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Joe Francis, Electrical engineer and computer scientist since 1992 engineeringasanundergraduateifIwanttoenter
WrittenJun19,2016 neuroscienceeventually?

I have a BSEE, an MSCS, and 23 years of experience. I am going to give you an honest
answer here, but you may not like it.

I would nish up the electrical engineering degree, then consider graduate work
in Articial Intelligence, but not pursue the neuroscience ambitions on a formal
academic basis.

If you are going into Articial Intelligence, a eld that is expanding, then that
encompasses neuroscience and Computer Science pretty well. Electrical Engineering
is reasonable preparation for going into this eld, but not ideal. Computer Science is
better.

Complementary Fields. It is important to understand that in AI, neuroscience and

computer science are complementary elds, but I believe the general assumption is
that computing professionals will work with a separate neuroscientist in that regard. MoreRelatedQuestions

Some Things are Hard to Do Even Once. Some elds are so dicult that it is not
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reasonable to expect that you would master both of them, perhaps not in your
lifetime and certainly not at a young age. The truth is that is takes an extraordinary 15Followers
person pushed to their limits for several years with some of the worlds most precious
4,571Views
resources to master just one of these disciplines. Doing it twice? Its been done and
LastAskedJun19,2016
maybe you are that good, but I would not plan that far ahead if I were you.
Edits

Biology Studies. As to pursuing a biology degree rst, it is not practical to switch

majors now if you are heavily invested in EE. If yo can slip in an extra biology course
or two, that is not a bad idea. Yo will nd that Biology courses are typically a lot easier
than EE courses. You may want to get involved with biomedical engineering to create
medical devices. That is quite doable, but you were asking about something else. I
have nonetheless pasted in a relevant link below.

What It Takes to Be a Bioengineer

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Chuck Matthews, Experience in bridging the gap between engineering and

manufacturing.
WrittenJun23,2016

I am going to suggest something that may or may not be intuitive.

It seems to me that the combination of neuroscience or neurobiology and electrical

engineering could be very signicant to research and even development of new
treatment methods. The opportunities seem for an electrical engineer (or computer
engineer) to use their skills for biometric treatments, robotics for prosthetics, 1
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therapies for diseases of aging, neuromotor disorders like essential tremors, and
much more.
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(Let me take the opportunity to emphasize a recommendation for research into
essential tremors, which is one of the more common neuromuscular disorders. Just a WhatisthebackgroundanElectricalandElecronics
plug.) Engineeringundergradstudentshouldhaveto
combineneuroscienceandelectronicsinhisr...

Modern neuroscience labs require a lot of tinkering to understand how theoretical

Whatshortofcomputationalneuroscienceresearch
models might meet reality with respect to bio-systems interfacing with hardware, workisgoingonforelectricalengineeringstudent?
modelling the neuro-pathways in the body, studying the brain, programming devices
IfIaminterestedinworkingondevelopingnew
for neurosurgery or other therapies. computertechnologies,isitbetterformetostudyEE
orCS?
Cornell University lays out the case for integration of neuroscience and electrical
engineering in the following website: Isthereanychancetocombineelectronicengineering
withneuroscience?

Program in Neuroscience
IsitbettertostudyComputerScienceorElectrical
EngineeringtoworkonVirtualReality?
Essentially, if you want to understand the brain, the nervous system, and how the
body works, you need electrical engineers, too. The intersection and combination of Iamnowstudyingcomputerscienceengineeringand
IreallywanttoworkinIsroorNASA.Isitpossible?
the two research areas just seems right.
280ViewsViewUpvotesAnswerrequestedbyJamesRoberts Iamanelectricalengineeringgraduatestudentand
enjoycodingmorethancoreEEcourses.Ihave2
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ShouldIstudyelectricalengineeringorcomputer
Tasnia Ibtesam Ponkti, Electrical Engineer by degree and profession engineeringasanundergraduateifIwanttoenter
neuroscienceeventually?
UpdatedJun25,2016

Do you know there is a major called Computational Neural Networks/ Systems, rst as
I recall, introduced by Caltech? But now many ne schools have graduate programs
on this topic. It is a multidisciplinary topic which spans across neuroscience, EE,
biology, computer science and more. So people come from various backgrounds to
study that.

I would say, it is ambitious that you are thinking ahead of time. But don't kill yourself
overthinking it. Personally I believe, if you come from EE/CE/CS backgroud you
should be capable of doing a lot of things. And later if you change your mind and stick
to EE, CE or CS related work, you can do that as well. But your ECE backround should
be ne enough to apply into that graduate program, assuming you are a strong
candidate.
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ChinniKrishna Kothapalli, Researcher

WrittenJun19,2016

One of the very fascinating aspect of brain is how it is intelligent and self aware. There
is lot of eort going to capture this aspect on silicon and make chips which are
intelligent. I suggest you to look up the topic Neuromorphic Engineering. I also
suggest reading book Godel Escher Bach: an eternal braid which explores this aspect.

So yes you can do EE and still work in neuroscience as it is a highly multi-disciplinary

eld.

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Nicholas Aponte, Technology nerd who hopes to have a computer science

degree in a few years.
WrittenJun19,2016

I would assume that a person with an EE degree and a doctorate in Neuroscience

might be able to develope some useful medical tools and machines.
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