Do electrical engineers have to be good programmers?

[huskerwr38]

I'm in my 1st year of my EE program and I have found out that I'm not that good of a programmer. I'm learning assembly language right now and have learned java, however, doing these programming assignments are very hard for me. So I was wondering how essential it is for electrical engineers to be good programmers? I know it probably depends on the field, so I'm mainly interested in power and energy engineering. Thanks.

 

[stevenb]

I'm in my 1st year of my EE program and I have found out that I'm not that good of a programmer. I'm learning assembly language right now and have learned java, however, doing these programming assignments are very hard for me. So I was wondering how essential it is for electrical engineers to be good programmers? I know it probably depends on the field, so I'm mainly interested in power and energy engineering. Thanks.

If you are a good engineer, you can do programming adequately if the need arises. I've met a great number of people who claimed they were not good programers, and went on to become quite good at it.

As for the need, it depends on what you do, as you say. There are many areas where the need for programming is no longer there because more sophisticated tools are available now. With your example of power/energy, programming in Matlab is important, however now much work is done with Simulink which is a block level simulation tool. Hence you might get by without too much programming, but you would at least need to be able to do it.

programming is a powerful tool and I recommend you develop proficiency with at least one programming language. From there you can always transfer the skill to another language. In your case Matlab may be a good choice. And, it might be good to know C too as it is still used extensively for programming microcontroller systems.

 

[Mike_In_Plano]

I wouldn't worry to much about it. There are many different routes you can take as a EE. I'm more of a physics based design engineer, so I have to be good with knowledge, math, mathcad, and a couple of other packages.
I have a friend that does more with testing, so he has to be very good at adaptig to new equipment and programming (Things I would flunk at).
Then again, there are knowledge-based engineering careers. I had a friend that worked for the electric utility and another that worked for the FAA. Neither was required to program, or perform what I consider design. However, they had to keep up with their industry and exercise that knowledge maintaining and growing their infrastructure.
Anyway, it goes on and on. Having a difficult time with assembly code doesn't reflect much.
As a hint, though, I've always found assembly easier if:
- You get a scope to watch the ports toggle
- You get all the ports toggling first
- You write everything out with dummied down diagrams until your confident before writing.
- You make little "test" fixtures that tell you how certain peices are doing then put those pieces together. For example, I'd never have the confidence to write the UART code, the A/D code, and the interrupt handler without first building each seperate.

Best Luck,

Mike

 

[Phrak]

Most E&Es I know don't have to be electrical engineers. In fact, having forgotten nearly everything they've learned in school, is not a drawback, but makes them poor conversationalists in the field of their choice.

 

[es1]

In my company we have many electrical engineers who specialize in power conversion (some who finished a PhD in the subject) and they are very good at what they do, but they also happen to be lousy programmers.

So I would say their example shows that in your fields of interest it is not absolutely essential. But it certainly doesn't hurt either and can often be very helpful. And you likely need the course credit to complete the program, and in that sense, it is essential. Good Luck. :)