Hard Time making a decision (Computer Science Vs Robotics)

If your good University is still in business next year (most will be) then you’d successfully learn the theory of everything, perfectly ready for adding a Master in robotics - then you could conquer the world, design robots with genuine people personalities(tm)

Alternative universe, you study robotics, hands on at, say, Strathclyde, learn in a great, focussed way the appropriate codings for today’s control systems, make a project out of Lego (1), and walk out of your graduation ceremony into a (junior) position at BMW, then continue learning on the job.


Both sound rational, first one involves more abstract thoughts, mathematics, takes a year or two longer - might reveal that you actually prefer crypto to autonomous vehicles(2) Second one is also entirely reasonable.

Why not buy a simple robot, or start some AI project based on buy 8GB Raspberry Pi 4 ver.ii, now!, simulate a project that you might do, to see if you wish to do more hardware? - or want rather to know why for the hardware.

Note that computing evolved again this week with Apple promising ARM RISC based laptops & desktops, very soon. No Intel.

(1) I was part of the team that won the Swiss national championship for the FLL, first Lego league, mindstorm based, for a couple of years. Then won the Motorola communications prize, in Germany, for explaining the design that went into the team wins.

(2) I was asked if the team wished to design a thing, as some-guy knew some-one, who had been given some kilograms of payload to the moon. It was interesting, starting to think about that, but the project never quite completed. Sometimes these opportunities do line-up.

Computer science would likely provide you with more options when you graduate, but it seems that you truly have a passion for robotics which gives me a reason to think that you may excel at it and that matters much more than job security.

For us to help you, It would be useful to know the syllabuses of the courses you are considering and the area of robotics that peak your interest, Is it design? circuitry? artificial intelligence? computer vision? control?

If the computer science degree lets you choose to do your individual projects in robotics, I would say you will have the chance to learn some of the hardware topics on your own and if you want to learn more you could always do a masters in robotics or mechatronics.

Hey there,

I am applying to university is 2021, and I need some advice.

I am stuck between deciding whether to do Computer Science or Robotics at university.

I believe I would enjoy both, however I am always second-guessing myself.

The core/root of the problem is that if I choose to do computer science (I have a shot at a good-by name-university), but I feel that I would be missing out on the hardware aspect of the course.

So instead, if I went through with Robotics I would lose that opportunity to have a shot at a good university and I am not sure about this course that much since the only taster courses I've been able to attend are those online (and they were relatively general).

I still feel like I would enjoy this course too.

I feel like I may regret my decision later, when choosing one over the other.

Any help/advice would be very much appreciated.

lower end of the Russel Group.....
Maybe CARDIFF, it’s not lower, it’s a great place! Yes, it’s slightly easier to get in, but worthy, nonetheless. All the other Russell’s are also sensible places. Anything that wasn’t a teacher-training college in 1985...but even the city universities have some great uses for the right student

https://www.kcl.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/courses/computer-science-with-intelligent-systems-bsc
would you say this is similar to a robotics course? It’s better, it is comp Sci - from which you could anyway “do robots” , this KCL course has additionally enough emphasis on the skills needed for robots, vision(1), rule forming - really looks great.

(1)a certain government recently used AI/ML to get a sensor to detect tanks... trained the robot (it looked like a cube & didn’t move) with pictures of all battle tanks. Sent it out into the field to test the TRL , and it couldn’t see the tank in front of it! Seems the ML training was done with the wrong subset of pics, nice ‘human’ pics, taken in daylight - whilst a “robot” needs to be shown rainy, snowy, night-time pics....current robots are partly useless! Humans...too!

I think I forget to mention, if I choose to do Robotics, unfortunately the University that offers it, isn't the best (lower end of the Russel Group), so much so, that I was suggested to have it, as a back up option. In this situation, what could you advise me to do?

I was checking out KCL's options, they used to have Computer Science with Robotics (would have solved all my problems😢), but unfortunately they don't run this course anymore.

They have something similar though: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/courses/computer-science-with-intelligent-systems-bsc
would you say this is similar to a robotics course?