Based on the number of bachelor’s degrees awarded annually, the engineering majors offered at colleges and universities can be roughly divided into one of four size-based categories:
- The “Big Four” Disciplines: Civil, Computer, Electrical, and Mechanical Engineering, which together collectively account for approximately two-thirds (67%) of all engineering bachelor’s degrees awarded annually.
- The “Medium Four” Disciplines: Aerospace, Biomedical, Chemical, and Industrial/Manufacturing Engineering, which collectively account for approximately 20% of all engineering bachelor’s degrees awarded annually.
- The “Smaller Ten” Disciplines: Agricultural, Architectural, Engineering Management, Engineering Physics/Engineering Science, Environmental, General Engineering Studies, Materials, Mining, Nuclear, and Petroleum Engineering, which collectively account for less than 10% of all engineering bachelor’s degrees awarded annually.
- The Specialty Disciplines: A variety of specialty disciplines offered (such as Ocean Engineering) that collectively account for less than 5% of all engineering bachelor’s degrees awarded annually.
This article talks about computer engineering, one of the big four disciplines.
If you have zeal for writing codes, programming machine, then computer engineering is the right place for you. Due to boom in software industry computer engineers are in great demand.
Overall Focus: Utilize knowledge in both Computer Science and Electrical Engineering to design integrated computer systems (that is, integrating hardware and software components).
Courses for Computer Engineering:
- Diploma Course
Eligibility Criteria: Class 10
Duration: 3 years
- BTech/BE Course
Eligibility Criteria: 10+2 with PCM (Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics)
Duration: 4 years
- ME/MTech Course
Eligibility Criteria: BTech/BE Course
Duration: 2 years
There are also good opportunities to pursue higher studies in computer engineering. Higher studies are usually pursued in certain areas of specialization.
Primary Areas of Specialization of Computer Engineering:
1. Artificial Intelligence (developing computers that simulate human learning and reasoning abilities)
2. Computer Architecture (designing new computer instruction sets, and combining electronic or optical components to yield powerful computing systems)
3. Computer Design and Engineering (designing new computer circuits, microchips, and other electronic computer components)
4. Computer Theory (investigating the fundamental theories of how computers solve problems, and applying the results to other areas of computer engineering)
5. Information Technology (developing and managing information systems that support a business or other organization)
6. Operating Systems and Networks (developing the basic software computers use to supervise themselves or to communicate with other computers)
7. Robotics (designing computer-controlled robots for performing repetitive industrial tasks)
8. Software Applications (applying computing software to solve problems outside the computer field - in education or medicine, for example).
9. Software Engineering (generating computer programs)
After passing your college with specialization in computer engineering you can choose one of the given job profiles. The job profile should be chosen on the basis of interest and knowledge in the domain.
Job profiles for Computer Engineer:
- Programmers
- Web Developers
- Networking Specialist
- Data-warehouse Analyst
- System Designer
- Consultant
- Lecturer
Top 5 Engineering Branches in India
Although there are many companies which recruit computer engineers in bulk but some companies are certainly popular because of their pay, facilities and reputation. It will be good to start your career with these companies:
Some of the top employers are:
Top Employers:
- Yahoo
- HP (Hewlett-Packard)
- IBM (International Business Machines)
- Dell Inc
- Sun Microsystem
- HCL
- Wipro
- Techmahindra
Associated Professional Society: Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Computer Society (www.computer.org)
