<p>^^ On what do you base that statement? How do you think an EE 'engineers' in ways radically different than that of a software engineer?</p>
<p>JoeJoe - Make sure you know what you are talking about.</p>
<p>And most engineers (especiallly mechanical and electrical engineers) will do better job if they have the mindset of a software engineer.</p>
<p>JoeJoe - Make sure you know what you are talking about.</p>
<p>And most engineers (especiallly mechanical and electrical engineers) will do better job if they have the mindset of a software engineer.</p>
<p>"Is computer science engineering?"</p>
<p>Who Cares?</p>
<p>"And most engineers would laugh when software engineers refer to themselves as engineers."</p>
<p>...</p>
<p>Seriously?</p>
<p>I think most engineers aren't this pathetic for distinctions like this to matter</p>
<p>lol it was a joke guys calm down.</p>
<p>Can someone make an example of the future career difference between CS and CE? Like what does CS do in their job and what does CE do in their job?</p>
<p>Does CS covered designing a robot? Like to program the chip in the robot's AI.</p>
<p>"Like what does CS do in their job"</p>
<p>Program, design software.</p>
<p>"what does CE do in their job"</p>
<p>Design computer hardware</p>
<p>
[quote]
Can someone make an example of the future career difference between CS and CE? Like what does CS do in their job and what does CE do in their job?</p>
<p>Does CS covered designing a robot? Like to program the chip in the robot's AI.
[/quote]
Firstly, keep in mind that these are fairly general degrees designed to give one a good base from which to build upon once they enter industry.</p>
<p>Secondly, keep in mind that there's a lot of overlap between CS and CE and they will often compete for and be employed in the same jobs. You can often switch majors from one to the other fairly late in the game since there's so much overlap.</p>
<p>The CS major will tend to spend all of their time designing and developing software systems and applications. The CS major will have fewer EE type course and more software courses than the CE major. </p>
<p>The CE major will tend to either do what the CS person above is doing or they may be more involved in embedded systems writing more lower level firmware (code that drives the microprocessor/microcontroller), writing higher level code for those systems, and possibly designing some circuitry (but many don't). For embedded systems think of controllers for TVs, cars, guided missiles, washing machines, alarm systems, robotics, etc. The CE major will have more EE type courses and fewer software courses than the CS major.</p>
<p>Either a CS or a CE could be involved in robotics with sometimes the CE being more involved at the lower level and the CS being more involved at the higher level. In this context 'lower level' and 'higher level' don't imply one is better than or more complex than the other - just two different levels of coding.</p>
<p>In a nutshell, if you like the idea of understanding how one might design the circuit for a microcontroller and how to write the code to make it work, and think you'd enjoy the EE course components, then CE might be for you. If you don't really care about those nuts and bolts and would rather spend your time designing and developing software for any variety of systems, and don't enjoy EE course components, then CS may be for you.</p>
<p>One is not 'better' than the other - they're just slightly different from each other.</p>
<p>^So much overlap?? Besides Freshman-Sophomore general classes (English, Calc, Physics), an intro to EE/CE course and a few programming classes, that is where the "overlap" stops. CE and EE degrees are almost identical. Would you say EE and CS are similar? No.</p>
<p>A good CE program divides CS and EE topics fairly evenly while providing electives to allow the student to focus or continue distributing it evenly.</p>
<p>No, A good CE program includes <em>programming</em> related topics integrated with EE courses while providing electives to allow the student to focus more in one particular area.</p>
<p>Programming is split between a few CS courses and many EE/CE courses that require hardware programming. For this reason CS and CE aren't that interchangeable once you get involved with major courses.</p>
<p>vblick,</p>
<p>That is how my university is setup. There are only five courses that differentiate between CE and EE. Whereas the CS courses differ greatly, they take database, AI, and language courses. Granted, our CS is part of the Science department (Math, Chemistry, Physics) not part of our Engineering department.</p>
<p>vblick:</p>
<p>The overlap between CE/CS can be quite high or less so depending on the program at a particular college. To really note the difference one would need to check the details at the particular college since some CE courses are heavier on the EE and lighter on the CS than others. CE and EE degrees aren't always almost identical and sometimes a CE major will include the majority of courses for the CS major. </p>
<p>Would I say CS and EE are similar? - No.</p>
<p>But again, once they start working, plenty of CE grads will end up doing more pure CS work and not deal with the EE side much - it just depends on where they want to focus and how their career morphs. However, not many CS grads will do EE type of work - almost none.</p>
<p>In the US, most engineering work and most engineering titles are not subject to government regulation. So in practice, people commonly claim the title of "engineer" regardless of their college degree. If a company wants to regard CS degrees as "engineering" degrees, or give CS majors a title like "software engineer", they are probably free to do so. For that matter, a business major for a tech firm can be a "sales engineer", or a dozer driver with no degree at all can be an "operating engineer". </p>
