First of all, I understand that engineering comparisons are not encouraged on cc, but please bear with me.
Aerospace. When briefing the topics covered in aerospace such as fluid dynamics I genuinely feel interested and want to learn more about them. I see that aerospace engineers have multiple job opportunities because they are so well versed (Also their pay isn’t too bad). As a high school sophomore, I can definitely see a career in designing aircraft. I plan to attend UT Austin and it is 8th in the country (9th in the world) for aerospace. Because aerospace engineers are well versed, I am sure that employment won’t be a problem if grades in college go well.
Computational Engineering: As far as my research on this topic goes, this discipline deals with applying math through technology to better understand/recreate engineering problems/principles. This greatly appeals to me because I enjoy mathematics a lot, especially when I could see its application and beauty when dealing with real world problems. UT Austin only started offering this undergrad last year, but it’s grad research department, ICES, or institute for computational engineering and sciences, is ranked #1 IN THE WORLD as of last year, and the undergrad is being taught by the ICES profs. Apparently, this is an upcoming field, so I feel that I will be viewed as a specialist or will have a lot of job opportunities available if I major in this (UT’s description of career possibilities goes from airplane trajectory to weather prediction to particle physics).
So if I go to aerospace, I feel that I am missing a chance to go to the #1 college in the world for computational engineering. If I go to computational engineering, I feel that I will miss the fun of aerospace (not to say that my current understanding of computational engineering isn’t fun).
How do I decide which one I want more? Both deal heavily with math/physics, which I enjoy a lot. Both are offered at my desired university. Both have good prospects for future employment.
After some other research, I see that it is possible to maybe undergrad in one and apply it to the other for grad school (plan is to get a PhD from
Cockrell school of engineering in UT).
The difference between number 1 and number 9 is pretty negligible. And especially for ABET accredited engineering programs it’s all about the same tbh. Since aerospace engineering uses so much math already I think most people will get their math fix with that. It really depends what you want to do after graduating as the two can lead to different careers. Narrow that down and you have your choice. Personally I would do aerospace but I prefer the traditional engineering majors. Also in regards to a PhD you are only a sophomore. Many students aspire to a PhD but find research and the commitment needed to finish is too much for them. Best to make the grad school decision once you get to your undergrad.
[ul]
[li]Don’t get so wrapped up in rankings. The drawbacks to the various ranking methodologies have been discussed ad nauseum on this site (and many others), so I won’t reiterate them, but the short version is that they are really only valid in the sense that they sort schools and programs into tiers. #1 vs. #9 is a pretty insignificant difference.[/li]
[li]Computational engineering is not a new field, so I am not sure I would describe it as up and coming. In fact, computational engineering as a field was the primary reason for the development of digital computers in the first place and really started as a field of its own in the 1940s.[/li]
[li]The general idea behind a computational engineering degree is that a student would learn a combination of math and computer science such that they can create programs that computationally solve the various partial differential equations that govern nature, so it would basically be a degree built on solving complex math problems on a computer. This is a valuable skill that is broadly applicable to many engineering fields. It is also something that seems a little fishy to me in that I wonder if it leaves the student with enough of a background in any single engineering discipline to start working there without further field-specific training.[/li]
[li]Most modern engineering and physics curricula include at least one course on numerical methods, which is the basis for computational engineering. In that sense, most modern engineering students have exposure to that material as well as context based on their major field of study. Further specialization in computational methods generally occurs in graduate school or on the job.[/li]
[li]All undergraduate engineering programs are taught by the same professors as their graduate programs (provided one exists).[/li]
[li]Do not make choices now on the assumption you will be getting any kind of graduate degree. There is no way for you to make an informed decision on graduate school at this point, especially a PhD, which is a dramatically larger commitment than an MS (or a BS/MS combined, for that matter).[/li]
[li]If you do end up eventually pursuing a PhD, it is not always a great idea to attend the same school as where you earned your BS. There are some instances where that is a good idea, but there are others where it is not. At any rate, when you do get a few years of studies under your belt, if you still want to get a PhD, you should pick your program based on the research fit and reputation within that research field, not based on some list of rankings.[/li]
[li]I don’t know which major you should pick. That’s largely a personal choice. Either one should give you plenty of career options. Based on what you have said so far, I would lean toward aerospace engineering and then making sure you take a numerical methods course and take other computational engineering courses on offer such as computational fluid dynamics, finite element analysis, etc.[/li][/ul]
EDIT: In retrospect, that was more than a few, but I think they are important points.
Those rankings are based on what others think are important and might be things that don’t matter to you at all. You might not want to live in Alabama or Buffalo NY so on your scale, so UT at #8 is #3 for you.
