<p>I don't get why robotics and controls classes are so biased towards EE majors, or why most companies I've seen hiring people in Controls or Robotics want EE majors, and if they want a MechE it's like 1 for every 10 EE's. Why is this?</p>
<p>Because robots run on computers, circuits, electric controls, and other hardware and software stuff. There’s not much thermodynamics or heat transfer going on. I would say that EE, CS, and CompE deal with robotics way more. Although my university has a ME elective called “robotics,” but thats probably for some interdisciplinary engineering applications.</p>
<p>^^^Agree with you, disney. While mech eng is supposed to be a more versatile major, seems like most of the jobs/internships are looking for ee majors.</p>
<p>If robotics is your interest, perhaps look for a professor who is doing that type of research to volunteer with, and definitely try to get some of those electives in as part of your major requirements.</p>
<p>Yeah I’m definitely staying ME, but trying to look for professors that are more in between the two disciplines. Also considering doing an EECS minor, or maybe EE in grad school, I really just don’t want to deal with the CS aspect. If I could do just an EE minor that would be perfect but we don’t have that.</p>
<p>Well, robotics and controls have got a lot to do with CS, so it make sense they’re looking for majors more related to CS.</p>
<p>I think most people feel the mechanical design of robots is fairly well worked out (if this is true or not is probably up to pretty big debate), and the difficult part is actually making your robot control the way you want it to. I know I had CS friends doing work in “robotics,” though they were really doing artificial vision and decision making theory, which essentially means they had some pre-designed robot and their goal was to maximize its efficiency.</p>
<p>You might want to look at some schools where robotics is pretty huge (MIT, CMU, Stanford) and look at the sort of research going on in the MechE departments. That’ll give you an idea moreso where MechEs fit into the current design of robots.</p>
<p>Another thought is it may be easier to teach an EE some statics and dynamics than to teach a MechE all the programming required.</p>
<p>Our ability to create robots with advanced artificial intelligence & sensory systems is lightyears behind our ability to design a good mechanical chassis. Hence, even if all three are needed, the former 2 are where all the research is.</p>
<p>A huge majority of the engineers working in robotics in the world are MEs. But maybe not the kind of robots you’re thinking of. Most robots are factory robots.</p>
<p>If you’re thinking of intelligent mobile robots, then I’d say around half of the top robotics programs & labs in the US are within ME departments. </p>
<p>One reason you may see bias among companies is that there has been a glut of MEs for decades now, and a relative shortage of good ECEs. I’ve been working in robotics for 15 years and almost every place I’ve worked we had too many MEs and they end up doing ECE work that they have no training in.</p>
<p>“I don’t get why robotics and controls classes are so biased towards EE majors”</p>
<p>FWIW, I’ve had controls courses within AAE, ECE and ME, and the only ones worth anything were the ME classes.</p>
<p>Your thought about undergrad ME, grad ECE is right on - that’s a combination I look for.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, if by “don’t want to deal with the CS aspect” you mean you don’t like programming, that eliminates you from most of the interesting robotics jobs. You can maybe design joints or wiring harnesses or something exciting like that…</p>
<p>sbs999: I would say I didn’t mean I didn’t want to do CS, I just meant that I didn’t want it to be my main focus, and it seems that many people who go into EECS/ECE in their undergrad end up getting jobs/internships in pure software fields. Maybe that’s just my perspective, but it’s one of the reasons why I chose ME instead. So it’s common for someone interested in robotics/controls to do a crossover ME for Undergrad and ECE/EECS for grad school? I feel like that would be really broad but for those specific focuses of engineering it makes perfect sense to me. And yes I’m not thinking of just the iRobot-type robot that everyone seems to imagine in robotics, I’m also thinking about stuff like autonomous machinery like cars and other machines that can work on their own. That’s a field I’m actually very interested in.</p>
<p>An EE(CS) degree does train you for CS work, so it’s not much of a surprise that they choose to go to an industry that’s hiring and paying. There’s a pretty strong demand for programmers right now, so people follow the money and go right into software.</p>
<p>An ME+ECE who does software (but not hardcore CS theory-stuff) is my ideal hire. </p>
<p>Do that, take a bunch of controls courses in both disciplines, do a master’s thesis where you <em>build</em> a robot and use a real control systems background to make it do something useful (as opposed to hacking together ad-hoc crap like most do), and the world will be your oyster.</p>
<p>Go ahead and talk to an ECE master’s program about which undergrad EE courses (usually 4-5) are prereqs, and get those out of the way while working on your BSME.</p>
<p>Alright, I’m already planning on taking controls courses in the ME and EE departments, including an EE Signals and Systems course (which I’ve read is a standard pre-req for EE grad school courses) and a robotics course, but the CS department has courses on the design of Programmable Logic Controllers along with other theory on machine structure and such, should I take that class or can I learn PLC programming on my own? I’ve heard the class is hard enough for EECS majors and it has a lot more pre-requisites than the other EECS minor classes I’m planning to take. I’m definitely going to talk to an EECS/ECE graduate school advisor soon about those pre-req courses, but one more question, is it really that significant to enter a Master’s program in EECS/ECE over a graduate program in just EE? I’m just considering for the future just in case I get some sort of better offer for EE when applying or get into only the schools that have EE.</p>