I received a question from a reader directly on my e-mail about which degree to pursue to get into Machine Learning/Artificial Intelligence.
This is the e-mail Jeremy sent me.
Hi I will start by saying sorry for the intrusive direct e-mail. I got your e-mail address from being one of your twitter followers and reading you great book on python. Please could you help me answer this question…? Computer science or computer engineering for a career in machine learning/Ai. I work full time in another industry ( which I dislike with a passion) so need to focus all my spare time on the right path for me. I’m in my forties now so wish to chase my dream, which I should of done years ago but due to circumstances I was unable. Kind Regards Jeremy
My personal opinion on this question:
For starters, you should focus on becoming a good programmer, not an expert, but a good one.
Programming is a skill that will make your life much easier in all the steps of the machine learning pipeline.
If you have no experience with programming, I have a free Python Guide For Beginners.
Python is the main language to work with Machine Learning today.
Then you should try to learn Machine Learning on your own with some courses online to see how you like it.
It will take you a couple of months to finish an intro course on Machine Learning and then you can work on some projects on your own.
Here is a guide with resources to learn ML online: How to Learn Machine Learning and Deep Learning: a guide for Software Engineers.
That said, If you want to work on AI and want a more formal education, the choice of CS vs. CE depends a lot on the university you are attending, the overall curriculum changes a lot from one to another.
Pretty much all CS and CE courses have AI classes, so that is not an issue.
But to give you a final answer, I would say Computer Science because, usually, Computer Engineering has lots of classes related to electronics/hardware which are not inline with your initial focus, so go with CS.