Mechatronics vs Computer Engineering

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

<p>Hello,
I'm currently in my first general year at Engineering and we are supposed to choose majors starting from next year. I've always wanted to work with Artificial Intelligence and robots and among the several majors offered I found that two are related, Mechatronics & Computer Engineering. </p>

<p>I've been interested in electronics & computers since I was 12 and I started programming when I was 16 (I'm currently 18), I'm also interested in mechanics and how stuff move so I guess mechatronics is kinda cool (but I'm still not sure what a mechatronics engineer actually do and where do they work)
I get the feeling that mechatronics is more focused on industrial applications and the curriculum lacks a major part of what I'm interested in which is Artificial Intelligence on the other hand computer engineering is well focused on the electronics & AI but lacks the mechanical design</p>

<p>here is the curriculum for both departments (sorry for the rough translation, the website is in arabic only)</p>

<p>Mechatronics:</p>

<p>First year (Pure Mechanical):</p>

<p>-Mathematics
-Production Engineering
-Electrical Engineering
-Technical Reports
-Computer Aided Drawing
-Mechanical mechanisms
-Material Engineering
-Thermodynamics
-Engineering Economics
-Environmental Impact of Projects</p>

<p>Second Year (Mechatronics):</p>

<p>-Electronics
-Systems modeling
-Numerical analysis
-Marketing & Project Management
-Computer-integrated manufacturing
-Logic Gates & Microprocessors
-Computer architecture
-Solid mechanics</p>

<p>Third Year (Mechatronics):</p>

<p>-Power electronics
-Fluid Mechanics
-Electromechanical Equipment
-Computer Aided Mechanical Design
-Industrial Control
-Digital Control
-Power Electronics Applicaitions
-Optional (1): Quality Control / Servomechanism
-Optional (2): CNC / Adaptive control</p>

<p>Forth Year (Mechatronics):</p>

<p>-Mechatronics Engineering
-Automatic control
-Traction Machines
-Smart Control Systems
-Robots Dynamics
-Programming Applications in Mechatronics
-Optional (3): Car Electronics / Mechatronics Applications
-Optional (4): Robots Control / Mechanical Vibrations</p>

<p>Computer Engineering:</p>

<p>First Year:</p>

<p>-Electronics
-Technology & Electronic workshops
-Electric Circuits
-Technical Reports
-Physics
-Programming
-Environmental Impact of Projects</p>

<p>Second Year:</p>

<p>-Electromagnetic Fields
-Electrical Machines
-Electronics
-Engineering Economics
-Electronic Measurements
-Mathematics
-Signal Analysis
-Communication System
-Logic Gates
-Integrated Circuits</p>

<p>Third Year:
-Software Engineering
-Software Packages
-Algorithmic
-Microprocessors
-Database
-Computer Organization and Architecture
-Optional (1): Feasibility study / Marketing & Research
-Optional (2): Data Mining / Machine learning</p>

<p>Forth Year:</p>

<p>-Computer Networks
-Artificial Intelligence
-Linear Systems & Control
-Digital Signal Processor
-Parallel and Distributed Systems
-Compiler Design
-Computer Interface
-Optional (3): Real time system / Multimedia computer
-Optional (4): Computer Vision / Image Processing</p>

<p>so what do you think I should choose and why ? and also what are the job opportunities for both departments and nature of these jobs (work environment, what do they do .. etc) ?</p>

<p>Thanks in advance and sorry for the long post :)</p>

2

<p>If you are 100% sure you want to work with robots do the mechatronics engineering degree. It is a synonym for robotics engineering actually(robots are mostly mechanical). Computer Engineering is not really about robots or AL. The university computer engineering degree look identical to that of computer science. Robotics is not the main focus of CS either. You can declare one as your major and take classes that count for both of them. After some classes, you should know which one you like the most</p>

3

<p>Thermodynamics in 1st year of mechanical? and no physics/chem/math?</p>

<p>Just a note, make sure you have the mechanical / build / troubleshooting skills for mechatronics… As I found out in my EE years, soldering, wirewrapping, and breadboarding are only taught on leap years :)</p>

4

<p>

taking classes that count for both is not an options since the mech dep & elec dep are taught by different staff but we are allowed to change majors in the first four weeks of the semester so I think I’ll attend lectures that define both dep and choose whether to continue of change major :)</p>

<p>

Yup, I’ve just double checked, thermodynamics is in the 1st year. as for math we took math this year and it’s in the 1st year of mechanical too … no chemistry or physics except for what we have taken this year (Physics: Properties of Matter, Heat, Electricity & Optics … it felt like more of an introduction than an in depth study) and chemistry I’m done with it in the first semester so I don’t actually remember what we took except for organic chemistry and industrial polymers</p>

<p>

I don’t think I completely understood what you meant by that, could you further explain</p>

5

<p>Are you comfortable taking apart and building stuff, using equipment to make parts and pieces, assemble parts, understand and use power tools, and so on? </p>

<p>Some majors involve considerable use of power tools and equipment to build artifacts (architecture :)) yet there is no ‘Drill Press 101’ or ‘Advanced Topics in Band Saw 399’ in the curriculum. If you think giving the car keys to your kids is scary, wait till you get the call ‘dad, how do I cut plexiglass’? </p>

<p>If you’re not sure about how much of this is needed, ask the department. I know in my EE days we were supposed to build stuff and I had absolutely no idea how to do it, and had to learn in a very short amount of time. Not difficult but something to consider.</p>