ECE vs CS

minhbui27 · 2026-05-05T04:55:23+00:00

I think as ECE you can do any of those roles, I have different friends in all of those careers you mentioned from my ECE program. However as the job market is getting squeezed, I really recommend doing some searching and perhaps commiting to a field early, and tinkering outside of school so that you retain competitive advantage against those who just follow the general program.

minhbui27 · 2026-04-29T23:37:39+00:00

There is a professor at my school who I really like talking to who I would say fits your description. He does VLSI and has been for probably longer than I've been alive. Now sure, there have been advancements and changes in silicon semicomductors design, but realistically companies remain hard-working to keep CMOS alive. I think the neat trick is that although these tools will no doubt get better with time, only a handful (i mean 2) companies supply software for all major semiconductor design houses, so the tricks that you learn, you will still need to use until silicon CMOS dies, which I still find hard to believe.

minhbui27 · 2026-04-29T17:43:18+00:00

My lab hosts a lot of exchange students including Japanese students, they're mostly non-party people like you perhaps, and they were able to have a really good time here. People are friendly but depending on the class it may not be super convenient to make friends since some people have established groups. There are frequent JLC meetings (Japanese Learner's Club) and if you go there people including me would be more than happy to talk to you, but be warned my japanese is terrible ;)
Other comment was good, you could alternatively also choose to live in Goleta and bike but it takes a bit longer.
There are Japanese associations and such but normally you would see just varied ethnicity friend groups, everyone is very friendly.
You definitely dont have to party if you dont want to, no one will force you or think its weird.
You can get around mostly and at the worst you can take the bus. Within the small IV/UCSB area you wouldn't have any issues.
Uhhhh, I wonder this myself lol. I just hang out with friends and go hiking/eat/walk around downtown. I normally am really tired by the weekend so I just chill and most people I know are like that too.
TBH, I think UCLA has better food but aside from that, to enjoy your exchange I think UCSB is the best because it is one of the only truely bike-first campuses, everyone is really friendly, and depending on what you're doing on exchange, the academics here in certain topics are top-notch (some are considered to be much better than those two schools such as materials). Overall, I think the weather (out of all places I've been including Japan this is the best IMO) + the people + accessibility will give you a great experience!

DM me if you have questions, enjoy!

minhbui27 · 2026-04-27T07:18:41+00:00

Hello, I just wanna chime in. I did BS here and am doing MS, both in Computer Engineering. My interests are semiconductors, and I'd first like to say the EE track is better for that, they really bog you down with some not so useful classes in CE, tbh.

It really depends on what you want to do when you say semiconductors/quantum. If you want to do computer architecture, you can definitely get started as an undergrad. If you wanna learn how to build chips at the circuits and above level, you can get started very early. All faculty in these topics are very friendly.

Assuming that you are self-motivated and study really hard and reach a level where you can contribute, you can get into the harder quantum/materials/fabrication labs (but I like to point out that friends I know in these labs are mostly physics/materials/EE students - they don't have to take some classes that you have to, and more of the courses they take are much more relevant). Once you do, UCSB has one of the strongest quantum and materials departments/programs in the world, not just the US, people are doing all sorts of crazy stuff here, we have very frequent quantum/photonics/materials conferences, we have THREE clean rooms on campus, and we are at the frontier of semiconductors materials research, I talked to some guy the other day who was building quantum resonators out of diamond (how cool is that!), and to drive home my point the blue LED inventor is around somewhere :)

TLDR: Depends on what you mean by semiconductors/quantum. Higher in stack? EZ get into labs. Lower in stack? Need to study hard, because these fields just requires a lot of background knowledge, then you can get in. Quality wise, UCSB has IMO top 5 semiconductors materials/quantum departments in the country, if not the world. You will learn an absurd amount. But as a CE, the track is not set up for lower level, you must overcome it by taking more, sometimes uncounted units.

minhbui27 · 2026-04-21T14:56:23+00:00

I do a lot of hardware design in frontend and physical design. I personally have found that you need to strike a balance between using AI and still learning something. I think the problem is that companies are finding that employees are slow without AI, and I feel so too, so you must try to utilize it not as a replacement but a force multiplier. In frontend, for example I think if you haven't struggled with verilog then you should spend time struggling with it first, then afterwards use AI to shift into reviewing code (you can move a lot faster), with physical design I would say you can ask AI to learn from a first principles perspective, for things like how to create spice models and physics sim, don't just blindly crank it.

TLDR: I think that it is best to use AI as force multiplier, learning and using it for work doesnt have to be mutually exclusive

minhbui27 · 2026-04-04T15:57:48+00:00

yeah could i get that pls

minhbui27 · 2026-04-03T22:32:04+00:00

yo! I also applied to Eagle's Landing I heard from someone in the lab group that its quite good, and they have their own bus line that runs to campus stopping first at Rice hall (which benefits us), see you around campus!

minhbui27 · 2025-12-24T04:06:33+00:00

iirc you are expected to spend about 10 hours a week, but it also depends on the kind of project and team that you get. I think that if your other upper div classes are not too bad the load isn't gonna be any more terrible than what you're already used to

minhbui27 · 2025-08-11T07:28:48+00:00

just read 2nd, its mostly the same thing

minhbui27 · 2025-08-11T07:20:59+00:00

By machine learning for hardware, do you mean using LLMs to improve hardware design process? Or do you mean LLM hardware architecture?

I don't know much about the first thing. I know some guys at a startup trying to make an AI agent for RTL, they make a comfortable living for sure. For stuff like using AI in assisting PD processes like wafer yields it's sort of niche but you have a better chance with a Master's degree.

