How does computer engineering compare and contrast to computer science?

[AE86]

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My question is the title.

I was wondering how much difficult comp eng is over comp sci.


From what i heard, comp eng is more practical and involves more programming while comp sci is more theory based.


On the open day, the representative of the engineering said that computer science is more flexible.

However, i'm not very sure what flexibility he is talking about. Could he be talking about the flexibility in difficulty, electives and programming languages??


Anyway, thanks in advance for any replies

[grimreaper]

No I think youve got it a little wrong there. Soft eng would involve more programming, while comp eng would have more hardware and electrical eng stuff involved. As to flexibility, he probably meant that a lot of the comp sci degree is elective when compared to both seng and comp eng

[underthesun]

Yep, in software eng, you get to learn about formal methods that the industry uses in software developments (such as requirements documents, UML although uml sucks, B method) and such. It's much more on the practical side of computers.

Compsci is very flexible, in terms of how much "computing" you want to do (ie subjects). This means it's also very flexible in terms of difficulty. Im not sure about later years, but you get higher comp/lower comp in first year, which will be the case for 2005 (only for the first comp)..

Also, softeng workload is hellish. So I'd recommend against it if you're one of those weak-willed ones. But then the feeling of accomplishment after a huge workload is always goood

And did I mention you can combine both SoftEng and CompEng with Masters of BioMedicalEngineering?

btw I think the best information you can get for these is the undergraduate prospectus (booklet) for CSE. It's complete in a complete way(imo). You can probably get it over the next open day, around january?

[sunny]

Originally Posted by AE86

I was wondering how much difficult comp eng is over comp sci.

My personal opinion is that you should be asking the question the other way around, ie, how much more difficult is comp sci over comp eng.

From what i heard, comp eng is more practical and involves more programming while comp sci is more theory based.

False. Comp eng is geared towards hardware, physics and electrical engineering - of course there are practicals associated with electrical engineering and physics. In first year comp eng, comp sci, and seng all have common computing subjects - no one does "more programming" than another. In later years the programs start to dffer as seng and comp eng focus on software management and electrical engineering and physics respectively. Comp sci allows you to choose what you want to do - which may or may not be more computing. I can tell you now, having just finished second year computer science I've done more computing subjects than most other computing students because I have used all my electives on some third year computing subjects. Think of comp eng and seng as a "moulded" version of comp sci, where the electives are already decided for you.

On the open day, the representative of the engineering said that computer science is more flexible.

However, i'm not very sure what flexibility he is talking about. Could he be talking about the flexibility in difficulty, electives and programming languages??

Flexibility as in elective choice. If you compare the program outline of seng, comp eng, and comp sci, you will see that comp sci is largely made up of free electives in second and third year, which you can use for more computing subjects, or subjects from other faculties.

[AE86]

Originally Posted by sunny

My personal opinion is that you should be asking the question the other way around, ie, how much more difficult is comp sci over comp eng.

May i ask how is comp sci more difficult than comp eng?

I thought with flexibility, it would be easier :s

[gman03]

Originally Posted by AE86

May i ask how is comp sci more difficult than comp eng?

I thought with flexibility, it would be easier :s

As mentioned before, the difficulties don't lie much on the degree, but rather the courses (i.e. the subjects) you pick. You can pretty much pickmost of the comp eng courses for the comp sci degree.. However in a sense comp sci would be easier, as I think comp sci student don't have to do a thesis (don't quote me on this) for their final year.

[underthesun]

Well, i wouldn't know how hard 3rd/4th year electric eng subjects are (as they're part of compeng), but I can tell you some 3rd/4th compsci subjects is HARD. This opinion comes out after having to make a compiler (simple) as an introduction in 1st year computing for the later 3rd year course called "compiler", and I believe there's another course which is an extension of that course.

However, with compsci you can choose non-computing course, evade that compiler course and ask around for easy electives. I guess this long-winded response boils down to the fact that the difficulty of the subjects you chose, which is very flexible in compsci .

[sunny]

Originally Posted by gman03

However in a sense comp sci would be easier, as I think comp sci student don't have to do a thesis (don't quote me on this) for their final year.

Yes a thesis (done in honours year) is optional to comp sci. But to judge a program to be easier because a thesis is optional?

Originally Posted by AE86

May i ask how is comp sci more difficult than comp eng?

I thought with flexibility, it would be easier :s

Yes in comp sci you can choose the easy way to and pick easy electives - if you do, then you need justify to yourself why you're paying $600 per course for the "easy way out". People should be mature enough in uni to decide what is good for them rather than getting the easy way out.

I just finished a third year subject called Computer Architecture (COMP3211). This subject is not core in comp sci, but it is core for third year comp eng. For me, I was kind of looking forward to doing this subject and I got the choice of doing it as soon as possible, and I did it this session (in my second year), which is a year ahead of students in comp eng in the same year as me. It would have been a risk to do a "hard" subject, in class of 174 full of people older and probably smarter than me, but in the end I did very well in it.

