Computer Science and Electrical Engineering
OK
"the branch of engineering science that studies the uses of electricity and
the equipment for power generation and distribution and the control of
machines and communication"
Computer Science is defined as
"the branch of engineering science that studies (with the aid of computers)
computable processes and structures"
There are courses such as Computer and Electronic Engineering which combine
both fields of study. Other courses like Electronic Engineering with
Software Enigneering.
It seems that these two subjects do overlap in some areas.
What is Computer Science, sure you are taught how to write programs and
learn about computer hardware, but are you able to successfully design
hardware after graduation.
Electrical Engineering helps with the design of ciricuitary, integrated
circuits and the works of the motherboard on a computer.
Information Systems or Computer Systems are courses which are a mixture of
Computer Science and Electrical Engineering.
When you look at requirements for a degree in IT and related fields it
usually says
Computer Science or Electrical Engineering Bachelors required or related. So
there must be some sort of similarity.
Even better, there are some students here who study Computer Science, maybe
they can clear up the difference between Computer Science and Electrical
Engineering, Adam studies maths, and Ray studies some computer science
course?
What differentiates these two subjects? They are different as Computer
Science concentrates primrarily on Software and Electrical Engineering more
of the hardware side..
Matthew Huntbach
> Electrical enineering is defined as
>
> "the branch of engineering science that studies the uses of electricity and
> the equipment for power generation and distribution and the control of
> machines and communication"
>
> Computer Science is defined as
>
> "the branch of engineering science that studies (with the aid of computers)
> computable processes and structures"
>
> There are courses such as Computer and Electronic Engineering which combine
> both fields of study. Other courses like Electronic Engineering with
> Software Enigneering.
>
> It seems that these two subjects do overlap in some areas.
Yes. In general, Computer Science is more about software, and Electronic
Engineering more about hardware, but there is an overlap. It often depends
on historical circumstances - in some cases Computer Science departments
evolved from Electronic Engineering departments or never broke away from
them, in other cases they evolved from Maths departments and Electronic
Engineering was always a different department. A Computer Science department
which evolved from, or is in a faculty with a Maths department is more
likely to concentrate on the abstract side of computing than one evolved
from or is joined with an Electronic Engineering department.
Another phenomenon is that Electronic Engineers found it hard to recruit,
while Computer Science departments, at least a few years ago at the time of
the dot.com boom, had lots of recruits. So Electronic Engineering departments
started putting on degrees that were more like Computer Science degrees to
try and cash in on the boom. That is the case where I teach at Queen Mary,
where the Electronic Engineering department teaches a couple of degree
programmes which are really Computer Science degrees, but are taught by
people in the Electronic Engineering department with no involvement from the
Computer Science department. This caused quite a bit of ill-feeling in the
Computer Science department.
> What is Computer Science, sure you are taught how to write programs and
> learn about computer hardware, but are you able to successfully design
> hardware after graduation.
Probably not. The tendency has been for Electronic Engineering departments
to do more and more of the sort of stuff that used to be done in Computer
Science departments (rather than the stuff they used to do on the lines of
power generation and other heavy industrial applications), and for Computer
Science departments to give less and less emphasis to hardware issues. It
will depend on individual universities, so the best thing is to check on the
universities you are interested in to see exactly what they do. But if your
interest is more on designing hardware than on designing software, chances
are you'd find what you want more on an Electronic Engineering degree than a
Computer Science degree.
> Electrical Engineering helps with the design of ciricuitary, integrated
> circuits and the works of the motherboard on a computer.
>
> Information Systems or Computer Systems are courses which are a mixture of
> Computer Science and Electrical Engineering.
"Computer Systems" probably does mean a degree which concentrates on lower
levels of computing i.e. the stuff which actually interacts with the
hardware, if not the hardware itself. "Information Systems" however, could
mean something like librarianship or analysis of the flow of information in
business i.e. it might be something very far from Electronic Engineering.
Again, the best thing is to look at individual university websites and
prospectuses for details, since they will vary from university to
university.
Matthew Huntbach
OK
"Matthew Huntbach" <m...@dcs.qmw.ac.uk> wrote in message
news:c9i6m8$9et$1...@beta.qmul.ac.uk...
Most Computer Science degrees are accredited by thr British Computer Society
and the Institution of Electrical Engineers, however only some Electrical
and Electronic degrees are accredited by the Bristish Computer Society and
Institution of Electrial Engineers.
