Arguments With my Brother- Part 1: cse or ECE!!!

March 3rd 10:00 pm-

Me: ECE is the most interesting subject in engineering! There s nothing more in CSE than just programming. First C, then C++, then JAVA, then COBOL, ALGOL, HTML, algorithms, operating systems.

Bro: What a load of crap? What do you know about CSE. There is no other subject in this world which has had so much impact on all other fields in this world like the computer. Just think.. just with those things you said you can do anything you want in this world. From medicine to satellite launching.

Me: But everything you said is electronics. Satellite has microprocessors, which are electronic chips!!! Not computer. In fact computer itself is made of electronic components. You must learn to give it its due credit.

Bro: In that case, electronics comes from silicon and germanium, so you must accept chemical engineering is your father and give that its due credit.

Me: Point well taken. But everything you do is confined to one box. It's applications are limited. Everything else in our house other than a computer is made of electronics. TV, Fridge, Radio, microwave, iPod, telephone. It has infinite applications.

Bro: But think, a computer confined to a just a box has soooo many applications by itself. You can watch movie, play games, listen to music. You can't go to the internet without a computer.

Me: No! You can watch movies in TV, CD player. Internet in mobile phoes. There's nothing without communication. A computer is of no use without the concepts of networking, which comes from communication. And it is electronic circuits which are required to control and master the communication systems, filters, receivers, modulators, demodulators, amplifiers.

Bro: But only the advent of computers has sped up the developments in any field. Today you are able to see the gentic structures, modify them to our requirements which was not possible few years back. Artificial Intelligence concept is possible only with computers and programming.

Me: But robotics is a branch of electronics. There s no robot with just a program. You need electronic circuits to process the output from the robots sensors.

Bro: There are such complex and interesting concepts in cse too. It is not as easy as you think.

Me: No way! Electronics has much more interesting concepts. How any signal can be thought of as sums of sines and cosines of various amplitudes, how this has simplified our mastery of signals and processing. Only a communication engineer as the eye to view em waves throughout the spectrum and not just the visible range. Every point in the world contains information about every other point. How are you able to pick up your mobile and listen to radiomirchi where ever you are?

Bro: Don't have the wrong idea that cse is just programming. There are concepts in it which can be applied in any field. Even I have studied your electronic circuits. Nothing great. There s so much development in the field of computers everyday. If you draw the graph of human development with tim, there s a small rise after industrial revolution, a bigger rise after electronics came, but a peak tending to infinity since the computers were invented.

Me: That was possible ony after the rise in electronics. There s no discontinuity I guess. I still say electronics is also a developing field. But most of its concepts have been developed and there is liitle left to develop for which one must dedicate his entire life and no one s prepared for that, especially since mastery of the existing concepts itself is difficult.

Bro: That's where you are basically wrong. Even computer science has VERY difficult concepts, even mechanical has, even civil has. Every department has its share of difficult concepts.

Me: A few years back, the toppers used to select cse. Now they select ECE and the next set of students select cse. They don't find it any more difficult than you did. My point is, anyone can study cse with ease (even in computer classes) as long as they don't feel bored.

Bro: What they teach in computer classes is job-oriented da. CS Engineering has much more to it.

Me: Please don't call it Engineering.

Bro: What? We are the architects of the Virtual world. This is the Digital Age and....

Me: Aaha. Digital... another concept well stolen from electronics.

Bro: Poda venna. Every field has its own set of courses which are enough to form a separate branch of engineering. And each is difficult in its own sense.

AND THE ARGUMENT WENT ON TILL 4th March 1:00 am.