Biology to Computer Engineering

<p>I got into UCI with the Biological Sciences major</p>

<p>I want to change it to Computer Engineering</p>

<p>is it easy to change to it</p>

<p>and what about Computer Science....thats in a separate school</p>

<p>when I request for the change online in the message center, do I have to wait until they answer me then send my SIR...or can I send the SIR anytime.....and if the request is denied...do they let me keep the biology major or am put in undeclared</p>

<p>I’m not so sure about the administrative stuff, I would call into the school of biological sciences and ask them about it. Their number is (949) 824-5318, which I got from this website: [Utilities:</a> Bio Sci Contacts Directory](<a href=“http://www.bio.uci.edu/public/contacts.html]Utilities:”>http://www.bio.uci.edu/public/contacts.html)</p>

<p>As for the differences between Computer Engineering and Comp Sci, I can tell you this:</p>

<p>I’m a first year Comp Engr. right now and it seems like Computer Engineering is more hardware based, with a little software. While Computer Science is the other way around.</p>

<p>And as a Computer Engineer, you’re going to have to go through an engineering curriculum which consists of physics and math.</p>

<p>Computer engineering = physical computing. You need to be comfortable with soldering, circuits, breadboards, and physical designs. Generally, you’re building embedded systems - specifically purposed electronics with a micro-controller on board. You’ll have to learn a bit of programming (assembly language/C), a lot of physics, and circuitry.</p>

<p>Computer science = writing software for machines to use. Curricula includes programming classes, Calc 1-3 (MultiVar) + Diff Eq. and Linear Algebra (similar to Comp. Eng.) - but you’ll also need discrete math, boolean logic/algebra, and a bunch of other courses in that vein.</p>

<p>Biology in relation to these… well, on the software side there’s Biomedical Computing (Bioinformatics/Computational Biology - writing algorithms to predict protein folding patterns, parse through sequences, etc…)</p>

<p>An example of what some particularly creative computational biologists came up with:
[Solve</a> Puzzles for Science | Foldit](<a href=“http://fold.it/portal/]Solve”>http://fold.it/portal/)</p>

<p>There’s bioengineering as well, but I know less about that. To me, it seems like it’s somewhere in between ChemE and ElecE. I don’t know if UCI’s bioE program is ABET accredited, but I know that UCSD’s program is. I mean, I’d do more research into all of the above if you’re seriously considering any of them as a major.</p>