Physics, Computer Science, or Computer Engineering

[tatertotaggie]

Hi, I'm new to the site. I was curious if I could get any input from anyone about a course of study. A little background. I graduated from Texas A&M with honors with a BA in English. I deeply regret this. I HATE English. My original goal had been to be a literature professor...and then I realized I hated literature. I got into philosophy which brought me 180 degrees around to a passion for science and math that I had once had when I was younger. I'm now 25, and I'm going back for a second bachelor degree and then after that into a Ph.D program because my ultimate goal would be to be a researcher. Unfortunately, there are too many things that catch my interest, and being my age, I don't want to get halfway through something only to find out I wanted something else. I have a somewhat lengthy summary of my interests. I'm also curious as to, if I got my B.S. in Physics, for example, could I get into a Ph.D computer engineering or Comp Sci program, or vice a versa. Anyways, here are some of what I'm interested in. Having a hard time narrowing it down. Any advice?

 

When I was younger, I was fascinated by robots and electronics, circuit boards, transistors, etc. I had a whole box full of electronic components that I loved to play with. It still excited me now to think of putting them all together, working with my hands. I'm fascinated by motherboards, circuits, chips, etc. I like the idea of designing a robot, or working with my hands and putting things together.

 

On the computer side of things, I like the thought of making breakthroughs in AI or virtual reality, neural networks, quantum computers, and brain computer interfaces (BCIs). I don't like the thought of spending hours a day typing in code or designing webpages or fixing bugs, unless it was for something extremely exciting. I want to be on the cutting edge, researching on the frontiers of discovery. I would love to see my work applied in robotics, space travel, science, or defense and weaponry.

 

I like the mathematical and computer components of encryption and decryption and cyber warfare. I also enjoy information theory and its ties between math, CS, physics, and biology.

 

As far as biology is concerned, I enjoy neuroscience and consciousness studies. I like the interplay between consciousness, philosophy, physics, and AI. I wonder how all of it fits in with information theory and math and genetics.

 

As for physics, there are various areas I am interested in. I love astronomy, the night sky, nebulae, the size of the universe, planets, wormholes, black holes, astrophysical mysteries. I enjoy the technological and philosophical implications of string theory, M-theory, multiple dimensions, and relativity. What is time? Can we travel through it? Who are we? What is reality? Is it a simulation in the mind of God? What is math? Why is it so perfect for explaining our world? I enjoy quantum theory and how it works. I enjoy the quest for the theory of everything.

 

There are also some amazing technological advances that physics could provide. Carbon nanotubes, metamaterials, room temperature superconductors, nanotechnology, programmable atoms, etc. Not to mention making sci-fi techs become a reality. Lasers, force fields, invisibility, time travel, interstellar travel, artificial gravity, etc.

 

I also love the space program. I took it for granted growing up in the area, but having worked on site at NASA, I truly appreciate it. I would love to help develop technology needed for space travel or colonization or exploration. Propulsion design. Sustainability. Anything to just advance things so that one day we can travel the stars and learn about the universe first hand.

[iScience]

Physic is fantastic but i think it's a few hard for you!

Computer science is very very very fantastic! I suggest you this!

[tatertotaggie]

Just because I have a BA in English doesn't mean I'm bad at math. I've always been in honors and advanced placement classes in every subject and scored highly on every national test. I'm not worried about Physics being hard. It's just different.

[Joshua201]

Physics would be the perfect choice considering your interests. And also its wider giving you more choices for post graduate studies

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

On the computer side of things, I like the thought of making breakthroughs in AI or virtual reality, neural networks, quantum computers, and brain computer interfaces (BCIs). I don't like the thought of spending hours a day typing in code or designing webpages or fixing bugs, unless it was for something extremely exciting. I want to be on the cutting edge, researching on the frontiers of discovery. I would love to see my work applied in robotics, space travel, science, or defense and weaponry.

Do you have prior programming experience? If you don't like the thought of spending hours typing code, you may not enjoy computer science; there's certainly a lot of mathematics and theoretical courses, but there will also be programming projects. Lots of them. Lots of courses on data structures to be used by programs and algorithms for solving problems when programming.