The software and hardware career issue is questioable. It probably won't
restrict the career options available. In the IT computing industry, many of
the people have an undergraduate degree in maths, computer science, computer
engineering, computer sytems, software engineering , information systems,
electrical engineering and elecronic engineering and an increasing number
have advanced degrees.
There are many opportunities regardless of the degree, most of the degrees
listed above overlap in some ways and skills are transferable.
Computer Engineering and Design would probably involve a mixture of Computer
Science and Electronic Engineering when designing complex ciricuits, chips
and other components.
Computer Architecture would be another area where most maths and scientific
degrees in Computer Science and Electronic Engineering would be applicapble.
When designing new instruction sets for processors companies like Intel and
AMD require Computer Science or related degrees which most likley includes
Electrical Electronic Engineering, Maths and so some extent Physics.
Operating Systems and Networks could involve a combination of Computer
Science and Electrical Electronic Engineering. Artifical Intelligence would
probably place more emphasis on Computer Science rather than Electrical
Electronic Engineering.
So it probably does not matter too much whether you have a Computer Science
or Electrical Electronic Engineering degree you will always have skills
which are transferable.
Max Power
maybe
> they can clear up the difference between Computer Science and Electrical
> Engineering, Adam studies maths, and Ray studies some computer science
> course?
>
> What differentiates these two subjects? They are different as Computer
> Science concentrates primrarily on Software and Electrical Engineering
more
> of the hardware side..
I think you should know that electronic and electrical engineering are
two separate things, which may be part of your confusion.
Electrical engineering deals with such things as designing those big fuckoff
insulator things that sit on electric pylons and at power stations, whereas
electronic engineering relates to all aspects of designing Integrated
Circuits
and small and complicated circuitboards, which go into all types of modern
gadgets.
Electronic and Computing tend to have considerable overlap, Computing
subjects tending to be heavily software oriented.
Electrical I'm not overly sure but I don't think it has much to do with
either
of these subjects.
Timmy
wrote:
>OK <NOS...@nospam.com> wrote:
>> Electrical enineering is defined as
>>
>> "the branch of engineering science that studies the uses of electricity and
>> the equipment for power generation and distribution and the control of
>> machines and communication"
>>
>> Computer Science is defined as
>>
>> "the branch of engineering science that studies (with the aid of computers)
>> computable processes and structures"
>>
>> There are courses such as Computer and Electronic Engineering which combine
>> both fields of study. Other courses like Electronic Engineering with
>> Software Enigneering.
>>
>> It seems that these two subjects do overlap in some areas.
>
>Yes. In general, Computer Science is more about software, and Electronic
>Engineering more about hardware, but there is an overlap. It often depends
>on historical circumstances - in some cases Computer Science departments
>evolved from Electronic Engineering departments or never broke away from
>them, in other cases they evolved from Maths departments and Electronic
>Engineering was always a different department. A Computer Science department
>which evolved from, or is in a faculty with a Maths department is more
>likely to concentrate on the abstract side of computing than one evolved
>from or is joined with an Electronic Engineering department.
I see it as something of a spectrum.
Going from one end to the other (greatly simplified):
Electrical Engineering (Mostly hardware with some programming (esp.
low level)).
Computer Science (Mostly programming with a little hardware).
Software engineering (No hardware but maybe more stuff on relational
databases than CompSci).
Information Systems (More DB stuff, a little bit of programming and
some business).
Business Information Systems (SSADM, DB type stuff. Project
Management, more business).
Business and computing (Business with computing lite).
That's what I gathered from working with people with different types
of IT degrees. Of course there is more to these degrees that what I
have specified.
Matthew Huntbach
> Most Computer Science degrees are accredited by thr British Computer Society
> and the Institution of Electrical Engineers, however only some Electrical
> and Electronic degrees are accredited by the Bristish Computer Society and
> Institution of Electrial Engineers.
Part of this is due to the BCS and IEE setting entrance requirements in
order for a degree to be accredited - you have to have above a particular
proportion of your students with the equivalent of at least three grade C
A-levels. As Computer Science degrees have found it easier to recruit than
Electronic Engineering degrees, particualrly in the dot.com boom years, they
were more liekly to meet these entrance requirements and hence get
accreditation.
> The software and hardware career issue is questioable. It probably won't
> restrict the career options available. In the IT computing industry, many of
> the people have an undergraduate degree in maths, computer science, computer
> engineering, computer sytems, software engineering , information systems,
> electrical engineering and elecronic engineering and an increasing number
> have advanced degrees.
...
> So it probably does not matter too much whether you have a Computer Science
> or Electrical Electronic Engineering degree you will always have skills
> which are transferable.
