<p>Hello all,
I am a high school senior looking to major in engineering. I was originally going to major in computer science, but I decided that I don't want companies to think of me as "just another programmer." So, I was wondering, is there a type of engineer that uses both programming and physics, because those are my two favorite subjects.
Any answers would be appreciated.</p>
<p>The most obvious answer is computer engineering, but the real answer is: just about all of them. All engineering majors are based on physics and it will be very helpful to know how to program.</p>
<p>All of them.</p>
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<p>The employed kind. </p>
<p>Seriously, EE definitely uses both. I’m pretty sure most engineering uses both. I use simulation to see if a concept works well enough to commit to expensive hardware.</p>
<p>While “All of them” and “the employed kind” are both valid and correct answer, I would suggest you look towards things like CFD and CEM. CFD is computational fluid dynamics, and is a specialty of mechanical engineering that involves creating computer models of the movement of gases and liquids. CEM is computational electromagnetics, and is a specialty of electrical engineering that involves creating computer models of electromagnetic fields and currents. They are both difficult areas but involve more physics and more programming than most engineering specialties.</p>
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<p>You could be thought of as “just another engineer” as well. Frankly, the title of your major should be the least of your concerns.</p>
<p>You might want to look into doing whatever sort of engineering interests you the most and then take a bunch of extra applied math & programming classes. That would set you up for things such as CFD within MechE, but allow you to be a little more broad. The idea being you’re trained in how to approach and solve computational problems (the hard part), and you’d just need to be trained on the various systems you could apply your methods to (generally just understanding boundary conditions, vocab, and those things).</p>
<p>From my experience most engineering majors don’t give you a good background in programming. Most engineers just graduated from college don’t even seem to know much about programming at all. I am in EE and most of my class mates have extremely poor knowledge in programming. </p>
<p>Embedded systems and controls in EE has a good amount of program as you often have to do hardware programming.</p>
<p>By the way, “just another engineer” is not bad. A computer science engineer is the second most in demand job currently. Also, growth will increase another 30% as technology improves in the years 2020 and beyond. Technology is a big part of our lives, and being an engineer will bring a successful future because of that.</p>
<p>Lake Jr. is a freshman in pre-engineering and after months of consulting CollegeConfidential I have repeatedly recommended to him that he prepare and work hard to get comfortable with the programming courses (ie. ‘Computing for Engineers,’ as many schools call it).</p>
<p>All (almost) majors will use both to some degree, but will have them in different proportions. This might also vary by school. For instance, CompE at my school would hardly be the obvious answer, as it is relatively physics-lite compared to almost anything else with the word “Engineering” in the name. </p>
<p>From what I’ve heard about different majors, I would say Aero seems like it would be one that really has a lot of both. That and EE which has been mentioned a few times in this topic.</p>