Computer Science Engineering Vs Information Technology
By tenrajj
@tenrajj (911)
Bhutan
December 7, 2010 11:57am CST
Hey mylotters, what do you think the main difference between Computer Science and Information Technology? Please in term of the courses that include under them and also work field. Which do you think is better this days? Reason in term of demand in the market and superiority over each other.
1 person likes this
3 responses
@kievan (27)
• United States
7 Dec 10
Computer Science is a more challenging but more rewarding, demanded field, especially with the global economic downturn.
In my experience, when I was going to the school on the eastern coast of US (Boston, MA) Computer Science and Information Technology majors had almost the same set of classes for the first four semesters. Then classes started to separate into more specialized areas of the respective Majors.
What a lot of my classmates found difficult is the fact that Computer Science students had to learn such advanced topics as Calculus I,II and Physics that utilized the Calculus. I remember that a lot of Computer Science kids switched when it was time to take physics, as for me I liked it a lot.
Also another great point, Computer Science major in my institute focused a lot of Algorithms, on Data Structures, Object Oriented Data Structures, Artificial Intelligence, 2D and 3D graphics with OpenGL (C/C++).
In my opinion if you are really interested in having a field where you could apply your programming skills to any other science(math, physics, biology, chemistry, you name it!) and you want to sweat a little, but consider it fun than I definitely recommend to go into Computer Science. If you're really into it, you will only need to learn how to learn ;)
Information Technology is not as demanding in terms of programming or exact sciences, but you will have to do much more stuff that is related to networking hardware and software, to my knowledge.
I'm actually interested in both, but I have graduated with a Computer Science degree =))
It sounds like you are selecting a major to go into, so just see what your interest and ambitions are. Both Computer Science and Information Technology are very interesting and can get quite complex, however from what I've heard programmers are in a higher demand than IT specialists, and IT specialists are easier to train and replace.
So if you go to study Computer Science now, maybe in 4 years the economic storm will be over and you'll have an upper hand when searching for a job.
@tenrajj (911)
• Bhutan
7 Dec 10
Well that is my opinion too because I am also doing B Tech in computer science and engineering. I too know what we study in computer science but unlike in your case there is no IT major in my college. Did you study subject called theory of computation? All theories like finite automata, pushdown automata and turing machine which says that it can solve problem that computer can't do? If you did then can you explain me where we really apply this theories as you might be working now? well I know only one application, that is in compiler design where we use the knowledge of Theory of computation
At the same time I am expecting some body to rise their voice for IT too. May be somebody who did IT. So that we can really see the difference. so lets wait and see what others says.
@kievan (27)
• United States
7 Dec 10
We did not study the Turing machine in our courses, but from what I've gathered on WikiPedia about such machines, they are meant to show/illustrate how the CPU inside a computer works. and this in turn may prove very usefull if you're designing applications that need to be very efficient with memory and CPU cycles. Very simple example that I hope you will appreciate: bubble sort vs quick sort. Implemented on the same machine will give VERY different results.
I found the Turing machine a bit hard to comprehend, with all the detail that is involved and think it not a perfect way to teach the inner workings of a CPU, it could be simplified quite a bit.
But I am able to relate to it, with my somewhat limited knowledge of CPU. Very simply I think we need to learn different theories (theory of computation, automata, pushdown automata, turing machine), to at least have an idea how our code is going to control the hardware. So we know that our syntax, be it any language is going to be transformed into bytecode or machine language, and operate in a similar (albeit simplified) way that Turing machine describes. That is the way I think about it.
Yes I am working right now, but nobody at my company really cares about theories, they care about results :))) I use Java and to be honest I haven't applied any theories you mentioned in my work. It is kinda boring stuff as for me, but if I saw why they are trying to give it to me, I was able to pull through with less headache. :))
Hope that helped in some way.
@tenrajj (911)
• Bhutan
7 Dec 10
yea it is really difficult to understand and I too did not liked it that much but thought I must learn as it is one of the basics for learning compiler design like Data structure is basic for learning operating system and database management. Now your answer some how confirms that there isn't much application of particular subject except for compiler design.
@ritwick (190)
• India
8 Dec 10
hey tennrajj,
I am doing B.TECH in computer science engineering and i feel that computer sciece engineering is a lot better that information technology. I knew that i would join CSE since i was a child and i like this field over others as it's a lot innovative and challenging. Nowadays computer science engineers are in demand everywhere and the job scope is aslo good. You get to develop code and innovate your own ideas. Better than IT and ECE.
bYE.Happy mylotting.
@SRBALAJEE05 (372)
• India
7 Dec 10
hi tenrajj.... its a good question that you raised. both computer science and information technology have lots of coincidence with each other. Computer science belongs to engineering where as information technology is based upon the technology that is been used in computer engineering.
to be in short computer science is the study and information technology is the application of computer science in field.
at present both computer science and information technology are equal to each other since many software companies are need of both software programmers to develop software as well as persons to handle them..
