<p>How important is the ability to program in engineering (besides computer and electrical)? I was considering a minor in computer science, because I've been told it is extremely useful both on the job and in getting hired.. Is this true for all engineering majors, such as mechanical engineering? Given the already rigid schedule of ME, I was wondering if it's really worth it. Thanks.</p>
<p>I think that the programming will be minimal... but of course, having another skill would never hurt. I think that if you need programming for a job, the employer will teach you what you need to know. However, if you do want to learn about programming, and dont really care about having a minor, I would recommend just learning about programming on your own. You could start with a deitel & deitel book or something. I say this because that way you wont have to worry about the added stress of more classes, and you could learn at your own pace.</p>
<p>Are you in college yet? Some schools are requiring some CS for every engineering major as part of "pre-engineering". I don't think you need a minor though, just the intro programming courses. The minor will likely require some of theoretical courses that won't be of much practical help. Check the dept guidelines for details.</p>
<p>I know that Aero seems to require a significant amount of programming.</p>
<p>The amount of programming in other engineering departments shouldent really matter. The material is so bloody easy even in comparison to a standard cs 1 course. I am a computer engineering student and Ive dont a good bit of programming. At my school and other schools, there are special programming courses for engineers, usually c++ for engineers and then matlab. I have taken both of them even through they are not required, they were so easy, I would say cs courses for non majors would be harder.</p>
<p>you are a engineer and well the stuff I have done in my cse department is light years ahead of anything you could ever think of doing in a engineering programming class. try working on the kernel for freebsd. try writing code for a embedded cmos chip, yeah the stuff you will do in other engineering programming corses is so easy.</p>
<p>Wow Zorz, you are such a badass. I'm sure you've also taken fluid dynamics, system dynamics and heat transfer courses, right? I hope you're at least done with thermodynamics and solid mechanics, right? I mean, those are bloody easy intro courses, nothing compared to the first list of courses I mentioned.</p>
<p>(BTW, tons of people teach themselves how to "work on the FreeBSD" or Linux kernels, and "writing code for an embedded CMOS chip" is a fancy way of saying "learn Verilog or VHDL," basically two programming languages not all that different from C)</p>
<p>are you smoking? Thermodynamics is the second hardest topic I've ever encountered, right after biochemistry III. My computer architecture class is cake compared to that.</p>
<p>I'm BME and we do a lot of programming. Mostly matlab simulations. The code is not difficult it's straight-forward linear programming but you got to be comfortable with coding. Oh and matlab is a pain.</p>
<p>pearlygate, I was joking.</p>
<p>All freshmen at my school take matlab and the professor swears we will use it all the time. Whether that's true or not, I don't really know.</p>
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How important is the ability to program in engineering (besides computer and electrical)? I was considering a minor in computer science, because I've been told it is extremely useful both on the job and in getting hired.. Is this true for all engineering majors, such as mechanical engineering? Given the already rigid schedule of ME, I was wondering if it's really worth it.
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<p>Yes, its very very very important.</p>
<p>You should be familiar with the following programming languages. Not in particular order: fortran90, c, java, Matlab^^tm, and other symbolic programs like maple, mathematica.</p>
<p>Dont forget to include your programming proficiency in your resume for summer jobs/internships application as well as for your real job.</p>
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pearlygate, I was joking.
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<p>I caught your sarcasm. but I decided to play with it :)</p>
<p>*** is this programming ? :D</p>