<p>If your engineering work is subject to government regulation -- like designing bridges, buildings, or power grids -- then the rules are more rigid. In this case, an "engineering" degree is typically one issued by a degree program that has been professionally accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of [url=<a href="http://www.abet.org%5DABET%5B/url">www.abet.org]ABET[/url</a>], or "ABET/EAC". </p>
<p>Computer science degrees will not qualify as "engineering" degrees under this standard. ABET also accredits CS degrees, but it's a different form of accreditation ("ABET/CAC") which is not legally equivalent. </p>
<p>Some "Computer Engineering" and "Software Engineering" programs do have ABET/EAC accreditation, and would legally qualify as "engineering" degrees. But in practice, it's probably very rare for a Computer Engineer or Software Engineer to pursue a Professional Engineer's license, so I'm not sure that it would really matter to them.</p>
<p>The difference between CE and CS is not even that great, like some are saying it is here. At least in my program every CS student takes 3 classes in assembly and HDL's knows how to program embedded systems. FPGA's and the Like. The difference between CE and CS is only by a few classes. The CE people take one more hardware lab course to accompany a class both take. The CS people take a Theory of Computation course while the CE's don't. Now the CE's then take Physics 3 and the EE classes. Not very much of a difference if you ask me. While we the Cs people may not learn about MOSFETS and Laplace Transforms, we are fully capable of doing very low level programming.</p>
<p>From many job ranking website. They seperate jobs like software engineer and computer programmer. They what is difference? What major should I study if I want to be a software engineer and/or computer programmer?</p>
<p>Software Engineering refers to the process from research & requirements -> Deployment and Maintenance. A software engineer rarely codes, instead they deal more with the 37 steps of software development. There are many different ways to create software and the SE needs to decide which is best for every individual project. Whether it be the waterfall method, iterative approaches like agile and XP. Its there jobs to determine the best way to get the job finished under budget and on time, and to also minimize future maintenance. For a better idea read the book Code Complete or read the Joel on Software blog.</p>
<p>Programmers work for or with SE's and they focus on the testing, implementation and maintenance stages of software development.</p>
<p>"Computer Science" is a rather broad term and what a CS degree really means depends upon the specific school that granted it and how that program was structured. There are many universities where the CS program is under the engineering school and can indeed be considered an "engineering" degree. However, there are probably an equal number of schools, if not more, where the CS program is actually under the math or physics dept. or is a dept. of its own but in the arts & sciences school. Here's one example: Boston College has a CS major but does not offer any engineering majors. Clearly a CS degree from BC is NOT an engineering degree.</p>
<p>
[quote]
The difference between CE and CS is not even that great, like some are saying it is here. At least in my program every CS student takes 3 classes in assembly and HDL's knows how to program embedded systems. FPGA's and the Like. The difference between CE and CS is only by a few classes. The CE people take one more hardware lab course to accompany a class both take. The CS people take a Theory of Computation course while the CE's don't. Now the CE's then take Physics 3 and the EE classes. Not very much of a difference if you ask me. While we the Cs people may not learn about MOSFETS and Laplace Transforms, we are fully capable of doing very low level programming.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>That was at your school where CS is part of the engineering department correct?. Many CS programs don't involve much low level programming. My friend is a CS major at Twin Cities and I don't think she's ever handled a microcontroller where as I, a CE major, have been working with Atmega32 board for almost a year. We have to take EE courses for 2 years plus a year of electives we can spend on more EE classes if we want. Then of course there's all the CE courses which involves working on hardware level. I think there's a CE course every trimester but maybe 2. Can you fairly say most CS programs work on the hardware level that much? I don't really think so. </p>
<p>I think this discussion is difficult because of the difference in curriculums at schools.</p>
<p>
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I think this discussion is difficult because of the difference in curriculums at schools.
[/quote]
JoeJoe:
I think you're correct regarding the comparison of CS to CE. For that matter, comparisons of CS to CS and CE to CE need to take into account the program at the particular school. Sometimes we generalize too much in our responses based on our own experiences.</p>
<p>I know the CS degrees at the UCs in my moniker, which are ranked very highly for their CS programs, involve some courses in low level programming. CS majors are also required to take some EE courses but of course not nearly as many as the CE program.</p>