Modern computers date back only to the late 1940's, when applied mathematicians and electrical engineers collaborated on the construction of rudimentary machines. Since that time, the capabilities and new applications for the digital computer have expanded at phenomenal rates. Today they range from supercomputers containing thousands of silicon chips and used in scientific investigations requiring extremely high computational rates to single chip microcomputers used in household appliances.
Computer Engineering is directed toward the design and development of computer systems. The computer engineer is concerned with all aspects of the computing system--the hardware, the software, the algorithms used--and the application for which it is intended. As in other engineering disciplines, Computer Engineering emphasizes the design of practical, economic systems and bringing innovative solutions to bear on complex, often multi-faceted, problems.
The Computer Engineering program at Mississippi State is a jointly administered program of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Department of Computer Science and Engineering.
- Computer Engineering: The branch of engineering combining custom hardware and software solutions to the design, development, and operation of computer systems.
- One of the fastest growing engineering disciplines
- Outgrowth of electrical engineering
- Closely related to the work of a Computer Scientist, however, a CPE has strong hardware and software skills