 

It sounds like your interests would work well with physics. If you like being hands-on with interesting concepts, you won't be disappointed by physics, although your first few years in the degree will of course be old, settled physics, not new and exciting stuff.

[DrRocket]

Hi, I'm new to the site. I was curious if I could get any input from anyone about a course of study. A little background. I graduated from Texas A&M with honors with a BA in English. I deeply regret this. I HATE English. My original goal had been to be a literature professor...and then I realized I hated literature. I got into philosophy which brought me 180 degrees around to a passion for science and math that I had once had when I was younger. I'm now 25, and I'm going back for a second bachelor degree and then after that into a Ph.D program because my ultimate goal would be to be a researcher. Unfortunately, there are too many things that catch my interest, and being my age, I don't want to get halfway through something only to find out I wanted something else. I have a somewhat lengthy summary of my interests. I'm also curious as to, if I got my B.S. in Physics, for example, could I get into a Ph.D computer engineering or Comp Sci program, or vice a versa. Anyways, here are some of what I'm interested in. Having a hard time narrowing it down. Any advice?

 

When I was younger, I was fascinated by robots and electronics, circuit boards, transistors, etc. I had a whole box full of electronic components that I loved to play with. It still excited me now to think of putting them all together, working with my hands. I'm fascinated by motherboards, circuits, chips, etc. I like the idea of designing a robot, or working with my hands and putting things together.

 

On the computer side of things, I like the thought of making breakthroughs in AI or virtual reality, neural networks, quantum computers, and brain computer interfaces (BCIs). I don't like the thought of spending hours a day typing in code or designing webpages or fixing bugs, unless it was for something extremely exciting. I want to be on the cutting edge, researching on the frontiers of discovery. I would love to see my work applied in robotics, space travel, science, or defense and weaponry.

 

I like the mathematical and computer components of encryption and decryption and cyber warfare. I also enjoy information theory and its ties between math, CS, physics, and biology.

 

As far as biology is concerned, I enjoy neuroscience and consciousness studies. I like the interplay between consciousness, philosophy, physics, and AI. I wonder how all of it fits in with information theory and math and genetics.

 

As for physics, there are various areas I am interested in. I love astronomy, the night sky, nebulae, the size of the universe, planets, wormholes, black holes, astrophysical mysteries. I enjoy the technological and philosophical implications of string theory, M-theory, multiple dimensions, and relativity. What is time? Can we travel through it? Who are we? What is reality? Is it a simulation in the mind of God? What is math? Why is it so perfect for explaining our world? I enjoy quantum theory and how it works. I enjoy the quest for the theory of everything.

 

There are also some amazing technological advances that physics could provide. Carbon nanotubes, metamaterials, room temperature superconductors, nanotechnology, programmable atoms, etc. Not to mention making sci-fi techs become a reality. Lasers, force fields, invisibility, time travel, interstellar travel, artificial gravity, etc.

 

I also love the space program. I took it for granted growing up in the area, but having worked on site at NASA, I truly appreciate it. I would love to help develop technology needed for space travel or colonization or exploration. Propulsion design. Sustainability. Anything to just advance things so that one day we can travel the stars and learn about the universe first hand.

 

You need to decide what you want to do. At TI they have avery true adage, "More than two objectives is no objectives."

Edited July 17, 2011 by DrRocket

[amanda more]

You need to decide what you want to do. At TI they have avery true adage, "More than two objectives is no objectives."

 

What? Really?

 

Maybe that explains things as diverse as calcium channel blockers and economic collapse.

Ah, it is a must to decide a hardcore objective just pat yourself on the back for being decisive? Damn the torpedos- full speed ahead.

 

Who here has not gone through an iterative process where you realize that won't quite work then tweak it or back to the drawing board to begin again? There is not a cradle-to-grave objective today if there ever was one.

 

A good model for behavior might be based on the two sides of the brain itself. If more people listened to a kind of gestalt regarding their gut feelings and analytical sense they wouldn't have handed Matloff billions.

