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Q: I am about to select a major in engineering and would like to know the best major to select in order to excel in Nanotechnology. I hear that Nanotechnology holds enormous promise and can be helpful in areas from cleansing the air to treating bacterial infections. What schools, domestic and international, would you recommend?
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Q: Let me please know the potential of Nanotechnology education, and the list of universities offering Masters and Doctoral degree in Nanotechnology.
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Q: I consider several undergraduate programs available in my country with the intent of doing research (and possibly some graduate work) later in the area of nanotechnology in Japan.
I have two questions:
(1) Would it be better for me to study chemical engineering or electrical engineering as an undergraduate?
(2) What are some of the institutions that do nanotechnology research in Japan?
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Q: I am unable to decide between a degree in electrical engineering, computer engineering, and computer science. Please describe the differences?
The work of electrical engineers, computer engineers, and computer scientists overlap to some extent.
Electrical engineering deals with the study and application of electricity, electronics and electromagnetism. The field first became an identifiable occupation in the late nineteenth century in the wake of commercialization of the electric telegraph and electrical power supply. The field now covers a wide range of sub-disciplines including power, electronics, control systems, electro-optics, signal processing, and telecommunications. Most recently, electrical engineering had expanded to include fields like nanotechnology and mechatronics, and there is significant activity at the interface of electrical engineering and the life sciences.
Computer engineering has emerged in the late 1970s from electrical engineering, and is still considered by some to be a sub-discipline of electrical engineering. It deals with the study and application of computers, computing, and computer-based systems. The field covers a range of sub-disciplines such as computer hardware, computer architecture, hardware/software integration, computer systems engineering, and embedded systems. Computer engineering shares areas of interest with electrical engineering, software engineering, and computer science.
The overlap between the computer engineering and computer science is significant. Both fields study the use of the digital computer as a tool that makes much of modern technology possible. Both disciplines study the inner workings of computers and both study hardware as well as software aspects of computer systems. Students in computer science, computer engineering, and electrical engineering will all study programming and basic computer operation. In many programs students will also be exposed to large scale computing, and to modern topics in design and operation of clusters and cohorts of computers and computing devices
The differences between computer science and computer engineering are those of emphasis. Computer science is traditionally more concerned with the theoretical underpinnings of computation and of programming; thus one typically finds in computer science curricula courses in programming, algorithms, numerical analysis (how do you guarantee a number produced by a computer program is accurate), and the theory of computation (what can and cannot in principle be computed). Many computer science departments at U.S. universities were 1970s offshoots from departments of mathematics, and as a result the emphasis on providing a rigorous mathematical foundation for the computing disciplines is still evident in many curricula.
Computer engineering programs largely developed in electrical engineering departments. As a result many computer engineering programs focus on the more practical aspects of development and use of computers, and offer courses in digital logic design and processor interfacing which build on an engineering student's knowledge of electronics and circuits. Most computer engineering programs also have ties to solid state physics and devices programs, with interests in the manufacturing of integrated circuits. At the intersection between computer engineering and computer science are courses in computer architecture (the basic construction and low-level programming of computers) and operating systems. These are often found in both computer science and engineering programs.
Computer engineers are more likely than computer science graduates to build hardware. However, computer scientists are educated to know enough about hardware so that they can analyze computer system operations and interact with hardware engineers. Computer scientists often know more about underlying theory of computation, programming languages, and operating systems.
An excellent source of information on these disciplines is the Sloan Career Cornerstone website.
One way to gain an understanding of differences between these fields is to visit college and university websites and explore the course of study for each field in which you have an interest. To identify schools that offer these programs visit the ABET website.
This answer was partially developed on the basis of the following sources:
Computer Engineering Frequently Asked Questions, University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering, accessed March 2008.
Computer Science vs. Computer Engineering, accessed March 2008.
Electrical Engineering in Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, accessed march 2008.
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Q: I am a senior in high school and I am seriously thinking about majoring in Biomedical Engineering. I wanted to know how much money biomedical engineers make. I also want to know if biomedical engineers do research for cancer because I would really like to be able to do research on diseases and ways to fight/cure them. Where could you get a job in biomedical engineering in Pennsylvania?
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Q: I have just received my Bachelor of Engineering in electronics and communication). I have great interest in Nanotechnology/MEMS. Should I concentrate on MEMS or on Nanotechnology for my Master-level studies? How are job prospects in these areas?
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Q: Can I work on a Master of Science degree in Nanotechnology after getting a Bachelor of Science or Bachelor of Engineering degree in chemical engineering?
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Q: Which engineering field should I select for undergraduate studies in order to be able to work later on a Master of Science degree in Nanotechnology?
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Q: I am a second year student in electrical engineering. I have been assigned to write on "the scope of electrical engineering in the 21st century".
Would you please provide me with some guidance?
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Q: BACKGROUND: We live in Sierra Vista, AZ, about 70 miles SE of Tucson. My 17 year old son is a high school senior and wants to become an engineer, but is still undecided which engineering sub-category he wants to specialize in. He is interested in robotics and maybe nanotechnology. He has taken Advanced Placement classes in English, Mathematics and Physics. He already has earned some college credit by signing up for Dual-Credit classes. We are split over 2 options: 1) having him attend for the first 2 years a community college which has a 2-year Pre-Engineering Program, and then have him attend a traditional university for the last 2 years of college; or 2) having him start as a freshman in a traditional 4-year institution.
QUESTIONS:
What, if any, are the pros and cons of both options? Is there an industry bias out there when it comes to hiring an applicant who either completed a 4 year program right away or first did a 2 year program and then finished up a 4 year program?
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