CS vs CE

[patlajan]

OK kiddies. It is time for yet another round of geek round table, hosted by patlajan.
This thread's topic. Which is more interesting. Computer engineering or computer science? My CS friend told me CE is a way of life. and a CE degree will land you in a job where you're only doing one thing.

OK don't all jump in with your opinions at once now.....

[Anonymouse]

This post was created and brought to you buy a realist.

[loseyourname]

I'm not sure this is really the right forum to talk about this on. How many people have any experience with either? I've studied logic gates and discrete structures as part of my math program, but that's it.

[Sip]

I would say in order to do computer engineering, you need to have a firm grasp of computer science. So in essence, CE is a superset of CS. However, I find both to be quite interesting though I personally preferred to stick more to CE.

The terms however are quite general and can really mean anything. It will depend on the type of school you go and what they really intend to accomplish. In a decent 4 year university, if you undertake a CE curriculum, you will end up taking a bunch of electrical engineering courses such as circuit analysis and degital design. You may also take a bunch of computer architecture that normal CS students may not take.

On the other hand, CS students may be forced to take several theory courses that may be optional for a CE student: for example things like automata theory or artificial intelligence.

As far as a "job", a computer engineering student would probably have better prospects as she may be able to do both regular computer sciencey jobs like data analysis, programming, and systems (database, networking, operating, compiler etc) and computer engineering jobs like circuit design, VHDL/Verilog design, control, automation, CAD (for computers, not mechanical engineering CAD), etc.

[Krazy]

Re: CS vs CE

i have a book about this.. it's 13 pages! if i have time and read it.. i'll write some stuff about what's written...

For me, I chose CCE (here it is computer & communication engineering) instead of CS. Because of my SAT grade (low enlgish grade :@) i was accepted in Electrical Engineering...

[karoaper]

Re: CS vs CE

I think CE is more tied to EE and architecture, while CS deals with more mathematical/theoretical concepts. If you're into VLSI or chip design, or network architecture (switches, fiber stuff, etc), or the realy hot embedded technology, then CE is for you. While if you're into things like AI, parallel computing, security and cryptology, mobile computing, network systems, then CS is more the thing.