does being a computer engineering major limit what research you can do?
 

I am going to msu this fall with my major being computer engineering, and I think I will want to do research both now and in graduate school. I really like the electrical side of computers the down and dirty stuff, not the higher level software layer. I like to program, I like the computer science aspect of electrical engineering but not when it is the focus.

This is why I signed up to do computer engineering. because it seems to be electrical engineering with a few extra classes from computer science. However, it seems like electrical engineering gets all of the cool research opportunities, Photovoltaics, Power, Biomedical, Neural engineering, etc, and it still gets the chance to study computer related topics like VLSI, Control, RF, etc. I would like to have the widest variety of areas to do research since I am not quite sure what will be interesting to me down the road, a lot of stuff does.

Although it seems like these arenas of research aren't necessarily blocked to computer engineering majors, it seems like their "jack of all trades" characteristic (or the opposite, being too focused in studying computer architecture) , makes doing research more limited.

I am not super worried about this, because I am just a freshman, but I don't want to head down the wrong road, if I already have an idea of the road I want to go down.

I will ask my counselor about this but I am asking TFP too, to see if anyone has any insight.

I would ask some of the instructors in the major as well. They can provide greater insight on the issue than a regular counselor.

As a recent EECS grad, I don't think it matters. (Berkeley just has one huge EECS major, and you basically choose your upper division courses based on your interest.) Doing research in general seems to be more about finding the right opportunity (human networking) than what exactly you study in undergrad. Because you're probably going to be pretty clueless no matter what classes you take; you just need somewhere to start. Find out what you're interested in, take the classes, talk to the professors. There are a lot of Physics majors doing EE research as well. Undergrad is more about getting a good base of knowledge than knowledge of a specific area (that's what grad studies are for).

btw, Lacuna Coil rocks.

Are both programs ABET accredited? If one is not, it will be an important factor down the road.

ok, I got my books today. I think computer engineering is the way to go at least for now. I like that stuff and I am thinking you guys are right, it is more about interest and opportunity than major. Besides, I think the specialization of electrical engineering that I am most interested in is the stuff pertaining to computers (though they all sound pretty cool). I am not sure about IBET but MSU is a respected school and I never heard any warnings otherwise.

Thanks for now guys, if anyone else has any insight please post more. and yeah, lacuna coil is one of my favorite bands.

Only certain programs are ABET accredited. If you move on to a career where you are required to take the FE exam in order to take the PE to be a licensed professional engineer, you have to have an ABET accredited engineering degree.

I think accreditation is more important if you're looking for private sector work. It is certainly less important than your school's reputation. It is my understanding the a couple of MIT's engineering programs have been accredited for less than a decade.

Yes, prestige is important, but if he ever plans on obtaining a professional engineer's license at any point of time, ABET accredidation is critical. Unfortunately, there is no way around it through years of experience, etc. Most of the companies I work with won't even interview you unless you have at least an EIT/FE if you're doing any sort of engineering design work that a PE is offered for.

Going to school for computer engineering to be able to work in that field is one thing, but to work as a licensed engineer at any point of time is another animal. Its important to make that clarification early on.

As a CE grad, this is the advice I would give myself at 18. Be undeclared the first year. Sure take the standard CE/EE classes, but even if you have to choose one officially, don't tell other people (especially girls at parties or roommates). It will make you more interesting and there is more to talk about (what you like, what classes you have, what you want to do, that you are interested in seeing what is out there and didn't want to pick something that wasn't right...)

I started off as a CS major, but moved to CE. I probably should have picked EE but had taken too many software classes by that time. At my job, I do software programming of hardware systems I design and build. While I'm not a whiz at either by themselves, I made it work where I can do both and make successful things happen. In school, I had trouble with the high level CS classes and understanding how they were teaching things. CS was changing and JAVA wasn't as widespread either, databases weren't very documented either. With EE, design and electrical systems are pretty much the same as they were, and the books were better.

I didn't know that software engineers could get state licensing.

I any case, I think the fella wants to do research, in which case, if he happens to need a PE it will be mere coincidence. Even for M.E., you don't need a license to do research; I'm fairly certain that only a couple of the professors at my school have professional licenses; they all do research.

Things change though. It's not what he's asking for, but it's sound advice - being accredited will give more options down the road.

I just finished my first year of university. I'm doing Industrial/Systems Engineering because I decided I didn't like EE, CE, or CS (all separate majors I believe) very much, even though that's initially what I wanted to do. A lot of people still think I am a CE student, even my family tells people I am because they too are confused. I just fix computers in my spare time, which has nothing to do with what I want to do for a living.