I'm a computer engineering student. As such I have a lot of classes with electrical engineers on the one side, and computer science majors on the other.
The EE kids like programming because it's a means to an end. It let's them simulate whatever it is the are working on in a very effective manner. They would never program for fun.
The CS kids like programming because it's a means to create. They enjoy the end result, a game, a website, an algorithm. They thrive on abstraction because it increases their productivity.
The computer engineers are just fascinated by everything. They often find assembly as fascinating as Lisp. These are the students who don't believe in magic layers, and will tinker their way lower and lower until they contemplate over whether they should take a class on solid-state physics because CPU architecture is relatively clear to them and they want to really understand how transistors work.
It may be different at other schools, but this article seems to describe computer engineers at their best.
The EE kids like programming because it's a means to an end. It let's them simulate whatever it is the are working on in a very effective manner. They would never program for fun.
The CS kids like programming because it's a means to create. They enjoy the end result, a game, a website, an algorithm. They thrive on abstraction because it increases their productivity.
The computer engineers are just fascinated by everything. They often find assembly as fascinating as Lisp. These are the students who don't believe in magic layers, and will tinker their way lower and lower until they contemplate over whether they should take a class on solid-state physics because CPU architecture is relatively clear to them and they want to really understand how transistors work.
It may be different at other schools, but this article seems to describe computer engineers at their best.