What is Computer Engineering?

Computer Engineering

Topics Covered

1. What is computer Engineering?
2. What does computer engineers do?
3. Application of Computer Engineering
4. How to become computer Engineer

What is Computer Engineering?

Computers and humans are connected in such a way that today we cannot imagine our world without computers or gadgets. But every scientific device needs human brains that could operate them, manage their programming, and enhance their functional behavior. The study which involves all about computers (hardware, software, network) is known as Computer Engineering. The students pursuing computing engineering course are known as Computer Engineers. It’s a combination of electrical engineering and computer science, so that we got the best of both worlds. However, computer engineers shine in a few areas that might be difficult for either an electrical engineer or a computer scientist. These areas include embedded systems, computer architecture, and digital signal processing.

“Computer Engineering is a balance of electrical engineering and software engineering. It acts as a bridge between electrical learning and computer science to develop computer hardware and software. Computer Engineering is a unique learning degree as it involves little pieces of everything you know, put them together, and create solutions for all your crazy theories and ideas.”  

Computer engineering programs are facilitated by many government and private institutions worldwide. In government colleges and some private colleges, students must clear specific exams to get admission. But there are many private or deemed institutions where students can take admission based on their higher secondary scores. These institutions act as a catalyst to sharpen the computer skills and carve the best out of their student.

What Does Computer Engineers Do?

Computer engineers constantly drive the capability and expertise of computers in every aspect of life. Following are the facts where computer engineers plays a significant role:

1. Computer engineers advance the technology and learning to develop electronics devices such as smartphones, smartwatches, eBook readers, or maybe the next generation of Intel CPUs.
2. Many new medical devices and scanners rely on electronics designed by computer engineers.
3. The Department of Defence and various contractors need computer engineers to create unmanned aerial vehicle flight controls and crucial satellite communication systems in aerospace you might work on.  An autopilot for the next Boeing plane or create the control system for the next Mars Rover finally in the world of automation.
4. Computer engineers are writing low level software for Amazon's warehouse robots that help pick and deliver goods for packaging.
5. Computer engineers design and develop integrated VLSI chips, transistor, operating system to enable the smooth functioning of computer system.
6. They also play a significant role to develop software which could be used for drug development.

Opportunities with Computer Engineering

Globalization and digitalization have made our world truly dependent on computer. Computer engineering is a platform which opens so many jobs portals in different endeavors of life. Computer engineers can pursue can subject line based on their interest and capability. Computer engineers’ graduates fetches handsome and have many career options.

1. Programming Coding

Programming languages are influencing the digital world since the beginning of the IT era. There are ample of opportunities and high demand for coders. Coding refers to a precise set of instructions to make a computer or device to understand the workflow. It explains exactly what you want from your computer to do at any given moment. The computer does not know what to do in any given situation. The programmer has to teach everything, including how to react to things like the clicking of a mouse or the pushing of a button. Whatever happens ultimately is happening because of lines of code written by the human program.  Thus, coding has a great career in Computer Engineering endeavors. There are dozens of programming languages, but the most demandable are C, C++, JavaScript, C#, PHP, JAVA, Python, GitHub, Swift, Kotlin, R, etc.

• Cryptography, and information protection

Cryptography is a computer technology used to protect information by converting it into an unreadable format. It uses the fundamental laws of physics and makes encryption stronger. This technology is based on constructing and analyzing protocols that prevent third parties or hackers from reading private data. There is a huge demand for Computer engineers to work in the fields of cryptography and information protection. It involves the systematic approach to develop new methods for securing confidential and important data from unauthorized access. A cryptographer invents cryptographic algorithms from scratch, which the entire world can rely upon.

• Communications and wireless networks

Communications and networks have become an integral part of our lives. To ensure the working of these networks proper infrastructure must be maintained.  Routers, Firewalls, Gateway, Switches, etc., are employed apply to access wireless point devices. These commences many opportunities for the computer engineers where they can contribute with strong authentication and encryption technologies. The protect the networks and prevent the misuse of these by establishing portable network administration. Companies hire engineers to maintain up-to-date network configuration network such as DNS spoofing, IP addresses, subnet masks, gateways configuration, default router, network maps.

