programming is (maybe it's just cause we used MBasic instead of something sane like C), and just how many things can go wrong.

Because of how stable computers are, and how far we have come using them, we have programming languages that take care of so many things for the programmer, and more importantly everything we do in these languages is easily repeatable (the computer will always do the same thing when it runs the code).

Unfortunately when using microcontrollers, it may not always be stable because one small error in one small section of the electronics can affect other areas. This can cause your code to run differently each time, and makes it hard to track down errors. Compounded with the fact that in your program you have to take care of most things yourself, which often requires very specific instructions, this can become very frustrating as you never know if you forgot a % sign to convert something to decimal, or you just accidentally put a diode in backwards.

That is why I prefer CS over CE. But really it's up to you, theres obviously lots of people who like this challenge, and I'm sure people get a lot better at it with time. I guess I'm just a little bit of a control freak.

Hope that helps.

[Tony]

Let me make an introduction.

deathbow2134, blog. Blog, deathbow2134.

http://compsci.ca/blog/choosing-between-computer-science-and-computer-engineering/

CE is not as "hands on" as you might think. None of technical University programs (at least not at Waterloo) are really "hands on". The only notable exception is the 4th year Engineering design project, but even then you could get away with not building anything tangible.

Yes, in CE you get closer to circuits and likely do more assembly then in CS. Though you get to design parts of CPU in CS as well (CS251) + more through an option in Digital Hardware. All the circuits are done on paper though, and in few select cases via software simulators.

Check out the exact course list requirements. It's a lot of work, but it's by far the best way I know to make a decision such as this one.

[deathbow2134]

Thanks Tony! That's a great blog.

When I really think about it, I think computer science is for me.

I'm very interested in particular by AI and theory and that kind of stuff that CE doesn't offer.

Thanks a bunch!