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04.11

Should You Take the Computer Engineering PE Exam or the Electrical and Electronics Engineering PE Exam?

By Aaron Collins and Mitch Thornton

Electrical and computer engineers who practice outside the area of electric power  have choices when it comes to the Principles and Practice of Engineering (PE) exam. They can either take the computer engineering or the electrical and electronics engineering exam. But which one should you take? Well, that depends. Read on to find out which exam might be most appropriate for you.

Computer Engineering Exam

The computer engineering professional licensing exam is specifically designed for practicing computer engineers. Computer engineers play a key role in the quality and safety of many modern engineering systems. As such, their practice is important for the protection of the health and safety of the general public.

Computer engineers employ a variety of knowledges and skills that are generally a blend of traditional electrical engineering and computer science topics. Many practicing computer engineers hold degrees in either electrical engineering or computer science while younger computer engineers are more likely to be graduates of computer engineering programs. A joint committee with members from the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and the IEEE Computer Society authored a guideline for computer engineering programs in 2004 that contains a good overview of topics covered in most computer engineering programs and it closely mirrors the topics you can expect to find on the computer engineering PE examination.

When a computer is embedded in an automobile, airplane, nuclear plant, or even a toy, there are several safety issues to consider. These include: instrumentation, interfaces between the analog world and the digital world, human computer interfaces, power and cooling issues, architectural issues, fail-safe issues, asynchronous input issues, clock skew, digital hardware design, and the elephant in the room, software design and testing. The computer engineering professional licensing exam is designed address these and other issues. As such, it contains the following major topical breakdown:

1. Computer Systems          40%

2. Hardware                            25%

3. Software                               25%

4. Networks                             10%

Notice the balance between hardware and software emphasis. This fits the philosophy of most computer engineering programs. It is also interesting to see that computer systems, which includes computer architecture, is the largest component of this exam.

Electrical and Electronics Engineering Exam

The electrical and electronics engineering professional licensing exam is specifically designed for practicing electrical engineers who do not practice in the area of electric power. There is a third exam for power engineers. Like computer engineers, electrical engineers play a key role in the quality and safety of many modern engineering systems, and their practice is also important for the protection of the health and safety of the general public.

The breadth of the electrical and electronic engineering exam is its most obvious feature. Safety issues electrical engineers face include: basic electrical circuit components and design limits, signal processing issues and sampling, system reliability, digital system components and their interface to the analog world, electromagnetic issues such as transmission line effects and electromagnetic compatibility, electronic system functions with concerns about power and circuit protection, control system stability and accuracy, and analog and digital communications. The electrical and electronic professional engineering exam contains the following major topical breakdown:

1. Basic Electrical Engineering Knowledge                                                50%

2. Electronics                                                                                                          12.5%

3. Digital Systems                                                                                                 11%

4. Communications                                                                                              10%

5. Electrical and Magnetic Field Theory and Applications                   9%

6.  Control System Fundamentals                                                                   7.5%

Notice the breadth of this test. It covers most of the field of electrical engineering with the exception of electric power. The largest topic, basic electrical engineering knowledge, contains subtopics in circuit analysis, instrumentation, safety and design limits, and signal processing.

Which PE Exam Should you Take?

If you are a computer engineer, you should take the computer engineering PE exam. It was designed specifically for you and your area of practice. If you are an electrical engineer practicing in the area of electric power, you should take the power PE exam. If you are an electrical engineer practicing in the area of computer engineering, you could choose either the computer engineering PE exam or the electrical and electronic engineering PE exam, depending on which one fits your background and practice. If you are an electrical engineer who is not practicing in the electric power or the computer engineering area, you should take the electrical and electronics engineering PE exam.

A computer engineer who sometimes uses concepts from areas such as analog circuit design, control systems, or communications systems should consider the electrical and electronics PE examination. Even if you are a computer engineer who primarily designs large digital circuits or application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), the computer engineering examination has more questions at a larger depth than the electrical and electronics examination. However, if you are a computer engineer who designs embedded systems that support control or communications devices and you use knowledge in these areas, the electrical and electronics PE examination may be your best choice. Another important consideration is for computer engineers whose practice primarily involves software design and implementation. The electrical and electronics PE examination does not contain topics in software, while approximately 25 percent of the computer engineering examination does.

Furthermore, a new PE licensure examination, the software engineering PE examination is anticipated to be available in late 2012 or early 2013. The new software engineering examination will be entirely devoted to software and will not contain hardware-related topics.

Finally, one crucial step any prospective licensure candidate should undertake is to review the PE examination specifications for each test. Comparing these test specification topics to those you use in your practice is a good first step in making your final decision about which examination is most appropriate for you.

Aaron Collins, Ph.D., P.E., currently serves as a member of the IEEE-USA Licensure & Registration Committee. He is Associate Dean of Engineering at Mercer University, and has worked as a volunteer with the NCEES Electrical & Computer PE Exam Committee for more than 15 years.

Mitchell A. Thornton, Ph.D., P.E., is a professor of computer science and engineering and a professor of electrical engineering at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. He currently serves as past chair of IEEE-USA’s Licensure and Registration Committee.

Comments may be submitted to todaysengineer@ieee.org.