People with ties to automotive ingenuity help me out

Currently seeking a mechanical or chemical engineering degree as the basis for my career. What I’m wanting to learn how to do is develop my own ecu/ecms on engines for being applicative in my ideas after school as well as allowing for more opportunities to be creative and applicative in the future. It’s something I need to address if I want to take my career and dreams in the right direction. I really have no previous programming experience nor any really valuable hardware aptitude. The problem is that I have no idea where to start. Computer science? Any help is appreciated and I’ll be glad to elaborate a little more if I’m being a little vague.