Good job on doing some thorough, early research! Since you are a high school sophomore, there is still lots of time to ponder your college major. Study hard and see how you like your various math and science courses. That may help you refine your preference for college choices / major.
I think the opportunities are better with the computational engineering degree. Aerospace companies hire more computer science people than aerospace engineers. If you get the computational engineering degree, you shouldn’t have a problem getting a job where you can use it for aerospace applications.
That is such a misused statistic. Do you know why more of other types of engineers work in the aerospace industry than aerospace engineer? It’s because there are comparatively few aerospace engineering graduates. It’s not like those aerospace engineers are hanging around unemployed, wishing they had the job that their mechanical engineering and computer science friends got instead of them.
So my friend has a deep interest in math, computer science, and physics, and he is also addicted to problem solving. He has been fervently looking for a way to major in something where he would use math and comp sci simultaneously. Would he be a good candidate for computational engineering?
It basically covers people who write the numerical algorithms for things like CFD. That’s something outside the realm of traditional CS and that generally isn’t covered in depth until at least grad school in engineering.
To me, it sounds like a great setup for graduate school but I have no idea how marketable a BS would be.
There are fewer aerospace engineering graduates because they’re not in as much demand as computer people. How many people do you really need designing aircraft and rockets? Aerospace companies require more programmers than aerospace engineers.
The computational engineering program at Texas looks like the computational math programs I see at other schools. Actually, if I had it to do all over again, I’d have gone for something like computational engineering or computational math rather than CS. A few years ago at a local university, I took a class that was basically a survey of computational math applications, and it was fascinating.
You implied that it is somehow advantageous to have another degree if you want to work in aerospace engineering based on the fact that there are more of those other degrees in aerospace companies than there are of aerospace engineering degrees, and that assertion is simply false. Does aerospace engineering have its pitfalls? Yes. This is not one of them.
My core point was that there are fewer aerospace engineering graduates, so it should be no surprise that there are fewer aerospace engineers working at these companies. You have done nothing to change that fact. In the broader job market, “computer people” are certainly more in demand because they apply to many more industries. In the aerospace industry, this is simply not true. There is plenty of demand for both “computer people” and for aerospace engineers based on the number of available graduates.
Further, the “computational engineering” jobs described in this thread have historically been filled by the more traditional engineers in their respective industries, not computer scientists, and “computational engineering” historically has not been its own degree. It is foolhardy to believe that people with aerospace and mechanical engineering degrees won’t continue to fill these sorts of jobs. You need a lot of engineers to design a modern aircraft or rocket, and most of them are doing their tasks largely computationally. Most of those jobs are filled by people with traditional engineering degrees.
Like I said earlier, aerospace engineers aren’t sitting on the sidelines in large numbers watching mechanical engineers and electrical engineers and “computational engineers” take their jobs. Implying that they are is divorced from reality.
EDIT: Just to clarify, I am not trying to imply that “computational engineering” is useless, either. In fact, there is certainly value in a program that digs deeply into the numerical methods and algorithms that underpin modern computational fluid dynamics and finite element analysis and similar applications, and these skills can translate to a broad range of engineering and scientific problems.
I looked at it and it looks like it is basically a light aerospace degree with some of the higher level engineering courses replaced with computational courses. It would probably be pretty marketable. It also appears to be administered by the aerospace department, and I doubt they’d go through the pain of developing this degree without consulting their industry advisory board first.
Also I’m starting to notice that the focus of the thread is in aerospace industries. While a job for someone like NASA would certainly be fascinating (and cliche) I don’t want to be so constricted in my job opportunities and want to have as many fallbacks as possible. I heard aeroE is multidisciplinary and computationalE can apply to many industries, so they’re my top choices. In the end my dilemma stems from the marketability difference between aeroE and computetionalE BS (if not masters or further), not how marketable it is just to aero industries.
Well, generally when students are interested in aerospace engineering, that implies that they are interested in the aerospace industries. Earlier I mentioned that there are pitfalls to aerospace engineering, and one of them is that, fairly or not, they aren’t generally as marketable outside of the aerospace industry as, say, a mechanical engineer. If you aren’t interested in the aerospace industry, I’d get a mechanical engineering degree instead.
So then my question to you is - Why are there fewer aerospace engineering graduates? Might it not because students know opportunities to work in aerospace engineering are limited, so they major in something else?
@simba9, There are almost 300 ABET accredited CS programs, and the accreditation isn’t critical for CS. AE in contrast has 66 programs, and accreditation is important. There’s more capacity for CS because the degree is applicable over more industries.
@ILikeGoodGrades, you’re going about this the wrong way. Don’t try to be overly smart, attempting to pick the degree the world will like most. Pick the degree YOU’LL like most. Choosing your major for the wrong reason will lead to an unhappy collegiate experience and a miserable career.