<p>I'm trying to compare the CpE curriculum to the EE curriculum at cal poly pomona, and to me it seems like it's exactly the same as getting an EE degree except you have no say in the electives, whereas you would with an EE degree.
Here's the CpE curriculum: <a href="http://www.csupomona.edu/%7Eengineering/current/currsheets/cpe-10-11.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.csupomona.edu/~engineering/current/currsheets/cpe-10-11.pdf</a>
And the EE curriculum: <a href="http://www.csupomona.edu/%7Eengineering/current/currsheets/ee-10-11.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.csupomona.edu/~engineering/current/currsheets/ee-10-11.pdf</a></p>
<p>I'm not sure if I'm looking at this right, because most people have said that a CpE degree is basically half EE and half Computer Science. This doesn't seem to be the case here, because I don't even see any software courses that the EE doesn't take (except for the software engineering class). If I'm right about this, what is the point of this CpE degree anyway since it seems to be exactly the same as the EE degree except you can't choose electives?
Furthermore, what jobs would a CpE graduate have an advantage over an EE graduate, and vice versa (specifically from cal poly pomona)? Would it depend on what electives the EE takes? (These are the electives courses: <a href="http://www.csupomona.edu/%7Eece/program/wishlist.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.csupomona.edu/~ece/program/wishlist.pdf</a>)</p>
<p>The last thing I would want to happen is being just as qualified as an EE but companies skipping over my resume because it says "computer engineer" instead of "electrical engineer". Is this enough of an issue to switch to EE and take the same CpE electives? Thanks to anyone who can clear all of this up for me.</p>
<p>In Electrical Engineering but not Computer Engineering:</p>
<p>307 Network Analysis III
310/310L Power Engineering
320/320L Linear Active Circuit Design
330 Semiconductor Devices
405/405L Communications Systems
MTE 208 Materials Science and Engineering
18-19 units of ECE electives (21 instead of 2-3)</p>
<p>In Computer Engineering but not Electrical Engineering:</p>
<p>304 Data Structures *
325/325L Electronic Design for Digital Circuits
342/342L Computer Organization or 343/343L Microprocessor I
415/415L Digital Design Verilog or 424/424L Digital Design VHDL
425/425L Computer Architecture
426/426L Operating Systems *
429 Applications Development Java *
431/431L Computer Networks * or 433/433L TCP/IP *
480 Software Engineering *</p>
<ul>
<li>= software courses not required for Electrical Engineering major.</li>
</ul>
<p>Presumably, the 18-19 additional units of ECE electives would allow an Electrical Engineering major to study in greater depth Electrical Engineering topics of his/her choice (as listed in the wishlist PDF you linked to). Yes, the types of jobs that one would be hired for likely depend somewhat on the type of electives taken for an Electrical Engineering major. The Computer Engineering major is clearly aimed at computer hardware / chip design, although it includes enough of the basics for software that a graduate should be able to move into software with a willingness to self-educate needed topics (although it seems odd that there is no algorithms and complexity course).</p>
<p>I didn’t know those classes you listed were software, I would have expected them to have the “Computer Science” label. Anyway, would you recommend I start out in CpE or EE given that I don’t know exactly whether or not I want my studies to be entirely based around computers? Don’t know what type of job after college I’d looking for either, so would it be worth the hassle of trying to switch to EE?</p>
<p>It really depends on which areas you find more interesting. Also, find out how easy it is (administratively) to switch majors. Most of the curriculum differences between the two are in the junior and senior level courses, so you can take courses during your freshman and sophomore years that can be used for both majors.</p>
<p>If you do end up wanting to do more software, there is an algorithms and complexity course, CS 331.</p>
<p>I think with either degree you can focus on hardware, software or a combination of both in the job market. It seems most people tend to specialize in software or hardware at some point. FPGA design is a middle ground area that some people like. Computer Engineering doesn’t restrict you to engineering computers, I think of it more as a hybrid EE/CS degree. If you’re not sure you like software design more than hardware design, CpE gives you good exposure to both.</p>
<p>I have an EE degree but took many CS electives to get a certificate in computer engineering (at GT). This was before CpE was offered as a formal degree. I started out doing digital circuit design for about two years but switched over to software because I enjoyed that more. Most of the software I write is for embedded processors contained in devices such as blood chemistry monitors, satellite receivers, and sonar systems. Often, I have to understand the hardware design because the software is controlling some interface to the hardware. Sometimes I’m working closely with the hardware designers to get the processor on the circuit boards up and running, other times I’m writing application code on a team with a mix of CpE, EE and CS majors. On many projects the bulk of the work is in the software realm, the hardware gets designed once or twice but the software upgrades go on and on.</p>