Computer {Engineering V Science}

cocoa

First of all, I've read the other threads and helpful though they were I'm still looking for a few extra opinions.

I'm currently undecided between Computer Science and Computer Engineering (well, general til third year i gather) in TCD.

If anyone in either course would reply, that would be really cool.

Comp Engineering:
How deep into computers would you go?
It's compulsory to "taste" different types of engineering in the common years, is this a bit annoying or is it presented in such a way as to be interesting, despite no plans of continuing with that particular stream of engineering?

Comp Sci:
Is there very much of "problem solving" / logic?
What's the split like between hardware/software and theory/practice?
How soon do you have a choice in what part of Comp Sci you study?

Thanks to anyone who replies.

cianclarke

cocoa wrote:

First of all, I've read the other threads and helpful though they were I'm still looking for a few extra opinions.

I'm currently undecided between Computer Science and Computer Engineering (well, general til third year i gather) in TCD.

If anyone in either course would reply, that would be really cool.

Comp Sci:
Is there very much of "problem solving" / logic?
What's the split like between hardware/software and theory/practice?
How soon do you have a choice in what part of Comp Sci you study?

Thanks to anyone who replies.

I'm currently a first year CS student so I should be able to give you a good insight into this side of things.

There's a moderate amount of problem solving - it's not entirely this.
Logic in terms of "problem solving", plenty of it too - but also a lot of logic design and that...

The split between hardware and software is actually roughly 50:50 - you start from the bottom up with hardware - and the software element is different levels of programming languages.

You get to choose what part of comp. sci you study in from third year.

If you're interested I can do a brief synopsis of what the first year modules involve, and any other questions - don't hesitate to give us a PM.

snappieT

I'm second year CS, and can tell you that although there is a large emphasis on hardware in first year, this is diminished somewhat by second year, with more programming languages taken on (Java, C, C++, Eiffel). Courses that cover the theory of networking and data storage proved interesting.
On the hardware side, there is less put on designing logic circuits, more on how to interconnect components correctly. In the first half of second year, you build a computer from a couple of ICs. Except you have to manually wire each pin, know what you're wiring it to, and why. It's quite interesting.

As cian said, options come in third year. https://www.cs.tcd.ie/courses/ba/ gives a good idea of what you will study. Third year this year has the following options (I've to pick 2 of these):
# BA31 Formal Methods
# 3BA32 Artificial Intelligence
# 3BA33 Advanced Telecommunications
# 3BA34 Hardware Design (Grid Computing and Virtualisation)

Best of luck making your choice, I would definately recommend Computer Science (despite having to learn Eiffel)

i71jskz5xu42pb

May not be TCD specific but a good overview of the differences
http://compsci.ca/blog/6-degrees-of-computer-science/

Crash

I'm a third year CS student - just had a final year options talk actually so if you want an idea of whats available when you hit fourth year:

Mathematical Modelling - problem solving solutions etc.
Mobile Telecoms
Artificial Intelligence (following on from the third year option that SnappieT mentioned)
Computer Graphics and Virtual Reality
Compiler design - designing compilers :P
Distributed Systems
Advanced Computer Architecture
Computer Vision - image processing etc.
Integrated Systems design - Taught by trinitys very own oscar winner.
Fuzzy Logic
Internet and Intelligent applications
Health Informatics
Conceptual modelling.

If you have any questions about the course feel free to pm me on here

Neil

cocoa

hmm, looks like comp sci for me then. Thanks all for replying, it really helped.

Nietzschean

PaschalNee wrote:

May not be TCD specific but a good overview of the differences
http://compsci.ca/blog/6-degrees-of-computer-science/

cs/comp eng are very different from country to country , and uni to uni imo thats not worth really using as a basis for anything....

Nietzschean

cocoa wrote:

Comp Engineering:
How deep into computers would you go?

I guess that varies depending on what options you take in later years. Alot of the comp eng students stick to the h/w stuff, which i didn't do with them. I did maths and as part of that we can take most of the 3rd and 4th year comp eng courses(excluding some of the hardware ones). The difficulty/depth level matches cs certainly in 4th year for similar courses(some courses such as comp vision are now taught to both jointly).

It's compulsory to "taste" different types of engineering in the common years, is this a bit annoying or is it presented in such a way as to be interesting, despite no plans of continuing with that particular stream of engineering?

You arn't doing really a taste, its common engineering for 1st and 2nd year, your doing them properly, it does give you greater scope if you arn't sure you want do do computer engineering i suppose.

in general given my experence with both comp eng and comp sci in tcd(i'm a comp sci phd student now) , i'd go with comp sci unless your solidly into h/w or think you might want to do some other form of engineering, electronic or that... But thats tcd specific anyway [its worth looking at comp sys in ul, comp apps in dcu certainly anyway as a comparative]

Crash

to be honest, I wouldnt go near engineering unless you're unsure - if you know you want to go down the computer end of things, then if you do comp eng you'll be waiting two years :P