<p>My brain is struggling between what I want for a career. Here my reasoning. </p>
<p>Computer Science/Computer Engineering </p>
<p>or</p>
<p>Physicist</p>
<p>If I had two lives, I would take them both. If your are pursuing one of the two careers above, please explain why you choice it. </p>
<p>Allow me to start:</p>
<p>CS/CE: booming career, I love software and hardware (especially computers since they are machines with brains) computing. I literally on the computer as much as I am in college. A lot of optimistic future forecasts in this field, which is quit exciting to be in. </p>
<p>Physicist: I love nature. Studying the fundamentals and conducting practical and theoretical research is wonderful. I love to study quantum mechanics and perhaps I could contribute to the micro/nanotechnology, which pretty much would change everything.</p>
<p>If the careers listed above isn't what you want as a career, please feel free to list the career you are pursuing an explain why. We all want to hear what's hot out there.</p>
<p>Also, does anyone else feel that the United States is investing more into practical applications (engineering) and cutting more funding for scientific research?</p>
<p>for undergrad, i'd go with physics because it is pretty broad and will give you all of the basis to pursue electrical stuff later on. you'll learn e&m, heat transfer, fourier...things that are very fundamental to electronics. as for the computer science aspect of it, you may just want to take some classes to keep your coding abilities sharp...</p>
<p>oh... and as an example, my boss did physics for undergrad and got his masters in quantum physics... now he's a software/control engineer (does software, electronics, mechanical integration) for nasa. he highly recommends what he did (he said this over lunch yesterday).</p>
<p>I recommend you go the CS/CE route. The number of positions for CEs and CSs dwarf ones available for physicists. This is from first hand experience. My father has a PhD in physics, but he had a hard time finding a job. Guess what he's doing now? Yep, he's a professor teaching computer science (he did a lot of computational modeling). </p>
<p>But if you really love physics and are of the idealistic type, by all means go for it. I personally would never major in physics (and I didn't) after seeing what my father had to go through.</p>
<p>Wouldn't CE change over time? For instance, engineers and scientists are working on developing integrated optics (not integrated circuits) which function with light instead of current. Since nanotechnology is known, how will EE/CE change as we develop this new technology? For instance quantum computing (several decades away) and optic fibers will change electronics.</p>
<p>Optics and and Optronics is one area of study in EE/CE. EE/CE are also heavily involved in nanotech (ie MEMS). Yes the responsibilities and tasks of a CE/EE will change over time, just as a CE/EE today isn't doing the same things as 30 years ago. Being an engineer means a lifetime of continuous learning.</p>
<p>As much as you are willing to learn, either through elective classes or self study. I've known CS guys that knows as much about computer architecture (my focus) as I do.</p>
<p>well, i don't necessarily agree with morfinx.</p>
<p>you see, after you do a physics program, you really have the basis to do anything. if you go to grad school, as long as you are comfortable coding and understand data systems, you'll be able to do ce/cs.</p>
<p>Can you do CE/CS in grad school with a BS in physics? Certainly. But you are going to have to make up a lot of classes. From Georgia Tech's ECE graduate admission page:</p>
<p>
[quote]
Most students who are accepted into ECE's graduate program have a degree in electrical and/or computer engineering. Applicants with degrees in other engineering disciplines, computer science, or physics are eligible to apply. Qualified applicants with degrees in disciplines other than electrical and/or computer engineering should expect to take undergraduate ECE courses as prerequisites before enrolling in ECE graduate courses.
<p>Without a Ph.D., being a physicist is a difficult career. I'd go CS/CE, unless you plan on being in school for a long time. Of course CS/CE majors have to deal with outsourcing and job stability problems, so they both have their ups and downs.</p>
<p>I can tell you for sure that Computer Science and Software Engineering is a booming career. Since we will have autonomous machines in the future almost everywhere (thanks to better technology), people will be needed to regulate these programs and software. Eventually, everything will be connected under software such as banking, business, data, government, law, your toilet, you name it. I am not sure about Computer Engineering, but they will be needed as nanotechnology becomes mature. Overtime perhaps, electrical/computer engineering will be called something else such as nanoengineering. We'll see, the 21st century has something differently ready for humanity than the 20th.</p>
<p>Nobody can predict the future, one can only anticipate it and adapt to it. Technology often moves us into new paradigms, one can't predict a completely new way of thinking based on the old. With that said, I don't see EE/CE going anywhere any time in the near future.</p>
<p>All I see are predictions based on a whole lot assumptions, notice he himself even said "that's a big if". I repeat, we cannot predict the future with any appreciable accuracy beyond the immediate decade or two. Interpolations from these assumptions are of dubious value. Let me end with a few famous last words that predicts the future from "experts" at the time:</p>
<p>"Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?" --H.M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927.
"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." --Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943
"640k ought to be enough for anybody." -- Bill Gates, 1981
"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home." --Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977
"Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible." --Lord Kelvin (Kelvin temperature scale), president, Royal Society, 1895.</p>
<p>But nanotechnology, optic fibers, and intergrated optics will change EE/CE, and Computer Science. The next 20-40 years are going to have hugh technology improvements. Especially with the Asian folks and the rest of the world catching up. </p>
<p>Fact:</p>
<p>"The U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that demand for computer scientists, computer engineers and systems analysts will more than double in the decade ending in 2006--a pretty remarkable statistic, given that the bureau is predicting only a 14 percent increase in demand for all other occupations."</p>
<p>I think that the greatest advances will be in the area of Biotechnology, Biomedical technology, etc. </p>
<p>We are rapidly approaching physical limitations on HW. That is there is a physical limit of how many transistors we can fit on a chip. That said, quantum physics and computing would be very interesting.</p>
<p>Biotechnology will be doing very well in the coming decades and perhaps cure lethal diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer's, heart disease, etc. However, I believe nanotech. will have a much greater influence on pretty much everything, even biotech. I do agree that Moore's Law is coming to a halt in a decade or so.</p>
<p>Moreover, if our human civilization is able to generate a strong artificial intelligence (with the help of nanotech hardware, improved software and reverse scanning the brain), this will perhaps totally change us.</p>