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Mechatronics

Is 'Engineer Programmer' An Oxymoron?

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BobGroh
User Rank
Platinum
Engineer ... Programmer? The answer is 'It Depends!'
BobGroh   7/14/2011 4:44:29 PM
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This response has a huge danger of becoming way toooo long but I will try to condense my thoughts on this subject.  First of all, engineering design and software programming are NOT the same or even that close.  Both have unique training and experience needs AND they both require somewhat different types of personal characteristics.  Yes, an engineer should be able to program a computer (that also means a uP).  But most engineers do NOT make good programmers - the skill set is just too different.  And likewise, good programmers do NOT make good engineers for the same reason.

But there are times when each (programmer and design engineer) need to intrude a bit into the other guy's world and certainly each should know enough to be able to do so, i.e. to at least understand a bit of the other guy's mystery world.

Given all of the above, there are obviously folks who can do both jobs superbly well. But for the average person, not so much.

Another thought - certainly an engineer has many tools that do require some level of computer expertise (e.g. using Matlab for simulation, using Labview for testing prototypes, using Excel for data analysis) and certainly the competent engineer should have a fair ability to use all of these.

And sometimes a design engineer has no choice - the project team is too darned small and he or she needs to be a 'jack of all trades'.  Kind of fun but I'll bet the certain facets of the project suffer (e.g. the software part for an embedded uP).

Just one last thought (I promise!) - I think that a college education should provide exposure to everything that an engineer will require to be a good and successful engineer when he or she gets out into the REAL world. That does mean exposure to software programming techniques (yes, Virginia, there are both BAD and GOOD software techniques and procedures!)

Timmmy49
User Rank
Iron
Engineering Programmer
Timmmy49   7/7/2011 7:45:49 PM
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I think that the colleges should teach and use engineering programming more in the classes. The biggest pet peeve of mine in college is how is what we are using applied to real world situations. I write my own code for the most part until it comes to something that give me a problem. Then I turn it over to the engineer programmer to solve my problem.

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