Don't you hate it when a mechanical engineer tells you that computer programming is NOT engineering?

[talyn00]

Originally posted by: sao123

Originally posted by: sxr7171

Originally posted by: Radical Ans
Computer Engineering != Computer Science

They are related, yes, but they are completely different beasts.

I graduated with a Computer Engineering degree and am currently working on control systems for underground coal mining machinery. I'll be the first to admit that our machines could run without all the computer controls, but because of these control systems our machines are able to be safer and more productive.

Doing this kind of embedded code work is completely different than say, writing an office application. You have to take into account what the mechanical guys designed while writing your code (i.e. gear ratios when determining how fast a traction drive should spin to get a desired speed). It's true that code is debugged and tested before it is released into the field but the same could be said for the mechanical parts on a machine. Everything is protoyped and tested extensively before it ever gets put into the field.

I agree partially. Computer engineering is not computer science. However producing any software product or design that helps people do work (or work more safely) involves making decisions on how to best implement various functionality and optimize code and that is an engineering process.

Computer science is supposed to be a science in that it is supposed to explore what we can do with computers on a theoretical level. Just like math is theoretical. I don't know what they actually teach comp science majors these days though.

Unfortunately what you dont realize... is that the difference between comp sci and comp eng at most universities is this...
Comp Sci has to take a foreign language to graduate.
Comp eng has to take additional credits of essays in mathematics.
niether of which differentiats you as an engineer or not.

In my university, CS was under the school of Engineering and Applied Sciences. We had faily identical requirements.

As for the subject at of whether programming is considered engineering, it isn't. The process of developing software through analysis of requirements, design, programming, and testing(debugging) can be considered engineering (software engineering). Programming plays only a small part in the software development cycle, if you had designed a program well enough, programming it becomes a trivial task.

 

[The Linuxator]

Why would I give two shts, I am double majoring in EE & CSE God willing I am an Engineer either way things turn out to be

 

[SaturnX]

Originally posted by: brjames
I see a lot of CivE's and ME's posting how you need to have a certification to be a REAL engineer. Let me just state my opinion that a certification is only necessary to the extent that your field is mature. CivE is the oldest engineering discipline (how long have roads and building been around?), ME has also been around for maybe two hundred+ years. EE (which is what I am) has been around since the late 1800's, while Software Engineering has been around since roughly World War II. The older and more mature the discipline the less innovation.

(Note that I'm not saying there's no innovation, but if you took one each of a CivE, ME, EE, or Software Engineer from 40 years ago and magically time-shifted them to today, which ones would have the most to learn new to become employable in today's market?)

As an EE, the kind of jobs that certification qualifies you for are really the least interesting jobs out there. My "Ivy League" EE program didnt even mention PE certification, I guess it assumed all its graduates would get interesting jobs . When I was interviewing for jobs I interviewed at one place that placed a strong emphasis on PE certification. They explained the job as mostly plugging into formulas and meeting specs. I was horrified ( I tried to cover it up, but I didn't get the job my loss).

On a personal note, I work on a radar system. The software engineers are a vital part of the team. Every discipline is represented and we could not complete the radar without either one of them. We're all engineers working to build something extremely complicated, and I think that we're all deserving of the "engineer" title.

However, I still prefer to refer to software engineers as "software weenies".

That's really relative, I'd like to see you design power / energy transfer systems without certification. Having worked an internship at a Hydro company, every engineer I worked with had certification or was currently working toward it. For some aspects of EE, it's required, especially if you ever want to go into consulting.

You were horrified by plugging in numbers into formulas and meeting specs? That's what engineering DESIGN is in the loosest definition! It takes the knowledge of an engineer, for example, an EE to know when designing a circuit what you can/can't do to meet specs. If that isn't possible, then to know where you can make trade-offs between cost/performance.

I would wager that the job you have isn't really a "traditional" EE type of job. It also depends on what you mean by "interesting".

--Mark

 

[coomar]

depends on the university, the universities in ontario generally seem to run ce out of the faculty of engineering and cs out of the faculty of science at which point they become vastly different programs