Computer Science x Computer Engineering

[Anonymous No.10448177]

What is the actual difference between computer science and computer engineering? I'm changing college courses and I would like to choose one of the two, but can't tell the precise difference.

[Anonymous No.10448369]

>>10448177
CS = software
CE = hardware

[Anonymous No.10448373]

>>10448177

[Anonymous No.10448773]

>>10448369
CE is usually software and computer hardware.

>>10448373
I wish I knew what to do. I'm currently a math major in my sophomore year, but enjoy programming and I've been building circuits on bread boards lately to learn more about electronics (esp for making music).

CE is interesting but I think I'll keep that as an autodidact endeavor.

[Anonymous No.10449103]

>>10448177
Why I think computer engineering is a better option:

>Qualified engineer - I'm in not from the US, but don't you have an FE exam or something that you need to do on top of an ABET accredited degree before you are considered a professional engineer? Where I'm from, engineering is considered a profession, there is a regulating body that ensures certain standards are maintained for engineers, and this accreditation is a big deal when it comes to jobs. You are part of a profession. With computer science, you are not, you are just a guy with a bachelor's of science degree. There aren't the same regulating bodies and standards. This difference is especially important in state / government sectors where I live, the idea of a Chartered engineer

>More versatile - with my program, you can do jobs with electronics, signal processing, embedded on top of most software jobs. You have that option if you want it. You also have enough knowledge to do a lot of software engineering jobs. You are essentially a qualified engineer and a computer scientist. With a computer science degree, you don't have the option of working in signal processing, electronic engineering or electrical engineering. You are limited to software engineering.

>Less competition - the thing with computer science is that because there isn't the same idea of "you need to have your professional Engineering qualification before you do this job". You can be competing with pretty much anyone who can code and code well. There isn't the same minimum education requirement.

>Much easier to self teach CS than advanced EE material - it's much better to have a computer engineering degree with outside classes on data structures and algorithms and other CS material in my opinion.

That's my personal opinion, more variety with Comp eng if you aren't dead set on one or the other. Mote options. If you love CS then go CS, this is only if you're on the fence

[Anonymous No.10449115]

>>10449103
>don't you have an FE exam or something that you need to do on top of an ABET accredited degree before you are considered a professional engineer?
That's literally useless for CpE.

[Anonymous No.10449120]

>>10448177
CS is software.
CE is somewhere in-between CS and EE. You get a bit of both, just enough that you can go into regular software development, low-level programming, or hardware.

[Anonymous No.10449125]

>>10448177
Computer engineering is electrical engineering with an additional focus on computers.

Computer science is more abstract;it's the study of algorithms and computation.

[Anonymous No.10449128]

>>10449115
It's not for EE though is it? I'm not from the US so I genuinely don't know.

[Anonymous No.10449143]

>>10449125
>Computer engineering is electrical engineering with an additional focus on computers.
This is accurate, at least in my school CpE and EE only differ by 4 courses, CpE students do data structures and algorithms, discrete math, operating systems and advanced computer architecture while EEs do RF and microwaves, EM fields, power electronics and communication engineering.

Honestly it's kinda EE minus, DS&A and discrete are high school courses basically, at least you can take as many EE electives as you want tho.

[Anonymous No.10449221]

Heres an actual compare:

CS: https://www.usf.edu/engineering/student-services/documents/flowchart-bscs.pdf

CE: https://www.usf.edu/engineering/student-services/documents/flowchart-bscp.pdf

[Anonymous No.10449246]

CS = Math / Theory
CE = Electronics, circuits, etc / Practical aspects

[Anonymous No.10449263]

>>10449221
A lot of bullshit modules in there, no wonder Americans have such high GPAs

[Anonymous No.10449336]

>>10448177
computer engineering is a subset of computer science

[Anonymous No.10449348]

>>10449336
i mean the field itself. as far as college majors this guy >>10449143 has it right

[Anonymous No.10449385]

>>10449221
>usf

[Anonymous No.10449397]

>>10448373
Holy shit... Can other unibros confirm this for CE?

[Anonymous No.10449405]

which is the least grueling?

[Anonymous No.10449410]

>>10449405
Computer Science.
It's a meme degree.

[Anonymous No.10449599]

>>10449397
Pretty much spot on with material covered with a slightly different structure and layout.

1st year 1st semester- chem, mechanics, electrical , computing, engineering math "general engineering" classes before specialisation

1st year semester 2 - circuits, digital logic, coding class with Java, semiconductor device fundamentals, engineering math (basically a math module each semester with all of the math mentioned in that part being covered)

2nd year semester 1 - analog circuit design, verilog digital design, C language covered in depth with a lot of low level stuff with memory allocation, math module, engineering professionalism (the only easy class I've had)

2nd year, semester 2 - control theory, more analog circuit design, communications and security protocols, embedded systems, more math (I think this way mainly probability, much easier than the others

3rd year - half the year spent on work placement including the summer

More advanced control theory, telecommunication fundamentals, language processors (includes writing a compiler for a fairly comprehensive pascal-like language), operating systems, signals and systems

That's where I'm at right now, then for my last two semesters next year:

Year 4 semester 1, my electives are: artificial intelligence, digital signal processing, computer networks, software engineering

Year 4 semester 2 : machine vision, distributed systems, computer architectures, digital control

Final year also has a substantial project, mine is building a deep learning neural network for detecting car park spaces using Julia

[Anonymous No.10449631]

>>10449397
Im third year CE and its spot on
My roommate is 3rd year CS and its pretty damn close. The only difference is that he took a bunch of film classes... because i guess he felt like it.

