Comments on: Computer Engineer vs. Computer Scientist

By: pongo louis

pongo louis — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 17:07:45 +0000

am a computer scientist bt i think we should not think of the name bt the out come.i love cs

By: Krupal

Krupal — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 06:23:42 +0000

Engineering is like building a house. You know a few good models, know the pros and cons of each and so given a situation you select a model and QUICKLY implement it with little or no customizations/modifications/innovation. Clearly its a RESULT ORIENTED strategy with the emphasis being on achieving the TARGET QUICKLY. Where as a computer scientist, for that matter any scientist, takes more pleasure in the fact that he was able to innovate an aspect or two of the house rather than completing the house itself! In short the scientist makes models and the engineer put those models to use. So as misko said we need a handful of scientists and an army of engineers.

On an other note, I think the transition from computer graduate to a software employee drastically narrows down the CS domain we deal with and so when you’re a scientist in a much broader domain in college becoming an engineer in a smaller domain is easier and the CS skills work hand in hand with your engineering skills and believe me they really do make a difference. Where as the other transition from engineer to scientist is difficult specially when CS skills are a small part of your day to day job and you’ve to meet deadlines you can’t afford to spend lots of time in research and technical know how . So i think this might be one of the reasons for asking such questions in interviews but i still believe there should be an adequate test of both the skills.

By: reginald

reginald — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 19:52:16 +0000

what are the relevant of science to the recent development to computer engineer

By: st oliver

st oliver — Sun, 23 May 2010 17:16:21 +0000

what to be a computer engineer

By: jemsking

jemsking — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 11:16:59 +0000

hi to all, i want to inter into the university studying computer.please i will like and expert to orientate me on what to do.i will be very grateful if someone could help me.i equally want to know the clear distingtion between a computer ingeener and a computer science.plz help

By: Uzma

Uzma — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 01:56:38 +0000

Great read! Completely agree about libraries being available for intense tasks and that concentration should be on well designed and maintained systems.

By: andre

andre — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 18:04:52 +0000

Interesting article. From where I graduated as a computer scientist (UBC), the engineers who specialized in software development took the same courses (and them some more in engineering).

So there was no distiction, we both learned CS concepts of algorithms and less about the real issues at hand of composing systems.

I agree, it’s not very common to have to create algorithms and I think CS degrees focus too much on this. It’s more of a mathematical problem/exercise that has applications down the road if you do a masters/PHD. Real world problems involve composing systems that are reusable (which you learn about), that can scale well, easy to adopt, and can be developed at a reasonable cost/time.

By: Val Karpov

Val Karpov — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 14:58:41 +0000

I very much have to disagree with Misko. When I’m interviewing a potential hire, I don’t care much about asking engineering questions. Why? Testing-related questions like ‘what makes code untestable?’ basically ask people to recite from memory. While I agree with you that asking somebody to write out a simple CS101-style algorithm that they’ve seen a hundred times is also counterproductive, if all you ask are essay questions, a well-trained parrot could pass your interview.

In an interview I’m screening for intelligence, problem-solving ability, open-mindedness, and the ability to fail gracefully. Teaching a person with these qualities to write good code is considerably easier than dealing with somebody who can talk all day about good engineering practice but lacks intelligence or flips out when they don’t know how to do something.

By: alepuzio

alepuzio — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 17:04:03 +0000

Hi,
I’m an Italian java developer and my thesis is about software engineering. In my experience the jobs of developer and software engineer are confused and any softwar eengineer must be able to solve a tipical problem of CS poeple, simply because a team have’nt the budget for a strong separation of roles.

>library and algorithms
the idea “Not coding because sure there’s a library” is very terrible for the sector: the value of IT people is’nt only to understand the functional view, but translator this view in computer world. I see a lot of problems by uncorrect algorithms that lower the performance and throws exception for an exagerate use of memory.
I think the software engineer is mor important for testing, but the testing is matter only when the manager see the monetary value, and a lot of software engineers are unable to express this.

bye

By: vyadh

vyadh — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 12:58:15 +0000

Brendan: That has given me a lot to think about. Thanks!

I wasn’t knocking science btw. It is my great respect for science that makes we wonder how software development can really compare to those ideals. You put well when you said “seat of the pants” based testing. I think this is true even when doing something like TDD. I’m not craving something more formal mind, I’d like to concentrate on getting work done.

I agree there is no formally recognised standard for the scientific method. However, I would argue that it’s basic concepts (accumulating evidence, creating hypotheses + formation of theories, peer review) are agreed by most scientists, and it is those concepts that I see little of in software development.

Oh, and what is wrong with logical positivism?