Electrial and Computer Engineering

[Walden]

I'm thinking about going into this field of engineering - but I'm not quite sure what it entails. Can someone give me a quick summary of what you learn and what things you can do with it?

 

What kind of jobs would you get with this kind of degree?

[mezarashi]

Electrical and Computer Engineering, from the sounds of it is a pretty broad field of engineering. Even within just Electrical Engineering, you will find a plethora of senior year specializations. You will never be a master of anything, because the engineering knowledge acquired throughout the decades is simply unimaginable. What you learn. You will learn the necessary scientific fundamentals and their corresponding mathematics such that you can make sense of this engineering technology. Options include:

 

Electrical & Electronic

-Photonics

-Microelectronics

-Semiconductors

-Telecommunications

-Control and Automation

-Electrical Power

-Circuits & Analysis

 

Computer Engineering

-Embedded Systems

-Computer Communications and Networks

-Information Systems

-Computer Vision and Graphics

-High Performance Computing (Optimization/Compression)

-Intelligent Systems

 

That's just a brief list off the top of my head. With a proper degree and the proper passion, you can do just about anything related to the electrical power, electronics, or computer development industry (software and hardware). It is also advisable that in your senior year you choose the specializations that are most relevant to the industry you want to immediately join after graduation.

[MetaFrizzics]

It seems to me that Computer Engineering, to be meaningful (i.e., not just computer programming for business applications) would require or amount to a degree or recognition of achievement in solid state physics, at least to get a job say with Intel designing chips and intracommunication systems, or designing instruction sets like RISC engines to execute Turing type algorithms efficiently.

 

This would in my mind require considerably more than the merely advanced mathematics to be taken seriously as a computer programmer for serious applications: For instance, one friend of mine who writes and maintains code for a firm that supplies high tech business software also has a Master's Degree in Economics as well as a BSc in Computer Science. Another friend who does serious work in animation has an advanced degree in Mathematics. That's only computer programming.

 

For the lads who work in labs designing computers and chips, electrical engineering is also a prerequisite but I can't imagine that would be enough. More like a Physics degree would be required even at the ground floor.