Biomedical Engineering or Computer Science

[ColdBuffet]

You can hide this advertisement by registering.

Hi guys, I'm trying to decide whether to do: B Engineering/B Science (Computer Science) or B Engineering (Chemical Computer Electrical Mechanical Mechatronic Telecommunications)/M Biomedical Engineering In both, I would choose Mechatronics for the bachelor of engineering (as I'm very interested in robotics) but I'm unsure whether computer science of biomedical engineering would be of greater use to me. In biomedical engineering, I'm interested mainly in artificial limbs (bionic eye, hand etc.) and I'm worried that the rest of the course would just bore me. My dad says that if I do computer science, it'll be difficult finding a job because even though I'll have a university degree, I'll be up against those computer geeks who already know how to program without a uni degree and that I'll be essentially wasting my time. Whereas he says that if I do Biomedical Engineering, there will be alot less competition as people don't generally study biomedical engineering in their spare time (lol). So my question is what are job prospects for computer science vs biomedical engineering? Are there alot of jobs in biomedical engineering specifically to do with artificial limbs? Which field would generally have a better salary? Thanks.

[lyounamu]

Originally Posted by ColdBuffet

Hi guys, I'm trying to decide whether to do: B Engineering/B Science (Computer Science) or B Engineering (Chemical Computer Electrical Mechanical Mechatronic Telecommunications)/M Biomedical Engineering In both, I would choose Mechatronics for the bachelor of engineering (as I'm very interested in robotics) but I'm unsure whether computer science of biomedical engineering would be of greater use to me. In biomedical engineering, I'm interested mainly in artificial limbs (bionic eye, hand etc.) and I'm worried that the rest of the course would just bore me. My dad says that if I do computer science, it'll be difficult finding a job because even though I'll have a university degree, I'll be up against those computer geeks who already know how to program without a uni degree and that I'll be essentially wasting my time. Whereas he says that if I do Biomedical Engineering, there will be alot less competition as people don't generally study biomedical engineering in their spare time (lol). So my question is what are job prospects for computer science vs biomedical engineering? Are there alot of jobs in biomedical engineering specifically to do with artificial limbs? Which field would generally have a better salary? Thanks.

Regardless of job prospect, and etc. you gotta enjoy the job. By enjoying what you do, you gain greater job prospect and etc. you should do more research about each course and what each course entails as a WHOLE. You cannot just go for the course because that course incorporates something that interests you.

[ColdBuffet]

Yeah, as a whole I'd say computer science is the better choice. I've watched videos of lectures in Biomedical engineering in YouTube - 1. What Is Biomedical Engineering? and computer science lectures in YouTube - Lecture 1: Higher Computing 1 - Richard Buckland UNSW 2008 and it seems that artificial limbs is only a small part of biomedical engineering. Sorry about the first post, I used paragraphs but for some reason it was posted as one whole block of text.

[LordPc]

Originally Posted by ColdBuffet

My dad says that if I do computer science, it'll be difficult finding a job because even though I'll have a university degree, I'll be up against those computer geeks who already know how to program without a uni degree and that I'll be essentially wasting my time. .

if you dont know how to program by the end of your computer science degree, then you dont deserve to get hired

ultimately, do what you enjoy, whether that be comp sci or biomed.also note that while I assume you respect your dad and his opinions, there is a thing called proper authority. basically it means that you must judge whether or not someones opinion on a subject is valid.

for example, if i were to say "biomedical engineering is a waste of time as it is boring and you dont learn anything" would you believe me? well since I'm not doing biomedical engineering you can conclude that I dont know what I'm talking about and should therefore disregard my opinion on the matter.so consider this when other people tell you what you should (or shouldnt) do in uni.
in the case of your dad, if he doesnt have a computer science/comp eng/software eng degree then I would find it hard to accept his opinion

[ColdBuffet]

Yeah sorry I should've mentioned he has a computer engineering degree. And when I said "My dad says that if I do computer science, it'll be difficult finding a job because even though I'll have a university degree, I'll be up against those computer geeks who already know how to program without a uni degree and that I'll be essentially wasting my time. .", I meant that since many people program as a hobby, finding a job may be much more competitive or difficult, as opposed to a job in biomed where you are only up against people who have a biomedical engineering degree. Thanks for the replies.

[Ben1220]

I wouldn't worry about finding a job too bad, theres a shortage of "IT" graduates apparantly. I don't remember where I keep hearing this from... Also, theres more to computer science then just programming anyway. You should just do what you enjoy.

"Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.
- Albert Schweitzer"

Granted you might not quite know what you would enjoy the most yet, but theres generally plenty of space to move when you figure out what you like the most if you pick something fairly general for your first degree. Why not take a science degree and take both biology and computer science in the first year? Theres actually an area called bioinformatics that is half computer science half biology. If you're still interested in biological limbs in a few years then it won't really matter if you came through the computer science path or the biology path. Research in such a specific area is so specialised that there's no real "pathway" for it.

[Studentleader]

[quote=Ben1220;4667342]I wouldn't worry about finding a job too bad, theres a shortage of "IT" graduates apparantly. I don't remember where I keep hearing this from... Also, theres more to computer science then just programming anyway. You should just do what you enjoy.

You won't get a job if you are just a codemonkey - all these people who have been coding since they got a computer still got owned by Indians who will do it for 50c an hour. I'd start looking at the whirlpool forums if you want to go into IT there are quite a few really intelligent and helpful people there. Oh yeah RE your remark about people who programming as a hobby genetic engineering is my hobby