[Survivor39]

everytime I see underthesun I think of the name "yosi" lol... who the hell created this name..now it's stucked in my head..>.<

sorry underthesun. lol

back on topic...

[zoodboog]

Originally Posted by grimreaper

No I think youve got it a little wrong there. Soft eng would involve more programming, while comp eng would have more hardware and electrical eng stuff involved. As to flexibility, he probably meant that a lot of the comp sci degree is elective when compared to both seng and comp eng

soft eng involves more dataflow/planning/diagram bs, not programming. if you are interested in programmg do comp sci.

[sunny]

Originally Posted by zoodboog

soft eng involves more dataflow/planning/diagram bs, not programming. if you are interested in programmg do comp sci.

I agree. Software engineering is geared towards software management, not the actual development of it. McLake can probably tell you all about it.

[McLake]

Originally Posted by sunny

McLake can probably tell you all about it.

Yes, he can

I have now finished 2nd year, and having many good friends in Comp Sci, and some in Comp Eng, I feel I can discuss this, at length.

As said above, Comp Eng is hardware, Soft Eng is software/managment and Comp Sci is whatever you want. I like to use these ratios (which hold for the first 2 years):

COMP ENG: 1/3 Math, 1/3 Phys/Elec, 1/3 Programing
SOFT ENG: 1/4 Math, 1/4 Managment, 1/2 Programming
COMP SCI: 1/4 Math, 1/4 Programming, 1/2 Electives

Note that these are *rough* ratios as a guide

From that you might think "Hmm, SENG seems to have more programming than COMP SCI". Well this can be true, but note that there is 1/2 electives, so you can make COMP SCI 3/4 programming, more than SENG.

In terms of difficulty, as those above have said, it all depends on courses. And, like sunny, I chose to do a 3rd year COMP subject this year (the end of my 2nd year). The degrees, even SENG to a degree, are flexable enough to allow YOU to set the difficulty.

Note that COMP SCI can be basically turned into a COMP ENG or SOFT ENG degree by choosing particulart electives. You cannot make it *exactly* like SOFT ENG (beacuse the "SENG" subjects are unique), but you can make it exactly like COMP ENG (please someone correct me if that is incorrect).

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But what about SENG? How is it different to COMP SCI?

Assuming computing electives are picked for COMP SCI and SOFT ENG, the main difference are INFS electives, and SENG Workshops.

INFS electives are like COMP course, with all of the code/programming extracted. This can be frustrating as a programmer, but then again you can take the COMP equivalent later, or learn the appropriate code on your own (or you may even know it already).

SENG Workshops are the part of the program that made me want to do it over COMP SCI. These are a chance to tackle larger projects in a TEAM enviroment. All assement is done as team work, with large group projects completed over 2 years (with an additional year of a new team project).

As to the amount of paperwork in INFS/SENG, yes there is paperwork, and yes, some of it is silly, but other things are usefu, and you learn valuable skills. You learn how to manage large amounts of code, large documents, teams of 4/5 people, you learn how to communicate ideas, you learn how to demonstrate prototypes, in short you learn lots of valuable skills if you aim to be a LEADER in software (as sunny said). This may be as small as a leader of a team of programmers, or middle managment in a large software firm. But these are things to be worried about later, and SOFT ENG does not prevent you from being a "code monkey", you will have just had less practive at it.

[underthesun]

About seng : while the kind of stuff you get to do in first year never seems like to be important, when doing research over it I came to lots of stuff about software engineering. About project planning.. bla bla bla.. What they teach you may sound or seem boring, but when you think about it, they're actually important things that most programmers ignore.

Allright, take this as example. For all my COMP assignments, I did a data-flow diagram and planned every algorithm to use beforehand (on accounting and finite maths tutorials of course ). My assignments are all bugless . I got full mark for all my assignments .

And let me tell you that, this was because of exposure to seng, that I developed this habit. I mean, last semester in COMP, none of my assignment fit the description of getting full marks. And they were using haskell, while this semester we're using C. That should tell you something about the usefulness of seng.. and pain

p.s survivor, stop spreading my name around my real name is "lorenzo", not "yose"

some seng-like links : http://softpanorama.org, http://joelonsoftware.com

[Survivor39]

hey! i didn't started the "yosi" thing. lol. your higher comp friend did. and you have to admit, the pronounciation of "yosi" is pretty funny. rofl
and i thought your real name is "Jose". now i'm confused...

[underthesun]

Who's this higher comp friend? Did you mean Richard?

Nah, the real name is "Lorenzo Jose Mercedez", except back in my country "Yos" is a common name

edit : please ignore the post below me, as it is made by a lunatic