Control Systems vs Software Engineer

[Analyzer]

So I have basically narrowed my career options to these two, after years of experimenting/contemplating what to do. I enjoy computers and programming but I also see how the demand of control systems engineering is increasing everyday, with the rise of automation.

Do these two careers go hand in hand? Are software engineers and the software field over-saturated? Control engineering sounds interesting but how do I get started?

 

[Architect]

Do these two careers go hand in hand?

Not really, even though control engineering is done in software, like most everything else these days. They're quite different, in software you can get into all sorts of design, architecture and higher level issues (=fun). With control engineering you're working quite low level, mostly implementing the same thing over and over again AFAIK.

Are software engineers and the software field over-saturated?

No, there are more opportunities than there are people

Control engineering sounds interesting but how do I get started?

It used to be you'd get an EE degree. At my workplace we do stuff like that, I wouldn't touch it. The people who get into it are strong Sensors, in my experience.

 

[Analyzer]

So software seems like the place to get into....How do you feel about the demand in the future for software and the automation?

I have heard theories about the collapse of Moore's Law and the more extensive use of bio computers such as optical, protein and eventually quantum computers. Will these computers still need the use of programmers/software and a code-able language?

 

[Architect]

So software seems like the place to get into....How do you feel about the demand in the future for software and the automation?

I don't know what this question means.

I have heard theories about the collapse of Moore's Law

BS. The first wall in silicon will come in the next five years, but Intel will pull some tricks out of their sleeves to milk it a bit longer. Soon after that we'll move onto a different platform (just as we moved from biological computers (us), to mechanical, to vacuum tube, to transistor to silicon). Perhaps Graphene.

and the more extensive use of bio computers such as optical, protein and eventually quantum computers. Will these computers still need the use of programmers/software and a code-able language?

Yes. Everything we do is a form of Information Technology.

 

[Hawkeye]

They recently demonstrated a graphene transistor - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18868848


I remember taking control systems at university. My view on it is somewhat biased as my lecturer's laptop crashed just before a lecture on Matlab. Did he say "sorry folks, we'll have to come back to this next week"? Did he buggery... Instead, he decided to explain the whole thing on a blackboard... He never went back to it either.

From what he said though, this toilet flushing mechanism was waaaaaaaay beyond the scope and difficulty of the course.

Spoiler

It was probably the most difficult course I did at university, but this could also be down to the fact that the lecturer was rubbish. Only 60% of the class actually passed first time...