Computer Engineering vs Electrical Engineering

Electrical engineering and computer engineering are parallel professional pathways that share many job responsibilities, educational prerequisites, and skill sets. Each discipline’s engineers learn the fundamentals of mathematics, science, engineering, and computer science. You can choose the professional route that best suits your goals by being aware of the differences between each career path. In this post, we go through the qualifications for pursuing computer and electrical engineering careers, as well as some of the most significant distinctions between them.

What is Computer Engineering?

The research, design, development, and troubleshooting of computer hardware and software are all aspects of computer engineering. Engineers create computer hardware, including memory modules and hard drives, and make sure it works with the appropriate software. Because computer engineers utilize many of the same tools and techniques as electrical engineers, many experts believe that computer engineering is a subset of electronics engineering.

What is Electrical Engineering?

The study, design, development, and troubleshooting of electrically powered components, such as motherboards, memory systems, telecommunications systems, and circuit boards, is known as electrical engineering. A vast number of vocations fall under the umbrella of electrical engineering, which includes subdivisions like computer engineering and hardware engineering. Electrical engineers construct, test, and supervise repairs or troubleshooting of electrical components.

Computer Engineering vs. Electrical Engineering

Despite the similarities between computer engineering and electrical engineering, there are some significant differences to consider as you progress through each profession’s professional path. Here are a few of such variations:

Education

Students must finish a bachelor’s degree programme in appropriate courses to become qualified to practise computer engineering or electrical engineering. Following the completion of their undergraduate degrees, many engineers enroll in graduate schools in order to potentially increase their salaries and acquire more useful skills. Even though electrical engineering and computer engineering have many things in common, they also study some quite different things.

Electricity, current, microelectronics, and how electricity interacts with physical components are all topics of study for electrical engineers. Computer engineers research how computers operate and how to create, assemble, and use hardware in conjunction with software. As specialists in the hardware they create, computer engineers frequently help with the software engineering process. This aids the software and computer engineers in coordinating their objectives and producing hardware and software that are synchronized.

Training and Licensing

In order to boost their pay, skill set, and employment options, engineers can choose to complete extra license requirements and training.

The programmes for additional education and certification for computer and electrical engineers differ significantly in the following ways:

The International Society of Certified Electronics Technicians (ISCET) or the Electronics Technicians Association offer extra qualifications for electrical engineers (ETA).
Through a variety of online certification programmes in hardware, software, networking, and other fields, computer engineers can get additional qualifications.

Engineers might also choose to take the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) test to get their license. The exam demonstrates the engineer’s knowledge of the fundamental ideas in engineering, such as safety, mathematics, and other ideas. Students who pass the FE exam receive an engineering license, which can make it easier for them to find employment.

Skills

As engineers, both electronic and computer engineers contribute comparable talents to their work. Before choosing the career, you should grasp some important skill disparities. These consist of:

Computer Proficiency: While electrical engineers are proficient with computers, computer engineers have more sophisticated knowledge and abilities that they have acquired over the course of their careers. They can be distinguished from electrical engineers and other specialists by having certain abilities, such as hardware engineers and computer scientists.

Electronics Expertise: Both computer engineers and electrical engineers possess this expertise, but the former has a deeper comprehension of how electricity flows through components and how to construct electronic components.

Design Abilities: Engineers can construct new components and upgrade current ones using their design abilities, although computer and electrical engineers work on various types of components. Each participant brings an awareness of engineering design concepts, but they each use them differently depending on the particulars of their projects.

Mechanical Aptitude: Because engineers frequently use mechanical devices and equipment, mechanical aptitude is required for both job fields. However, because they work with many mechanical components, electronic and computer engineers need greater mechanical expertise that is specific to hardware.

Conclusion

Both electrical engineering and computer science have their roots in mathematics and technology, and both have a different impact on how society interacts and runs. Hence, you should be well informed about the programme and about yourself before choosing one the two degrees.