Electrical engineering and Computer engineering in UCSD

Parents Forum
1

<p>I cant decide which one to major in, electrical engineering or computer engineering. I primarily had three choices, EE,CE and computer science. After I had done a little research, I leanred that CS is more theoretical and a lot of (really a lot) knowledges of programming, which is why I eliminate it. Computer engineering is more like a field in between EE and CS. It is to apply the theroretical knowledge to practicle use, like hardware.
I have read many articles about EE, but I never have a clue of what an electrical engineer will do after graduate. From what I read, it is something like construction ( I am not interested), satellite, communication (cell phone, ipods), electronics systems.</p>

<p>A student in UCSD who majors in EE tells me that UCSD has a better Computer science program than EE, because they spend more resources on CS than EE.</p>

<p>At this point, I really dont know what to choose, between Electrical engineering and computer engineering. I am not sure which field I will be more interested in.
I have looked at the four year plan for EE and CE in UCSD and found out hey different courses like CSE and ECE. Therefore I want to make my decision now and stick to it so that I will not waist my time in college.</p>

<p>One thing I forgot to mention is that in UCSD CS requires lots of CSE (its the name of a course), EE requires lots of ECE (also the name of a course) and CE requires some of CSE and some of ECE. That is one thing that I notice.</p>

<p>Please help me! Thank you very much.</p>

2

<p>Sometimes it's better to waste a little time in college. The best way to decide may be to take courses in both areas and see which you like better.</p>

3

<p>I agree to see what rings your chimes in college. With EE, you would be working with circuits--lots of jobs in the government area (think warfare research) and defense contractors in addition to working on communications.</p>

<p>San Diego has a BIG government naval research facility...</p>

4

<p>The difference between CSE (Computer Science engineering) and CS (Cpmputer Science) is that CSE majors take a bit more EE courses and fewer CS courses and the opposite is true for CS majors. Other than that they're very similar and have a lot of overlap. </p>

<p>Consider taking CSE rather than CS if you're interested more in the embedded microcontroller and similar areas where you might be more involved in writing firmware and integrating the processor with the surrounding circuitry or are interested in designing some of the microcontrollers themselves.</p>

<p>Consider taking CS rather than CSE if you're not very interested in the circuit design but more interested in designing and writing software applications. Software applications and systems are ubiquitous - they're used almost everywhere these days including PCs, servers, enterprise storage systems, appliances, cell phones, medical equipment, etc.</p>

<p>There's enough overlap CS/CSE majors where each major may end up doing the job more targeted by the other major.</p>

<p>EE is completely different from either CSE and CS. An electrical engineer will typically be involved more in designing electronic and electrical circuits. Look around you - anything you're using that's electronic was likely designed by an EE. However, many of them will also have aspects of the design performed by a CSE/CS person.</p>

<p>An example is my television - the hardware was designed by an EE, microcontroller firmware was written by someone performing CSE functions, and higher level software running on it (my TV actually has a Linux operating system) was designed and written by someone performing CS functions.</p>

<p>CSE and CS are similar enough that if you pursue one of them and decide you want to switch to the other it shouldn't be very difficult. Also, regardless of which degree you get you could go into the same fields.</p>

<p>EE and CSE/CS are different enough you should try to decide what you can see yourself doing for a career and which area interests you more. It'll be harder to switch from EE to CSE/CS and vice versa after the first year and a half or so since the require courses diverge beyond the basic math/physics courses.</p>

<p>btw - my D just graduated from UCSD with a CS degree so let me know if you have questions in that area that I might know.</p>

5

<p>Good luck, Karin! There are lots of knowledgeable computer folks around here! </p>

<p>ucsd<em>ucla</em>dad---could I ask a related question? (maybe it would have some relevance to the OP too?). Do you think it matters whether the comp sci dept of a college is under the umbrella of the engineering dept or elsewhere? We toured 6 schools recently, and the CS dept was in various places, academically. At V-Tech it's part of the Engineering Dept, but only requires 2 engineering courses. Not sure if being pt of engi dept is a significant thing?</p>

6

<p>Sometimes EE students do fine in CS jobs too. We recently hired an EE grad to do software engineering and he's working out fine.</p>

7

<p>ucsd<em>ucla</em>dad
One of the reasons that I eliminated CS was that it requires lots of knowledge of programming. Normally people who major in CS have a really good programming background, like taking AP programming in high school or self-study when he/she is high school. In my case, my high school does not offer AP programming. Therefore I still have no knowledge of programming at this point. </p>

