Creative Content Master Award (CCMA) Career & Study Fair was held at Kementerian Pendidikan Tinggi Putrajaya. UNIMY was one of the exhibitors in this event and hosted an Hour of Code Workshop. During the Hour of Code activity, attendees can choose from a range of 12 activities to do where they can learn how to code. Most of the crowd were students from vocational colleges and they were very excited to do the coding activity and learn how students could advance from TVET programmes into degree programmes. Participants of the Hour of Code Workshop were also given a Certificate of Completion after their 1-hour session.
Through the Hour of Code Workshop, attendees were able to learn about coding from our academicians and other UNIMY team members present at the event and also differences as well as similarities on computer engineering vs computer science and computer science versus software engineering.
UNIMY’s participation was to share about the growing, in-demand fields of digital technology specifically that of computer engineering and computer science. Getting to know more about these fields would assist those interested to enter the digital technology industry to determine – based on their skills, goals, and interest – which would be more suitable when embarking on university studies.
“Computer engineering focuses on hardware while computer science addresses the software side of computing” is the typical oversimplified answer that a student would see when searching about the differences between computer engineering vs computer science. The UNIMY team explained that this is a good starting place for understanding these two disciplines as there’s also a good deal of overlap.
Computer engineering combines concepts from electrical engineering with principles from the computer science field. Those interested in computer engineering therefore need to understand how electrical engineering, physics, and broader computer science fundamentals intersect. This is because computer engineers research, design, create, develop, assemble, and test computer components and systems. These include everything from processors and circuit boards to networks and routers. They build the computers and create high-quality machines, work to improve their components, and identify ways to make existing equipment work more efficiently.
Those in computer science on the other hand designs large-scale software systems, machine-learning algorithms, and use advanced programming skills to problem solve and innovate. Computer science is both theoretical and practical. The UNIMY team explained that in view of this, students at UNIMY will learn the core of computer science through a mix of theoretical and practical experience. Graduates of the programme will be equipped with excellent programming skills and be capable of designing, implementing, and optimising innovative software applications. For example, computer scientists may investigate the theory of computation to find solutions for real-world issues. It also includes practical topics like how to design networks, safeguard data integrity, employ artificial intelligence, and speed up computer processing.
Software engineering, on the other hand, is a field concerned with the application of engineering processes to the creation, maintenance, and design of software for a variety of different purposes. For example, a software engineer designs customised applications per the requirements of an organisation. Seeing that software engineering majors will learn different aspects of designing, analysing, and maintaining software, students will typically need to have good problem-solving and research skills, mathematical modelling and analytic skills, know multiple coding languages and work well in a team. Additionally, interest in programming languages is an asset as software engineers need to learn how to utilize different types of programming languages like Java, JavaScript, SQL, C++, and Python.
In short, computer engineers need some understanding of computer science to do their job while computer scientists’ software runs on the hardware that engineers create. Meanwhile, both software engineering and computer science involve computer software, including software development and other related fields. All three fields of study will allow you to wield significant influence over the digital innovation transforming every industry.
Schedule an appointment with our UNIMY team to learn more about UNIMY’s computer science, computer engineering and software engineering programmes or read more about the different levels of the programmes’ curricula here
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