University choices - opinions wanted

[ryan123]

Hi all, I'm almost 20 and the time has come for me to make a choice of which degree to apply for. I have narrowed down my choices to either Electrical Power engineering, or Electronic and communications/computer science double degree.

My questions is, is there more future in Australia for a graduate in Electrical Power engineering as opposed to Electronic/computer science ? Also what are your opinions on the actual degrees?

I have interests in playing around with solar panels and generators, but also I have had lots of time with arduino and building many different gadgets and systems, this is why I have a profound interest in Electrical/electronic engineering

Any input would be greatly appreciated !

links to the courses are :
Electronic and communications / comp science http://handbook.curtin.edu.au/courses/31/319544.html
Electrical power
http://handbook.curtin.edu.au/courses/31/318807.html



(The reason I have saught after others opinions is because I Don't know anyone in my life that is in this field or who I can readlily ask.)

I hope this is the correct place to post this

[Rick Law]

I don't know about Australia.  In the USA, it is very common for people to change major during the first and early second year.  It is not viewed negatively.

So you should keep that option in mind also.

[EEVblog]

My questions is, is there more future in Australia for a graduate in Electrical Power engineering as opposed to Electronic/computer science ?

I'd say yes. Power engineering has always been the "unsexy" field, which likely means less competition for jobs and likely higher pay (just an educated guess).
Everyone is doing computer science, it will be much harder to stand out.
Also, probably more travel involved in the power engineering field.

Also what are your opinions on the actual degrees?

Don't know about Curtin uni, sorry. Have met very few grads from there.

[R005T3r]

You are asking us to choose your path? We cannot do that for you. You have to do it by yourself, and by the time you typed this thread you already know the path to choose, so our opinion on the degrees is irrelevant. Ask yourself one question: what you really desire?

Engineers will always have work to do.    You know: electricity consumption has risen exponentially on the last decade, as a result power distribution networks are constantly being updated. Same thing as electronics, same thing as computer science.

I can give you a little input: be sure about what you choose, and don't try other things: it's a waste of time, you have decided. Start!. The path you choose is always correct. Be warned that studying at university is way harder than college and you need to have the willingness and strength to do it even if it requires to give up all your free time and hobbies. And, don't do the mistake to rely on others: they will always put themselves in front of you at university.
Don't assume that things won't change in the future, so don't get biased about one path or another: they have the same weight on the scale. Don't get upset if exams go wrong, it's normal and after some times you get used to it...

[Halcyon]

Cyber security and digital forensics is an increasing field with relatively few experts. Those who do work on those fields get decent money for their skills. It's certainly an area where Government departments have been actively recruiting more people into over recent years.

[t2kv]

If you're interested in immediate career prospects after undergrad, CS/CE are a pretty safe bets. As Halcyon says, security is particularly in demand at the moment, and looks to be that way for some time. I don't know much about Power Engineering (or EE), so can't comment, sorry.

That said, most people I know found that their roles at work didn't closely match the skills they learned at university. Instead, the core things they acquired were the ability to solve problems in a structured way and the habit of learning quickly. To some extent, that knowledge can de-risk your degree choice, so long as there's a rough match between what you study and what jobs you want to go after when you graduate. The increasing propensity for people to change careers a couple of times in their working life makes it safer still.

Good luck!

[karoru]

Power electronics is a less "hot" area, while EE/CS/CE are the hottest majors on this planet.
If you chose PE, you need to prepare for further education as no one hires a PE BS unless you are willing to work in the field. If you want to get in an office, you need at least MS.
However, due to fewer competitors, getting a PE job in a commercial research lab or national lab is easier compared to other fields.
Also, PE is getting hot as people are pouring money in renewable energy stuffs, while CS is getting cold, though currently CS/CE are generally more popular than EE, then PE.

There's an important aspect of "willing to work in the field" thing you said. There is plenty of "hard" (opposed of "soft" like let's say PCB design or computer programming) engineering in the power electronics that for some reason people want to ignore (because it involves mechanics and so on). Finding a smart guy that worked (for a bit) in the field even for a bit and understands how things he designed will look in real life is like winning on a lottery.

[BubbaMc]

Choose the course that interests you the most. All sorts of EE jobs will be accessible with either degree.

I studied electronic/communication engineering at Curtin, currently working with process control systems in the oil and gas industry. Others on my team studied electrical power engineering, computer systems engineering, or computer science - and we all do the same work.

Try and get in to UWA though, the high paying graduate programs generally only take WA graduates from there (there are exceptions, of course). For example, over 90% of WA educated engineers employed by Chevron studied at UWA.

[EEVblog]

Engineers will always have work to do.    You know: electricity consumption has risen exponentially on the last decade, as a result power distribution networks are constantly being updated. Same thing as electronics, same thing as computer science.

Yes, but in terms of work it basically comes down to the ratio of qualified people in that field to the number of jobs.
Everyone does computer science.

[R005T3r]

True.

But, since engineering is a very tough choice and considered that it requires a lot of time and efforts to qualify, it might be better to consider the one you feel to do instead  to analyze the market in order to choose the best choice for the market.

Why everyone does computer science? 

[retrolefty]

True.

But, since engineering is a very tough choice and considered that it requires a lot of time and efforts to qualify, it might be better to consider the one you feel to do instead  to analyze the market in order to choose the best choice for the market.