 

If TI is Texas Instruments, sell. You heard it here first. Now to the actual inquiry:

 

If Computer Engineering gives you a good dose of undergraduate general engineering courses you will be well rounded in science just from that. You will have a much better chance then on working on your dreams after a simple BS degree as opposed to the world of post-doc slavery. If the only way is to continue at university it would be trivial to do Physics gradwork with some makeup on fun physics and perhaps math undergrad stuff. Your undergrad return should lead you to interact enough with grad students to understand college politics. I think you will find many are primarily motivated by their Visa status which prevents them from enjoying work in industry.

 

With money comes power. Better to pull down cash at 25 and sock it away. Right there you then have the luxury to pick and choose who and where you will land for further work,education. Now here we already have two clashing objectives. The best place in the world to actually do what you want to do is Silicon Valley. Clashing with a high cost for a studio apartment restraining the savings thing. Oh,oh. If you haven't secured a significant other in time to move there it has to have a male/female ratio close to Alaska. That may be another objective? Thinking there are now 3 and counting.

 

Life. Doesn't lend itself well to programming. Alas.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[tatertotaggie]

Thank you all for your responses. The only reason I have so many interests at the moment is because I'm just starting out. It's like a kid in a candy store. Everything looks wonderful. Actually though, I just found out, and they must have changed this very recently, that my university implemented an Engineering Physics sub-plan into the B.S. degree in Physics that would allow me to take quite a few computer engineering courses as well. It seems like this would be the best course to take as I would be decently prepared for Physics or Computer Engineering in grad school. And I'd have the luxury of having all of the time during the course of my degree to narrow down my interests. Thank you all again for the responses.

[timo]

There's two comments about going for a physics degree I'd like to make:

 

(1)

I certainly don't think that people asking complete strangers with names like "IAmEinstien" and "StringTheoryXXX" for advice are in need of encouragement - in fact, if people need that form of encouragement for doing something they should probably keep their hands off it. So I don't see a point in saying things like "sure you can do it if you try hard and it is what you really want", which is merely a polite but hollow phrase. That said, I don't see how IloveMathematics comes up with the idea that physics was to hard for you. There is really nothing in what you wrote that hints at this. Essentially, if you have been able to follow the physics education in school, been among the top 10% of students in math (the 10% is just a guideline meaning that you don't have to be a genius, but you should really be more talented than the average person), and enjoy rearranging equations and seeing that the mess reduces to more or less simple formula that gives the correct result (this is what physics studies are mostly about) then you don't really have to worry about it.

 

Job-wise there are more competitive, less competitive, and ridiculously competitive jobs. And I think (read: hope) no semi-decent physicist has to really worry about not getting a job in a related field of interest, as long as he is a bit open minded. E.g. if you're interested in scientific computing then getting some job in the field should be easy, e.g. as an engineer with an aircraft manufacturer, while a fixation on a certain job, say becoming a professor of computational physics, is an almost certain path for failure. Starting a BSc at the age of 25 is definitely not too late, except that it may feel strange for you that everyone else in your class is much younger than you and still getting better grades. And having a university degree in a completely different field is interesting, at least. I'm currently supervising a PhD student who is 32 and just started a few month ago (he did an engineering degree, then worked in industry for some time, then went back to university for his masters and now started a PhD in physics). As far as I can remember his age has not been an issue when debating whether he should be employed or not. And he's doing exceptionally well, so far.

 

 

(2)

I do not think that the reasons you list for an interest in studying physics are good reasons. You list quite a few keywords that the average non-physicist would associate with physics. The big problem is: you don't really know anything about those keywords, and so your interest is actually in your imagination of what physics is about rather than what working in physics is actually like. For me, it has paid off to evaluate what I like to do on a day-to-day basis rather than looking at physics from a point of view of an alien chronologist of humanity, a science fiction author, or a science reporter looking for a striking headline. Perhaps most importantly: Physics is absolutely not about philosophical implications.

That is not to say physics is nothing for you. You did in fact list a few things that sound like it may be interesting for you (playing with electronics, wanting to design a robot and putting things together), but the points you did explicitly list under your interest in physics are not good reasons to go into it.

Edited July 17, 2011 by timo

[seena]

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