Computer engineering

[Snoople]

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Hey,
I've been looking at engineering for the last few days and i was just wondering about computer engineering in more detail.
I do 3U maths and i did physics in year 11 but dropped.
I was just wondering about the difficulty, what is required in knowledge and future jobs.

Any information about this course would be helpful and recommendations
thanks

[chucknthem]

It's a mix between electrical engineering and computer science, but imo you won't get enough of either. If you're interested in it, I would just do a combined comp sci + elec engg degree.

You'll do a bit of physics and math like other engineering degrees, and you'll learn about circuit design and low level embed systems programming.

3u math would be useful, but HSC physics is a joke so don't waste your time with that if you have better things to do.

Jobs for comp engg isn't very good in Australia, so you'll likely have to look overseas. But that's iff you want to work as a computer engineer. It's quite similar to computer science, so you can take some programming jobs as well. A lot of computer engg I know at unsw tend to drop to computer science for the flexibility.

[Snoople]

ah thanksheaps, what other computing degrees are possibly that might have a good job prospect in aus.
also is there such thing as doubling with a language degree or not really?

[Sonata]

u can do the degree, eng and minor in a language iirc

[Snoople]

possibly..
what other possibly double degrees can there be?
im not sure if i should do a double or just 1.
and does doing a double make the atar higher or is atar irrelevant to doing a double or not?

[chucknthem]

Yeah, comp sci is flexible enough to let you minor in a language if you really wanted to. But think about it before you do though. If you're serious about both computing and a language, do a double degree in computer science and arts. Trying to fit a minor in comp sci will mean that you'll miss out on a lot of (interesting and useful) electives. Even in a double degree, you'll miss a bit, but it's not as bad as a minor.

I'm biased but as for job prospects, computer science will give you a lot more options, but if you already know what you want to do, software engineering might be for you. Software engineering will focus more on project planning and building software from start to finish. It also gives you an 'Engineering' degree which realistically doesn't mean much in computing, but it might score you a few points to some employers.

ATAR for a double degree will generally be max(ATAR of degree1, ATAR of degree2)

[Snoople]

thanks heaps
what exactly would arts go into though?
and will doing a combined make everything a lot harder or not?

[Snoople]

also anyone know the main difference between comp engineering and software engineering?

[LordPc]

comp eng = bit of computer science + bit of electrical engineering

soft eng = bit of computer science + you have these other subjects where you work in teams and develop software and learn how to work in groups and manage projects and some (which apparently arent that fun)

[Ben1220]

Originally Posted by Snoople

also anyone know the main difference between comp engineering and software engineering?

Computer engineering is sort of a mix between computer science and electrical engineering. You learn about hardware and software.

Computer Science is the science of information and computation some areas of it have as much to do with computers as astro physics has to do with telescopes. Think of it as the chemistry of information. If you want to find real computer scientists have a look here Computational Complexity (popular blog in the theoretical computer science community)

using the same analogy, Software Engineering then, is sort of like chemical engineering. It consists of a lot of the stuff in computer science, but more of an emphasis on software development practices like software modeling, testing, team projects ect.

[Snoople]

thanks ffor the info peoples.
anyone know which one would be more enjoyable? (in you own opinion)

[Sonata]

atm im doing Comp Eng, so far its pretty much maths. cant really comment on how the other subjects though pretty sure its the same, maths intensive
and yea like what chucknthem said about comp eng not being to good in aus, im thinking bout transfering to comp sci. Also since it has sum electrical units in it, which is hard according to what BoS members have mentioned.

Also if there much of a differences between the maths involve in eng and comp sci? so far its just calculus, though im to sure bout it being different from discrete.
and while on the topic of minoring, say if u minor on something e.g. arts. Will it pop up on ur degree?

[LordPc]

pure comp sci (at unsw) have to do discrete maths but thats the only mathematical difference

discrete maths contains topics that are very applicable to computing problems, even though you dont learn about them in this way. quite an interesting course as it feels entirely different to the usual calculus/algebra type of maths.

id say the choice between comp eng and comp sci is really about whether or not you want to know about the physical side of things. if you really want to be able to open up a computer and understand what is going on in there, then perhaps comp eng.

[Snoople]

its all so much clearer now ..thanks heaps
sorry about all the spam questions but is the job prospect of software engineering the same as computer engineering??

also dont be obliged to jjust answer my random questions lol
if you still got random info about this just type it

[LordPc]

well computer engineers do a lot of electrical stuff, while soft eng's dont do anything related to the physics/electrical side of a computer, and instead have these courses called "workshops" where they work in a team and do stuff like that. they pretty much overlap on the computing side

so yea, job prospects would be different since they involve computing at the core, but have a different focus to supplement that learning