<p>I'm a computer science major, and to be honest, I hate being lumped in with engineers.</p>
<p>It's not that I dislike engineers or think of myself as better than them. I just feel like we don't have that much in common. My perspective of an "engineer" is someone who was interested in taking things apart and putting them back together. The kind of person who played with legos as a kid, and just wants to create new things. I wasn't into that kind of stuff. I played video games all day, I loved puzzles, I loved spelling, I loved music, etc. I went to computer science because I found that programming was fun and I loved the problem solving nature of the whole thing. It was like playing video games or solving puzzles.</p>
<p>To be honest, I'd be happier if my major was in the college of letters and science...it just feels right.</p>
<p>What do you guys think about this? Why is computer science in most schools' engineering colleges? Do you agree with me that there is a difference, or are there some factors I'm not considering?</p>
<p>yeah, you won’t create new things as a CS major. :rolleyes:</p>
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<p>yeah, engineering students don’t like any of that stuff! :rolleyes:</p>
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<p>i heard they have awesome parties on that side of the campus. too bad we can’t hang out with them because it’s frowned upon by administration and our peers. :(</p>
<p>Short answer, no I don’t, and I don’t think it ought to be grouped with other engineering majors (which are primarily concerned with using physics and chemistry to make practical applications). But <em>real</em> computer science, which is a branch of math, deserves the same respect that engineering and physics and chemistry do. It’s not any better or worse than engineering, it’s just different.</p>
<p>Granted, software engineering, as it is often called, uses many of the same noggin’ parts and skillset as engineering (organization, project management, etc.) but it ain’t really engineering, IMO, unless it’s directly related to something engineering (an embedded program for an automatic missile guidance system, say). I don’t think of somebody working on a new 3D game engine as an engineer, though they have the same respect I give to other engineers.</p>
<p>Some people react like you’re dissing comp.sci. by not including it in engineering. I don’t understand why that is. I used to be a comp.sci. major, and I’m still debating whether I want to go for electrical and computer engineering or the computer science and engineering degree, cuz I like software and programming.</p>
<p>The case for CS can be made for either the engineering or the science side.</p>
<p>“take apart things”??..ever heard of reverse engineering? That is often used to analyze older computer software systems in order to create new ones.</p>
<p>Creating?..A nice well-documented CONOP will state what are the new conceptual requirements of a new product (either hardware or software).</p>
<p>Since I mentioned CONOP…let’s look into Systems Engineering where Software Engineering is based from. I have mentioned this quite a few times on this board. Hell, some of you may end up systems engineering after I pounce this into your heads. The systems engineering process is:</p>
<p>I have to concur with Global. There is no such thing called “engineering cycle” IMO. I did my engineering 101 presentation about engineering cycle and I realized it was so not special at all.</p>
<p>It’s just a normal work cycle…
When you do a physics problem:
Analysis the problem
Design the situation on a paper or in your head
Develop the concept and problems
Try doing the work
Implement it if it succeed
Sustainment is optional, or may not work in every work. But this can be view as “use the similar approach next time we spot the similar question”.</p>
<p>What changes is just the name of each stage…</p>
At the school I went to, computer science is actually part of the college of arts and sciences, not the college of engineering. As for real computer science, I can’t speak for that. But from my experience with what computer science has become at schools, it is just programming with not much theory behind it. I personally don’t think computer science should be considered engineering. Computer science is hard in it’s own way, but I think that engineering is hard in a more… mathematical sense. As in even if you’re not solving straight up math problems, you’re solving problems that are similar to math. In my perspective, engineers are the ones who do the calculus problem and computer scientists find the sign error. Not that they don’t do both, but they focus more on one over the other. Just my input on the subject, although I’m sure many might disagree with me.
Computer science should remain in the College of Engineering for the simple fact that other engineers will be better at understanding your major than general scientists. You are more like an engineer than a biologist. But yeah, I share your sentiment and as a CE major, I get to see the difference between the engineering world and the computer science world and there is a difference in the interests and the personalities of the people in each major, not to mention then subjects. Essentially we all are united in the pursuit of identifying real problems and applying our knowledge to solve them.
“My perspective of an “engineer” is someone who was interested in taking things apart and putting them back together.”
You do this as a software developer even when you don’t realize it. When you use external libraries or you copy code from past projects and combine them in interesting ways in your program, you are essentially dismantling things and putting them back together.