Yes, this is a fair enough assessment. Industry generally isn't too
concerned with the exact details of the degree taken.
Matthew Huntbach
David Haardt
> On 1 Jun 2004 15:17:28 GMT, Matthew Huntbach <m...@dcs.qmw.ac.uk>
> wrote:
> Computer Science (Mostly programming with a little hardware).
I'm wondering whether "mostly programming" is a good description of
computer science. From what I hear from my friends who do CS degrees
in Austria, there seems to be a huge emphasis on formal/abstract
concepts of computing rather than on the mechanical skill of
programming which is rather acquired as a by-product.
-David Haardt
Matthew Huntbach
I didn't write "Computer Science (Mostly programming with a little
hardware)". OK did, and I replied quoting him.
As I said, what is covered varies from university to university, so it
doesn't make sense to assume that what is called "Computer Science" will
cover the same material in different universities in the UK, let alone
different universities across the world.
In the past there tended to be more of an emphasis on formal/abstract
concept of computing in Computer Science degrees in the UK, and you will
still find that in some university Computer Science departments which
specialise in that aspect. However, I think you'll find that in most
university Computer Science departments in the UK, that's changed and while
there's still some computing theory, there isn't as much as there used to
be.
In the past computers were stand-alone machines, with text-based interfaces
and the standard way they would be used would be that you fed in some data,
an algorithm was performed, and an answer printed out. The old-style Coputer
Science degrees were based around those assumptions. These days, computers
are networked, work in interaction with users, have complex graphical
interfaces, and are used in a huge variety of ways. To reflect this, what is
covered in a Computer Science degree has greatly expanded and this has
tended to push out some of the more abstract computation theory stuff. It
would be wrong to say that a Computer Science degree is "mostly programming"
as OK did, because although programming is still the core aspect, there is
generally a lot of material about making use of programming in practical
contexts, as well as still a bit of mathematical theory.
Unfortunately, some people still sem to think of Computer Science degrees as
they were twenty years ago rather than as they are now. I've often come
across this prejudice that believes Computer Science degrees are all about
computational theory. Maybe they still are in Austria, but they aren't in
the UK.
Matthew Huntbach
Matthew Huntbach
> I see it as something of a spectrum.
>
> Going from one end to the other (greatly simplified):
>
> Electrical Engineering (Mostly hardware with some programming (esp.
> low level)).
>
> Computer Science (Mostly programming with a little hardware).
>
> Software engineering (No hardware but maybe more stuff on relational
> databases than CompSci).
>
> Information Systems (More DB stuff, a little bit of programming and
> some business).
>
> Business Information Systems (SSADM, DB type stuff. Project
> Management, more business).
>
> Business and computing (Business with computing lite).
OK, but this assumes there is some standard rigid definition of degree
subject titles. There isn't. The title a particular university uses will
depend to a large extent on history and internal politics. As I keep saying,
you can't just assume from the mere title of a degree exactly what it
contains. There is no substitute for actually doing a bit of research and
finding out the exact course units that make up a degree, which will vary
from university to university.
By the way, at Queen Mary our degree called "Computing and Business" means
just that the students take 6 of their 8 units from Computer Science and 2
from Business Studeis every year. The Computer Science units they take
*aren't* "computing lite", although they will tend not to be the more
hardware and systems oriented ones.
Matthew Huntbach
Timmy
wrote:
<snip>
>OK, but this assumes there is some standard rigid definition of degree
>subject titles. There isn't. The title a particular university uses will
>depend to a large extent on history and internal politics. As I keep saying,
>you can't just assume from the mere title of a degree exactly what it
>contains. There is no substitute for actually doing a bit of research and
>finding out the exact course units that make up a degree, which will vary
>from university to university.
My statement was a sweeping generalisation. I was making a statement
based on discussions I have had with various people with these
qualifications.
Of course you are correct that the content of one computer science
degree will not ever be exactly the same as another. This is even true
with two graduates from the same university- as people pick and choose
what modules they wish to do.
>By the way, at Queen Mary our degree called "Computing and Business" means
>just that the students take 6 of their 8 units from Computer Science and 2
>from Business Studeis every year. The Computer Science units they take
>*aren't* "computing lite", although they will tend not to be the more
>hardware and systems oriented ones.
OK so the course at Queen Mary of "Computing and Business" is not
computing lite! But a lot are...
I have yet to meet someone who has done a mixed computing with a
second subject degree (except maths) who can program anything other
than Web scripting languages (such as PHP) upon graduation. I'm sure I
will though.