Software Engineering? Student's question.

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Q. I'm currently a pre-engineering student. I will be a sophomore in a couple weeks. I'm trying to decide on what aspect of engineering to go into. One thing that has come up is Software Engineering. The school I go to will offer a BS in Software Engineering starting this fall. If I went into it I would be one of the first and few students to graduate with this degree. My question is has anyone heard about this field of engineering, I know it's fairly new. Are software engineer in heavy demand? Would this be a good field to go into? If I was going into SE I would use my electives on EE courses to get a background in electrical engineering.

A. -One suggestion to help you decide on a particular area of engineering to study. Try to get a coop or intership in the field. Most companies will hire students and have them work along side engineers to help give them an idea of what the engineer does. (It is also cheap labor). Your school probably has something like this setup. -BS in software engineering ? shouldn't that be BE Software Engineering. I had the same sort of choices. couldn't decide between electrical , software or telecommunications engineering was told do electrical then as long as am getting a credt average can swap to which I decide on. or use electives to do sub major in which ever you want. at the uni I'm at, software, electrical, telecommunications and computer systems have the same common core for first year and can still switch at end of second year. www.uts.edu.au http://www.uts.edu.au/div/publications/eng/ug/index.html handbook with the different courses http://www.uts.edu.au/div/publications/eng/ug/e001/08.html software engineering http://www.eng.uts.edu.au http://www.eng.uts.edu.au/~betty/ieaust_cd.html have a look at the descriptions of each field from above page Software engineers Developing software systems for technical, commercial, professional or lifestyle computer applications Graduates work as consultants or work in sectors ranging from telecommunications, manufacturing, transport or defence, to finance, mining and environmental management. Software engineering isn't that new. .Doing double in applied physics and electrical engineering myself. -Just a comment- the pay rate that co-op students get generally beats what they can get in other summer jobs (at least in Canada) - particularly after the first co-op work term. The benefits go beyond the money in that the experience reflects back to school and the school reflects into the job. However, in many places courses in computer engineering are available- these are a blend of computer science and electrical engineering (with associated acquaintance with other fields of engineering) so that both software and hardware knowledge is developed along with an engineering approach to problems. This would be far better than "software engineering". -"Software Engineering" is really just computer science. "Prgogrammer" has become somewhat passe; today people really need the skills to architect a software system, not just code. Thus the term "Computer Engineer" came about. If it's a brand new degree at your school consider these: 1) Recruiters will be more likely to hire someone from a school with an established, reputable program. 2) You don't want to be in the "guinea pig" class as your institution develops this major. 3) You will be more flexible and therefore more desirable to employers if you consider Computer Engineering: programming with a basis in hardware and total system architecture. You can use your electives to strengthen yourself in either software or hardware. -Actually at my school, majoring in software engineering, you will learn some hardware as well and also have electives you can use on more hardware courses. The computer engineering curriculum only has 2 software classes and no electives. It's mostly EE courses and computer hardware courses. -I don't know about the US but in Canada, Computer Engineering is a mix of EE and computer Science with the control of overall program content and degree granting, for accreditation purposes, being in the hands of the Engineering faculty. It is an Engineering degree and, as such, must meet standards set for other Engineering degrees and be broader, technically, than computer science. It is definitely not "programming" nor is it computer architecture, per se although that is included in the program (along with such things as dynamics, control theory, thermodynamics, electronics,etc.).

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