Computer Engineering vs Computer Science

[VsPokemon]

I'm in high school right now and have really gotten to love coding. It really interests me and I want to major in its field in college. However, I don't understand much about the difference between Computer Engineering and Computer Science, could someone please explain?

[dandymcgee]

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=6629&p=77077&hilit= ... nce#p77077

Some relevant discussion.

[Nokurn]

Computer engineering is a cross-over between electronics engineering and computer science. Computer engineers are typically involved with designing chips and writing firmware and operating systems. CEs mainly focus on integrating hardware and software.

Computer science is more abstract and rarely deals directly with hardware; at its core, it's about the theory of computing. Computer scientists develop new algorithms and data structures, decide which of these are the most efficient for a particular purpose, and then typically implement them in software. It is an extremely diverse field with hundreds, if not thousands, of applications.

P.S. I'm a CS major so my perspective is probably skewed. I would welcome any corrections from a computer engineer.

[Falco Girgis]

Computer engineering is a cross-over between electronics engineering and computer science. Computer engineers are typically involved with designing chips and writing firmware and operating systems. CEs mainly focus on integrating hardware and software.

Computer science is more abstract and rarely deals directly with hardware; at its core, it's about the theory of computing. Computer scientists develop new algorithms and data structures, decide which of these are the most efficient for a particular purpose, and then typically implement them in software. It is an extremely diverse field with hundreds, if not thousands, of applications.

P.S. I'm a CS major so my perspective is probably skewed. I would welcome any corrections from a computer engineer.

No, that's correct for the most part. Your examples of CS-only courses are also under the joint umbrella of CPE as well, though. I had to take CS algorithms and data structures courses. Some better examples of primarily CS fields are things like artificial intelligence, graph theory, automata theory, and discrete math.

I'm a CPE. CPE deals with less abstraction and works far more closely with hardware. You will take a few CS classes and plenty of electrical engineering courses to get a firm grasp on hardware. Computer engineering tasks are embedded software/firmware, operating systems, drivers, compilers, computer architecture, and digital logic/VHDL hardware synthesis.

edit: Signal processing is another traditionally CPE field, because of the amount of hardware/architecture knowledge required and the low-level nature of writing code for digital signal processors.

[MarauderIIC]

Also, I think that CS is in slightly higher demand than CPE, but it's probably pretty close.

CPE: Drivers
CS: Applications

[Falco Girgis]

Also, I think that CS is in slightly higher demand than CPE, but it's probably pretty close.

CPE: Drivers
CS: Applications

Yeah, I would say that is probably the case... I would say "Embedded Software" vs "Application Software" would probably be a better comparison, though.

There is a whole lot more application-layer software in this world than embedded. Although the lines are very blurred. I know plenty of CSs who work as CPEs and vice versa.

[Gsingh123]

The course are same during 1st sem to 2nd sem but in the 3rd sem syllabus change and electrical engg has subjects related to electricity , electronics , control systems ,etc .
computer egg has subjects mainly related to hardware and software .



This is the main difference between the courses..