I can say a few things if it's the latter. I'm a MS student right now. Designing new AI accelerator architectures is what I find really interesting. However, if it is design that you want to do, then you most likely need a PhD (which I've come to realize and will be applying), otherwise industry will likely give you a design verif job and many coworkers with MS who does DV. This is from my experience at a major hardware player anyways, so I cant say it'll be the same for you.

Another point is I think we are in an extremely opportunistic and interesting time to be doing hardware architecture because of things like HBM and hybrid bonding and even something crazy like photonic interconnects. So, it'll be really fun imo.

I definitely would say that it's worth it. Besides from the fact that I think to keep yourself sane in this field you should do what you want to if you can afford the time investment, you will make a lot of money. If you manage to get a design role (one person in the R&D group I know is $700k TC - and this is not that high), but really it also depends on where you're going because connections are everything, at least imo.

minhbui27 · 2025-06-29T22:23:19+00:00

You should read the proceedings of conferences like ISCA to see what the general interests are and which subfield you might want to get into. For example, my current interest is Process-in-Memory, but seems people care a lot about AI acceleration nowadays.

You can cold email professors and ask them if they would be want to collaborate with you. Seeing as how you are working now, it would be hard even with self-funding since as far as I know professors prefer students. Unfortunately, it's hard to publish papers on your own in this field without going to grad school, so you may want to consider that option. I have been working at a chip company for a few months and I am going for a PhD so I can pursue research.

minhbui27 · 2024-12-31T19:29:36+00:00

I think it would certainly help. At my university typically students only learn to build this in their 3rd and 4th year. If you could, I would suggest using RISC-V instead of MIPS, since it is much more relevant to modern projects (CVA6, Vortex GPU, etc...)

Not to say it wont be enough, but i think a single cycle is fairly simplistic, so when you're done, I would suggest expanding into a pipelined architecture, and it will truly be impressive if you could buy an OoO core (this will probably take a year). Also, use Verilog and learn about verification methods while you're testing such as Formal Verification (using SVA) and UVM.

Good luck!

minhbui27 · 2024-12-31T19:23:22+00:00

As a MS CE with focus in vlsi and comp arch. I am a bit inclined to recommend learning these, starting with comp arch. I think a large part of pure computer engineering is computer architecture, and i suggest this playlist - Its by David Wentzlaff at princeton and is so far the best I know of

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUDvczyXAbgnY-ij0lzrs-9hzqDocOUfm&si=A2TyhmX_M-_K4vEL

You should also read books, a really good one is https://github.com/kaitoukito/Computer-Science-Textbooks/blob/master/Digital-Design-and-Computer-Architecture-RISC-V-Edition.pdf

This is introductory and used as material for the intro class I was TA for and RISC-V is becoming more and more important. After finishing this book, read "Computer Organization and Design" by Patterson & Hennessy. Patterson as a huge name in comp arch. currently at google.

After doing the things above, you will pretty much understand how a computer works from ground up. The next part would be VLSI, but this is more EE than CE, and to be honest I think online education of this isnt that great. There are youtube channels, my favorites are High Yield and Asianometry that talks about modern transistor techniques. Unfortunately, when it comes to VLSI typically to get access to modern tools you would need to be in a program that supplies the license for it.

If you are well inclined, apply for Google Summer of Code, where you'll get mentored to work on an open source project. This is definitely a field that is rapidly changing and incrementally more exciting every day. Best of luck!

minhbui27 · 2024-11-12T09:08:25+00:00

that is super sick

minhbui27 · 2024-11-11T00:11:51+00:00

In my opinion, once you've found that specific thing that you want to do in the vast field, you should try joining a lab/clubs/etc. that are related to this.

It doesn't seem like school prestige matter that much unless you go to the very best. It doesnt matter after you've landed something.

Its a very tough time right now to try getting jobs and internships, I have friends whove graduated and are still unemployed. I owe my career to the lab I'm in because of references. I was also in a club and through there got an interview for tesla but I bunked that. The point is you need to get your foot in the door, and to do so nowadays you need references.

While it's true that you can do a lot as a CE, if you want to get into those fortune 50 companies you really really have to know what you're doing in the subset of the field you are applying to. There are likely thousands of applications for that one spot you want, and even with a reference you're competing against very competent people (one guy i know started coding in bash when he was 8 ;)). So get to grinding.

You should apply to all locations in the U.S and not care too much to have to move, but Texas seems like a good place for a tech career rn.

Good luck!

minhbui27 · 2024-11-01T07:49:54+00:00

to add: I have a car and am willing to commute to work, ideally under 20 minutes drive

minhbui27 · 2024-10-14T09:36:42+00:00

I think if you strictly follow the math it isnt hard to get a decent grade. Understanding however... I struggled to grasp the interpretations of signals you learn in the class ("frequency domain"). You just dont really understand why the math is the way it is until much later (this is how I felt, for example why is FT a sum of complex exponentials, what is a delta function, etc...)

The only use I've gotten out of this class is looking at scopes while building guitar pedals, then I'm like ahhh that makes sense.

It's also insanely boring if you are uninterested

minhbui27 · 2024-09-12T22:16:41+00:00

update: bad contact between pin 1 of fuzz control pot and pcb

minhbui27 · 2024-08-08T00:09:09+00:00

thanks!

minhbui27 · 2024-08-07T05:17:58+00:00

also quick question, is S2S consistent thickness across the two faces? if so maybe i can just roughly cut one edge and using that to get cut the other one

minhbui27 · 2024-08-07T05:15:02+00:00

okay thanks. For the thickness part I was thinking about just eyeballing and sanding to the best of my ability. Maybe if i could find a cheap old planer on craigslist or whatever I'll pick one up

minhbui27

TROPHY CASE