<p>I have not learned anything about circuit yet, which is why I have no idea if it interests me or not. I am so confused now, but I do not want to waist time and money in college. T_T</p>

8

<p>What kind of people will most likely be interested in EE?
What kind of people will most likely be interested in CE?
What kind of people will most likely be interested in CS?</p>

9

<p>Don't eliminate CS just because you aren't already a proficient programmer. That's what college does-it teaches you.</p>

10

<p>Even at Carnegie Mellon's School of Computer Science which is full of serious CS nerds, there are always a few starting at the very beginning. But you know the lack of courses shouldn't stop you from learning to program. My son started teaching himself Visual Basic when he was in 2nd grade. He used books like Visual Basic for Dummies.</p>

11

<p>
[quote]
One of the reasons that I eliminated CS was that it requires lots of knowledge of programming.

[/quote]

Well, the reason for taking the major in college is to 'acquire' the knowledge. Pre-existing knowledge isn't required. Both of my CS major Ds (one at UCSD and another at UCLA) started with no pre-existing knowledge and their HS didn't offer AP CS and they did and are doing fine. Having some knowledge going into it is fine and would even be helpful but isn't necessary.</p>

<p>If you have no idea if you'd like CS/CSE or EE, are you sure you even want engineering of any kind? Even though you don't know the details, try to imagine yourself designing circuits versus designing/writing software systems/applications. One of them might sound more appealing to you.</p>

<p>
[quote]
Do you think it matters whether the comp sci dept of a college is under the umbrella of the engineering dept or elsewhere?

[/quote]

I don't have an opinion on this although at both of my Ds' universities it's in the school of engineering. I think the content of the curriculum is more important than the department where the major is run from.</p>

<p>
[quote]
Sometimes EE students do fine in CS jobs too.

[/quote]

While this can be true, the EE grad IMO isn't as prepared by a college to immediately jump into a typical CS type of job. They aren't taught the programming skills, software design skills, and don't gain the relevant experience. Given this though, a person capable of EE typically would do fairly well at CS although they'd have more of a learning curve. Also, some EE majors may have spent a fair amount of their own time doing programming which may ease their transition into a CS job. However, if I was to look for a person for a CS job (and I sometimes do), I'd look for a CS grad rather than an EE grad although if I was presented with an EE grad with the appropriate experiance I might hire them but that holds true with an ME major, physics major, math major, and some other majors.</p>

12

<p>From the UCSD CSE Department Undergraduate page:</p>

<p>Students should have sufficient background in high school mathematics so that they can take freshman calculus in their first quarter. Courses in high school physics and computer programming, although helpful, are not required for admission to the program. </p>

<p>UCSD</a> Department of Computer Science and Engineering - BS Computer Science Program</p>

<p>I don't know if you're attending this fall or down the road but you could grab yourself a free compiler or interpreter, a programming book and try a few problems on your own.</p>

13

<p>"However, if I was to look for a person for a CS job (and I sometimes do), I'd look for a CS grad rather than an EE grad although if I was presented with an EE grad with the appropriate experiance I might hire them but that holds true with an ME major, physics major, math major, and some other majors."</p>

<p>This hire was in the context of a tight labor market for CS grads in our area.</p>

14

<p>
[quote]
What kind of people will most likely be interested in EE?
What kind of people will most likely be interested in CE?
What kind of people will most likely be interested in CS?

[/quote]

To simplify things a bit for you maybe break it down into just two areas, EE and CS/CSE. It's hard to say 'what type of people'. I've actually done all of the above functions from designing circuits to writing firmware at a processor machine language level to writing high level applications and managing a software development group. So in my case it was the same type of person who did all of those areas. I happen to like all of the areas.</p>

<p>Both of my Ds, on the other hand, definitely don't like EE and like CS. There are plenty of others who reach the opposite conclusion.</p>

<p>If you took AP physics in HS you would have done a little bit of EE when you were dealing with current, magnetism, resistors, capacitors, etc. Maybe this can give a very tiny taste of it. </p>

<p>You can't peg these by 'type of person'. You really have to look at interest areas and go with that. If you still have no idea, pick one and try it and change if you decide you don't like it. A lot of people in college change their majors a time or two. In engineering you just have to be careful to make a determination fairly early so you don't get too far behind in courses since engineering majors require a lot of courses.</p>

15

<p>
[quote]
This hire was in the context of a tight labor market for CS grads in our area.

