[JamesSmith100]

Wiki: Computer engineers are engineers who have acquired knowledge in both electrical engineering and computer science.

I cannot imagine someone who can do both things in the same day. Moreover, I searched for Apple and Google jobs and there are 0 search results for "Computer Engineer".

So could someone tell me what are computer engineers and how they complete both software and hardware in a working day?

Thanks and I appreciate that!

[Cowzo]

Designing computer hardware. I've covered computer architecture and microprocessors whilst at uni using C and ASM. Computer Architecture modules cover how processors work and they different technologies they use. Combining this with electronics and using flip flops and other logic gates you can use VHDL to create full systems to build and test everything to make sure it works before putting it into production. Typically you'd be looking at 'Hardware Engineer' jobs.

[pheonix254]

There is a lot of overlap between Electronics Engineering, Computer Engineering and Computer Science. Computer engineering is kind of between the two, if Electronics is more hardware based and CS is more software based. However, given that, I'd go to the electronics engineering side - in the jobs market, people understand 4 types of engineers - Electronic/Electrical, Mechanical, Civil and Chemical (and to some extent Aeronautical, as it's popular)

Universities on the other hand do a multitude of degrees with engineering in them, and it'll be down to you to explain what systems engineering, medical engineering, computer engineering, design and manufacturing engineering is, and how it differs from the big 4, and that gets tiresome.

I did straight electronics engineering, and that had logic, microprocessors, architecture as well as the software side of C, operating systems, object-oriented languages, and the hardware based languages like SystemVerilog, VHDL for the programming of things like FPGAs and Microcontrollers. We also did other modules such as communications, digital systems, signal processing, nanotechnology etc, which wouldn't feature in CompSci and probably not in Computer Engineering per se.

But in a lot of engineering, you have to make both the hardware and the software, it's just at a different level of programming - to simplify, it's more firmware and less software, but it is fundamentally no different.

Hope this helps,
Stu Haynes MEng

[helpmekid]

(Original post by pheonix254)
There is a lot of overlap between Electronics Engineering, Computer Engineering and Computer Science. Computer engineering is kind of between the two, if Electronics is more hardware based and CS is more software based. However, given that, I'd go to the electronics engineering side - in the jobs market, people understand 4 types of engineers - Electronic/Electrical, Mechanical, Civil and Chemical (and to some extent Aeronautical, as it's popular)

Universities on the other hand do a multitude of degrees with engineering in them, and it'll be down to you to explain what systems engineering, medical engineering, computer engineering, design and manufacturing engineering is, and how it differs from the big 4, and that gets tiresome.

I did straight electronics engineering, and that had logic, microprocessors, architecture as well as the software side of C, operating systems, object-oriented languages, and the hardware based languages like SystemVerilog, VHDL for the programming of things like FPGAs and Microcontrollers. We also did other modules such as communications, digital systems, signal processing, nanotechnology etc, which wouldn't feature in CompSci and probably not in Computer Engineering per se.

But in a lot of engineering, you have to make both the hardware and the software, it's just at a different level of programming - to simplify, it's more firmware and less software, but it is fundamentally no different.

Hope this helps,
Stu Haynes MEng

Can i ask you , what subjects do you need for electronics engineering

and is it well respected and is the job market good? also what is the average starting salary!

Sounds very interesting!

[pheonix254]

For A-Level, I did Maths, Further Maths, Physics and Chemistry. Of those, maths and physics was required, further maths was the most useful, and chemistry just proved I had scientific aptitude.

Jobs market is good for engineers - ARM for instance are world leading right now for mobile phone chipsets and recruiting like mad, we have VERY good companies in the UK with a lot of Intellectual Property in this area, so you should be alright.

You do get a lot of companies thinking that you did electrical (i.e. big voltages, power stations, machinery etc) but to be honest it isn't too dissimilar, but equally that works for you in that they'll take you on too.

I didn't end up going into electronics, I work for an Aerospace/Marine company. Typical Engineering graduate starting salary for the company I work for is between 25,000-35,000. Most of my coursemates walked (no difficulty) into Jobs of at least 19,000, with most commanding at least 24,000 (and usually with a few k starting bonus). Of course with engineering, you can go and work in the financial sector if you want to earn loads, skills are completely transferrable. But Electronics pays no worse (or better) than Mech/Civil/Aeronautical. Chemical Engineering starting salaries are generally slightly higher.

Stu Haynes, MEng