• Operating systems, Compilers, and Interpreters

Operating system, Compilers, and Interpreters are the software’s that enables the computer to understand the computer components and translate programmable language to machine language. There is a constant growth in the design and development of advanced compilers, interpreters, and operating system. From beginning to now there are many versions of these applications that has been used. Computer Engineers working in this field are constantly developing new versions with enhanced features in terms of convenient system architecture, impeccable program analysis techniques and dedicated strategies.

• Mobile computing, and distributed systems

Mobile Computing is another field where computer engineers play a significant role. Mobile phones are widely used and there is so much competition in the market. Every company is in indispensable need of mobile developers who can set new trends in the market. If you are too good with computing skills, communication software and integrated environments, this specialty is apt for you.

• IT: architecture, parallel processing, and reliability

Continuous researching is propagated to enhance the quality and speed of computer systems. It involves time-to time upgradation of computer architecture, minimizing its dependability on other devices or software and thickening its ability to sustain parallel processing. Indeed, this is the core of computer engineering. There are ample of opportunities in this field which result in good paycheck for computer engineers. 

• AI and Robotics

AI and machine learning are growing rapidly, and this technology will shape our future world. Google, Apple, Facebook, IBM, Microsoft, all these companies working in a great speed to improve its Artificial Intelligence software. AI software looks at all the available information, dig deeps to your interest and presents to you are the information related to your interest.  Even one day we got to the point where there were robots at every place. It’s seeping into our lives in different ways that we just don’t notice. Thus, it this specialty area has ample of growth in the coming years and it would be win-win situation for the computer engineers to seek interest and master the AI.

• Quantum computing

Quantum Computers are the future. Companies like Google, Intel, IBM, etc, are investing heavily into quantum computing. The main motive behind the development of quantum computers is to overcome all the limitations of classical computer. This field won’t develop in the recent years but yes will be an advantage in longer run.

How To Become Computer Engineer

The first step is to enroll yourself in a course facilitating computer Engineering. The Next question arises in most people’s minds, “What kind of classes to take to become a computer engineer?” First, you will need a healthy dose of math, particularly. You will need to be friendly with calculus, differential equations, and some probability theory. You will learn many programming languages that allow you to write code to tell computers what to do.

You might start with a low-level programming language like C to teach you the underlying concepts of how an operating system works. You might practice what you learn with a project such as writing a device driver for your computer to say respond to mouse clicks or read from a USB drive after you will be acquainted with the high-level programming languages such as Java or Python. These are application-level languages that teach you higher-level computer science concepts such as object-oriented programming.

An algorithm design project might include writing a smartphone app creating a simple game like Flappy Bird for searching through a database for customer information. You will also be introduced to various algorithms, which is just a fancy way of saying steps required to solve a problem Google, for example, uses a very complicated algorithm to crawl through the Internet and sort your search results. Starting with the most relevant, you will learn how to develop algorithms and analyze them for execution time and efficiency from electrical engineering.

Computer Engineering learning includes the basic circuit design for creating and analyzing simple circuits with passive components like resistors, inductors, and capacitors. Various labs session might include designing circuits on paper, building them on a breadboard, and then testing their operation with an oscilloscope. Later classes will introduce semiconductor components like diodes and transistors. These lay the foundation for digital circuit design courses, including logic gate, operations, Boolean, algebra, and binary encoding or decoding.

These classes will lead to computer architecture where you will learn how a computer works like works. Often you will be required to design your computer processing unit or CPU by the end of the class with these foundations you can then move into the more specialized areas of computer engineering.

The most interesting part of this leaning process is grasping information about the essentially tiny chip-sized computers with processors known as microcontrollers. The basics of electronics and low-level programming allow you to work with microcontrollers, which can be found in smartwatches, drones, and modern thermostats.

Finally, you will be required to take at least one class in signal processing, which analyzes how electrical signals change over time. With this, you will be learning the various communication systems and filters trying to transmit data over long distances. Computer engineering also puts you in a good place to study robotics as most robots rely on their brains' embedded systems.

Thus, we can conclude that Computer Engineering gives you a taste for electronics and programming. It also allows you to specialize in some fields that develop exciting new technologies that affect our everyday lives.