Plainesoteric - Slashdot User

Submission + - Hardware or Software degree? In what direction is the tech world moving?

Submitted by Plainesoteric on Sunday June 30, 2013 @05:52PM

Plainesoteric writes: In this age where technology is everywhere it's still a tough question among many high school students whether to take a hardware degree or a software degree.

Let's assume we got a fresh mind who is finding it hard to decide whether to take an Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) degree or a Computer Science(with Pure/Applied Math) degree. The student in this case is passionate about mathematics and loves everything tech. He is biased whether to go towards the hardware or software route since he likes them both. In such a context, what would you suggest the student for a better career?

While the ECE degree is more of a general degree, will it be in favor of the student in his career?

Now let's assume that the student in our case has plans for having a Masters Degree in a top 10 University in the United States. Could an undergrad in ECE possibly get him a Masters in Computer Science or he can't possibly do a Masters in Computer Science without the Undergrad in a Computer Science major?

My personal opinion is really directed towards the BSc in Computer Science since I believe that even if 1 day the manufacturing of hardware stops, there will still be a huge demand for Software.

But would an ECE degree provide the student an option to decide whether to take the Hardware or Software route, whereby the student could go for a Masters degree?

Submission + - Ars tech discover Ed Snowden IRC log .. (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 30, 2013 @04:40PM

An anonymous reader writes: "Two days after his arrival in Switzerland, Snowden logged onto #arsificial, a channel on Ars Technica's public Internet Relay Chat (IRC) server. He'd been frequenting this space for a few months, chatting with whomever happened to be hanging out".

I don't understand how a CIA operative would be logging into IRC under a pseudonym that could be so easily traced back to him

Submission + - Electrical & Computer Eng. or Computer Science degree?

Submitted by Plainesoteric on Saturday June 29, 2013 @01:22PM

Plainesoteric writes: Hello everyone,

I've reached an important phase in my life where I got to decide whether do do an Electrical and Computer Engineering degree or a Computer Science degree. I got to say I enjoy mathematics, physics and computers a lot and I'm sure I want to work in a big technological firm one day and I know I want to be a great programmer although I just started to self-teach myself programming(since I was a pure science student in high school). I see some great prospects in Artificial Intelligence and robotics but I'm still not sure which path will lead me there. I'm also someone who has been opening radios, toasters and other hardware since I was a kid. I'm really stuck. The ECE course provides 5 modules in computer science, which are programming in java/python and c++, maybe an algorithm class and the rest are electrical/computer engineering modules. The computer science degree allows me the pure CS with loads of math and they also allow me to have a co-major in computer engineering (still not sure if a co-major in C.E will allow me a CS/math double major).

So my question is will the BSc in Electrical and Computer Engineering allow me to do a masters in Computer Science(AI/Robotics, Network/Security or Cryptography) or it's better to get the Computer Science degree with some Computer Engineering courses where I will get to take some physics and hardware modules or it's better to do a Computer Science with Pure/applied math major and do my masters?

In the end I want to get the masters degree and move on in life, I will probably not do a Phd unless I get a job at Google and doing the Phd at MIT/Stanford *lol*

If it matters, I'm from South Africa.

Thanks.

Slashdot Top Deals