Hello community.

Time ago I stopped making music and now decided for something different. The choice is to study computer engineering, but the problem here is that my knowledge in the matter is very basic and everything learned in high school has gone (I am 33 y/o).

Why I am here? Well, maybe someone have studied this and could guide me in what should study, and if I can find some true information in the web, or whatever can help me in the way.

My native language is not English, sorry if something is wrong.

 

The best start in my opinion is to lean C programming basics and know the basic concept of programming. From there you can pick your main programming language C++, C#, Java, etc.

 

Computer engineering will require a shit ton of math pre requisites before you actually start learning computer engineering and programming, at least in a traditional college setting. So be ready for that.

 

Computer engineering as in low level logic and circuit design or software engineering as in writing programs and operating systems?

Either way you need a solid mathematics foundation.

 

Hi there,

I'm not a student but enthuasist for the subject. I've taken some self-study courses to explore computer engineering some times ago. I was fascinated with computer and technology and took a journey to find out on how it all begins. I ended up my study when I find myself straying away from main subject when it leads me to Aristoles and the hard to understand subject, Philosophy x)

Here are some of the links to self-taught subjects and exercises which I encounter during the years, maybe you find it useful:

I went on joining Khan Academy courses to refresh Mathematics from Kindergarten to High School.
https://www.khanacademy.org/

I also went on subscribing IXL.com to refresh English from Pre-K to High School
https://www.ixl.com/

Later when done, I started to have some Physics lessons with The Great Courses Plus tutors. Maybe start from Prof. Wolfson Physics and Our Universe courses, and then find way to physics path and subjects that is relevant to computer engineering.

For learning about Computer and Programming Language, you can join and have lessons with Pluralsight courses for free. The trick is to sign up new Microsoft Visual Studio Dev Essentials every 3-months. You'll get a tool to vouchers and coupons from there. Maybe start with C/C++ straight away.

Having some basic on Philosophy subjects about Logic/Reasoning may helps to understand some logic related topics across all academic subjects that you may encounter later on. Just be careful not to let other irrelevant subjects on Philosophy get you in the way. Maybe start with Dr. Dave Ward for an Introduction here: https://www.coursera.org/learn/philosophy

Later, when all those basics you find at comfortable level, maybe begin to start the core part of the subjects =)

Here is some others open-source learning material link that you may find it useful:

For gaining insight about subject related to Computer Engineering (also free university lectures):
https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/

Subject on Digital, Analog, Microcontroller, Hardware
https://learn.digilentinc.com/list
https://learn.digilentinc.com/Modules
https://learn.digilentinc.com/classroom/

Free college/university level open source textbook made by university:
https://openstax.org/

Free Book by industry professionals:
http://bookboon.com/

I wish you good luck and success with your new journey. Never too late to learn anything.

 

Like today's billionaire musically educated producers.

BTW, if you read all the computer-related books (maybe more than a billion) on the earth, you would see that they just tell you the general guidelines and turn you to a programologist not a good programmer in a special field. Being a good programmer is acquired by your experimentations and pondering. Of course there're lots of fields in it that don't need any programming knowledge at all.

 

Stopped making music? I bet you'll be back one day

Good coders are rare, we need more of them
I don't know anything about your personal interests and strengths, but I've seen many guys struggle making their dream real for various reasons:
- They like the idea of being an IT expert more than working hard to get there
- They've started coding early, liked it, but struggle with the complexity of larger development projects. Some learn to handle them, some don't.
- They do it because these jobs can feed you well, to find out later that their passion for the subject is just not strong enough to keep their motivation up for years to come.

I don't want to discourage anybody, just remember to find out what you think you can be very good at, and how your interests and capabilities can be applied well in a certain job.
Questions to ask yourself:
What IT-related things have I done in the past? Which are the most exciting ones? Which did I have the most fun with?
If you cannot write down a list of such items then I doubt that you're really interested enough in the subject to warrant going to university.

 

I started in the business, I was 33 as well, you see... Now I'm 47. I can say I'm pretty well installed in the industry, mainly web, advergames and casual gaming...
Btw, my story is maybe a bit different, I was coding till a long time, but just for fun (till I'm 12/13). I didn't have computer during few years, but I was passionateand I squatted shops for programming.
I had to join the business later (engineering as a job) because I was tired to play bad music for eating. It was not my goal at first. When I decided to just make my own music in 2001, I was signed on an indie label, but... I didn't earn enough money to even eat or pay my electricity. So I had to switch, but it was not full sacrifice, because I loved coding as much as I liked to play music.
So I went for engineering. I did some internship, and that what I would recommend you the most for starting. It allowed me to get my 1st job.
So I would say it's never too late. Just do it if you love it, like I did. You will learn without working, it's just like playing, and you will become skilled very fast. The advantage with coding, the real one, compared to music is: The feedback you get is less subjective and more rational. It means more you do, more you get. And this makes you feel good as well.

 

The problem of being software engineer is, it can really quickly drove you to very unhealthy lifestyle. Especially if you are not active person. So if you decide to become coder, you also need to be prepared to redefine your lifestyle or you will face serious health problems later in life. Young people often ignore that fact. 8-14 hour per day sitting and focusing on monitor is not something natural for human body which is made to be on foot and active for at least 4 hours per day! Some programmers are already practicing healthier practices, like using motorized standing desks, breaks from coding every hour and exercising between, working in spaces full of natural sun light and so on, but overall i still see to many people programming in dark rooms, eating junk food, without sunlight and exercise.

 

I did Computer Engineering here in Braziland for 3 years, quit to switch to Computer Science for many reasons, I think I never thought too much about working in the area as I got way too much into music in high school and in the beginning I liked the course but I realized it was too low-level, I wanted to know how a computer worked but not in a resistor level, I'm much more into programming and solving logic problems than electronics and calculus.
Totally agree with kamikaze, the worst part of that area is being stuck in front of a computer for most of the day, that can really fuck up your health, but that said I always was a bookworm and spent way too much time in my computer anyway. Most people nowadays live unhealthy lives anyway, desk jobs suck, at least your gonna do something that hopefully is meaningful and fulfilling to you.

 

Being a musician, OTOH, leads to a healthy lifestyle. In bed by 3am every day, and plenty of powerful, healthful medications 24/7

 

Sure you may die from liver cirrhosis by 64, but not moving own ass enough, your health can become a living hell much much sooner
But i get you, every job can be unhealthy for sure, depending how successful a person is handling its job . Is just that people who more or less sit still for many hours are more prone to degenerative diseases and other new age diseases.