[Anonymous No.10449698]

If a robot is being built, then computer engineers would probably focus on its physical body while computer scientists would probably focus on its mind

[Anonymous No.10449707]

>>10449698
This. Computer scientists would design the software system. Then computer engineers would design the hardware to support the desired software algorithm with some metric in mind (best performance, lowest power, lowest cost, etc). Then the software developers would computer scientists would redesign the system to work within the constraints of the hardware.

[Anonymous No.10449738]

>>10449599
When you say "low level stuff with memory allocation", what do you mean exactly? I'm a CS bro but all the programming classes at my school are C/C++ based so I'm not sure what topics are considered "low level". Are you talking about creating your own memory allocator?

[Anonymous No.10449759]

>>10448177
Computer Science is the study of computation, which is an enormous field. Computer Engineering is the manufacture/design of computers.

[Anonymous No.10449769]

Is there a reason to do CS over CpE?

[Anonymous No.10449775]

>>10449397

Telecom in Europe is quite similar, here are my courses:

>1st year
Algebra, Calc I & II, Physics I, Statistics, Circuits, Signals, Electronics I & II (from resistors to transistors), Economics (lel)

>2nd year
Digital Electronics, EM Fields, ODEs, Physics II, Telecom Networks, C Coding, Java Coding for Distributed Environments, Communication Theory

>3rd year
More Electronics, Digital Systems, High-Freq Systems, Computer Architecture, Telecom Systems, Mobile Comm, Radio Comm, Multimedia Signal Processing, Network Planning and Modeling

>4th year
Antennas, Comm System Design, Radio and TV Systems, Materials Science (elective), ODE Numerical Sim (elective), Optic Comm, Optics (elective), Radar and Satellites, Projects

Some of those electronics courses were actually about embedded systems, VLSI, FPGAs, etc. but I can't remember which one was which.

[Anonymous No.10449782]

>>10449128
Depends on the field. Most don't emphasize having a license but they still won't hire you if you lack a degree in electrical engineering or computer engineering.

[Anonymous No.10451392]

>>10449397
Accurate. Don't do CS, its a joke.

>>10449769
No. CpE has more theoretical CS parts, gives you a better foundation and a wider knowledge. CS is more or less equivalent to a bootcamp stretching over 3-4 years and costing a fuckton. Just don't.

[Anonymous No.10453036]

>>10449738
Not him, but in programming terms, the lower level you are, the closer to machine speak you get, and the higher level you are, the closer to human speech you get.

Low level stuff would be things like Assembly code, where you are literally telling the computer to shift X variable to active memory registers, then to perform Y calculation on it, then tell it to store that new variable into a memory store somewhere at some offset.

If I remember things right, Assembly is like a level 1-2 language. C/C++ is level 3, as the syntax is much more closer to the way a human talks, so rather than moving a variable to an active registry to do comparisons, you would write if/then statements.

Level 4/5 type stuff would be things like scripting languages, where you can just type in things like "Variable X is 5" or something along the lines, and then the program would make an integer X and assign it 5.

Typically speaking, lower-level languages are much, much harder to work with, but are also the backbones of compilers, and learning to program well in it will make any hardware you run across your absolute bitch.

[Anonymous No.10453423]

engineer = monkey, informatics = scientist

[Anonymous No.10454128]

Most jobs that a CpE degrees over that CS don't (circuit design or firmware stuff) are simply mind bogglingly boring crap

[Anonymous No.10454169]

>>10454128
This, every interesting hardware job requires an EE degree.

[Anonymous No.10454484]

>>10454128
Yes, EE is the most interesting tech related degree but you still need to go beyond a bachelor's if you want to do anything noteworthy.

[Anonymous No.10454864]

CS for brainlet
CE is chad choice

[Anonymous No.10455291]

>>10448369
>>10448373
>>10449103
>>10449120
>>10449125
>>10449336
>>10449759

So it looks like CE is the best option for me. Thanks for the support!

[Anonymous No.10455415]

>>10454864
I'm starting a CS degree next fall and just don't have much interest in CE, am I making a mistake

[Anonymous No.10455859]

>>10455415
Yes

[Anonymous No.10456331]

>>10455415
I mean if you dont have interest in CE dont change to it because some anon is shitting on your current degree.

[Anonymous No.10456333]

Well it's really simple,
One of them, all of your job prospects will instead be taken by Indians, and the other, by Israelis.

[Anonymous No.10456366]

>>10455415
Yes you are.