[/quote]

Meaning it was tough to find the CS grad? If so, it's understandable and regardless, one needs to look to the individual more than simply the major (i.e. some EE and other majors who actually might have taken a fair amount of CS classes and have some experience).</p>

16

<p>There's a company named Radio Shack and they sell electronic project kits where you build simple electronic circuits such as radios, transmitters, flashing circuits, oscillators and maybe some digital circuits. Of course they don't really provide any in-depth theory of how things work but you can get a little idea about what playing with circuits is like.</p>

17

<p>"Meaning it was tough to find the CS grad?"</p>

<p>Yup.</p>

18

<p>"If you took AP physics in HS you would have done a little bit of EE when you were dealing with current, magnetism, resistors, capacitors, etc. Maybe this can give a very tiny taste of it. "</p>

<p>Again, my high school does not have AP physics, which sounds extremely ridiculous, but its true. I am currently taking a UC transferable physics class in community college, yet it only covers mechanics. Thus I have not learned anything about electronics or magnetism.
When I was still in high school, I self-study AP physics. But I got too lazy when I learned electric field and stuff, then I stopped. Therefore I have not had any taste of what it is like to design circuits. A lot of my friends keep telling me that EE is one of the hardest major, and circuit is too abstract to understand. </p>

<p>Isn't CS too competitive? I heard there are lots of people getting into this field, and its impacted. </p>

<p>Actually, it seems like I am ok with designing cell phones, radios, hardwares, softwares. I dont particularly like any one of them, but dont hate any one of them either. Even though I put my interest aside, I still dont know which one I am more proficient at.</p>

19

<p>I am going to UCSD this fall</p>

20

<p>"Thus I have not learned anything about electronics or magnetism."</p>

<p>Physics 2 is usually electricity and magnetism. My son didn't do any
circuits when he took the class. He did circuits in his logic design
class. I think that he will be doing circuits in computer organization
and assembler which he's taking in the fall.</p>

<p>There's a very nice set of course videos with Walter Lewin which covers
Physics 2 which can be used along with a textbook for self-study. Lewin
is a pretty entertaining guy in the classroom.</p>

<p>MIT</a> OpenCourseWare | Physics | 8.02 Electricity and Magnetism, Spring 2002 | Home</p>

<p>"A lot of my friends keep telling me that EE is one of the hardest
major, and circuit is too abstract to understand."</p>

<p>EE is tough. But there are many that like to do things that others
consider difficult. It sounds like you've gone above and beyond what
your high-school has offered and have interest in difficult areas.</p>

<p>There's an excellent video that you might want to check out. This
course is circuits and electronics and the professor is Anant Agarwal.
The first video goes through the abstraction layers from physics to
software applications. It assumes that you've had Physics 2 but you
should be able to get the general idea of the overall abstractions
end-to-end even if you don't understand a few of the terms.</p>

<p>MIT</a> OpenCourseWare | Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | 6.002 Circuits and Electronics, Spring 2007 | Lecture Notes and Videos</p>

<p>"Isn't CS too competitive? I heard there are lots of people getting
into this field, and its impacted."</p>

<p>I think that the number of kids going into CS is about half of what
it was at the peak several years ago. It seems to me that we have
shortages of CS graduates in the US. </p>

<p>I'd suggest reading the CACM article Image Crisis: Inspiring a New
Generation of Computer Scientists. An excerpt:</p>

<pre><code>...A recent UCLA survey found that in 2006, barely 1% of incoming
</code></pre>

<p>freshman planned to major in computer science, compared with nearly 5%
25 years ago. According to the most recent version of the Computer
Research Association's annual Taulbee report, just 12498 computer
science and computer engineering degrees were awarded last year, a
one-year drop of almost 20%. Even more alarming, total undergraduate
enrollment in computer science and computer engineering has fallen 50%
during the past five years, to just 46,000 students.</p>

<p>It starts on page 33 at Communications</a> - July 2008</p>

<p>BTW, if you look carefully at the numbers above, you can probable
envision a pretty high attrition rate. If 46,000 students enroll and
12,498 students graduate, then it's obvious that many don't make it.
The numbers are given for different periods but my experience is
that many have difficulty with these majors and switch to something
else.</p>