Why everyone does computer science?

 Because EVERY engineering field has changed and benefited from the power of computing helping find new better solutions in their field of interest.

[CatalinaWOW]

Don't make current requirements or pay a very large part of your decision.  Those things change, sometimes during your course of study.  And there is nothing worse than being trapped in a good paying job you don't like.

[amspire]

I have interests in playing around with solar panels and generators, but also I have had lots of time with arduino and building many different gadgets and systems, this is why I have a profound interest in Electrical/electronic engineering

You have to invest a pretty big sum of money in loans to do any of these courses, so it worth thinking about what you want to do and look around.

If you think you may want to get into research, it may be a good idea if possible to go with the location that is strongest in your areas of interest. For example, University of NSW has had Dr Green since the 1970's and he is a world leader in solar cell theory and design. This is a semiconductor design field and not solar cell application field. As an undergraduate, you will hardly touch any high level theory, but it does give you a chance to make yourself known.

I would only do the double degree if it was part of a plan I had. It is hard enough to be great in one field, and it is better to be great on one field then average in two fields unless you goal is management.

If you need to go to Curtin because it is local and you cannot afford to live away from home, it is not a bad choice, but for post graduate work, you will definitely want to go wherever you need to go to find the best  expertise in your field of choice.

If you want a degree so you can go out and get a job, the key thing is landing a good job, and from that point the degree hardly matters. It is more a question of how to survive the course with the least amount of damage and to really work on finding and landing the job you want. After the first job, most good employers will be more impressed by your previous jobs and they way you present yourself then your degrees.

If you last education was school, one of the things you have to remember is that you are now the customer and your money is paying the lecturers and tutors. If a course is bad, complain - they are wasting your time and money. If you are having trouble understanding something, go see the lecturer in his room. 20 year old students are usually better at this then 17 year old students.

[HackedFridgeMagnet]

You have to invest a pretty big sum of money in loans to do any of these courses, so it worth thinking about what you want to do and look around.

Very true, so get some feedback if you can.

Pretty hard to get into UNSW I would imagine.
You don't need to decide which strand of EE to do until probably 3rd or 4th year so hold off your decision until then. Down the track things like the lecturers themselves, final year projects, job opportunities will probably make your decision for you.
The good thing is that it is all interesting so there wont be a wrong decision. You will still come out with an B.E. 

[rstofer]

I would think that as an electrical power engineer, you would have two paths:  Work as an independent design engineer or as a member of a team designing buildings and plants.  Second, you would work for a utility company.  There may be a 3rd possibility of working as an engineer for a government agency.

If you want to burn out on a hobby, do it for a living!  With that thought in mind, I spent my career in electrical engineering and kept my hobby of electronic engineering at home.  That works well because the large high voltage substations I worked on would fit in my house anyway.

There will be no glory in electrical power.  It's the same old thing, day after day.  Lighting, power, specialized facilities; rinse and repeat.  Of course, it could lead to project management which could lead to specialized knowledge which could result in a tour to a foreign country.  Pretty cool career!

All of the magic is in EE and CS.

[amspire]

There will be no glory in electrical power.  It's the same old thing, day after day.  Lighting, power, specialized facilities; rinse and repeat. 

Unless you are a young person with brains and energy who wants to work towards a future based totally on renewable energy. In my opinion, the real future is a power grid where everyone can be a power generator and power storer. Everyone can be a genuine market price wholesaler of power. I do not believe the future is in massive single generator/storage facilities owned by some huge corporation that is trying to rip all the profit out of any renewable provider. Technically, the main stumbling block is energy storage and the answer is absolutely not in conventional batteries. You want a storage that can easily last for years, and your maximum discharge rate can be as slow as months or years. There are many changes of state that can store a lot of energy and that are totally stable indefinitely, but right now, for most of these, we do not have a good ambient temperature cycle for storing and recovering power. The numbers work - our current knowledge is the thing that is lacking.

If you have a totally distributed power system, then you have massive challenges - setting up a kind of a marketplace for power, along with an intelligent system to maximize the capacity of the grid by favouring local power over distant power. You basically have to invent a new Internet of power. Farmers can all become power storers and producers and so their viability is not totally dependant on crop success and water availability. To me 10 years of power storage is a good starting goal for such a system design. 1 year is not good enough.

My ideas of a solution may be stupid, but it is more likely to be the 20 year old students today who eventually crack this problem over their lifetime.

[VK3DRB]

Electronics is in decline here and the pay is only OK. Power engineering pays well. Civil engineering pays even more and mining engineering gets top dollar when a boom is on. But if money or attracting chicks is not important, and you love electronics with a passion, go for the electronics degree.

In retrospect, knowing what I know now, I would be only an investor: Buy $1000 in Microsoft shares in 1986, sell out in Dec 1999 then use the money to buy Apply shares, sell out in May 2015 and walk out with 81 MILLION dollars from my initial $1,000 investment, not including dividends. The point is, hindsight is a good thing, and no matter what the advice, no-one knows the future. Who would have thought Donald Duck would be elected as president for example, just two weeks ago. But as it stands, our government is hell bent on Kevin Rudd's "Big Australia" vision and as a result infrastructure is going to be a growing industry over the next 30 years as more people people flock to Australia.