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If get admitted in "computer science and Engineering" department of any university, would there be any subject for programming Arduino? This Arduino also looks like a subject of "Mechanical Engineering" ... Can anyone explain me, in which department "Programming hardware" belongs...

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Microcontrollers fall under Electrical and Computer Engineering. Least the universities I know about in my area (Canada). But why dont you just ask the university ? Or look at their curriculum and course calendar to see whats covered and where ? –  efox29 Jul 24 '13 at 14:22
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There probably won't be a subject dedicated to Arduino boards, but usually there is a class called "Embedded Systems" of some sort. These classes study various aspects of micro-controllers which the Arduino is. –  Josh Jul 24 '13 at 14:26
    
Where I work we teach Embedded Systems as part of Computer Engineering using ARM Cortex-M3 microcontrollers, but microcontrollers are not taught as part of Computer Science. As far as I know, the Arduino is not used as a formal part of any course. –  Joe Hass Jul 24 '13 at 15:22
    
I teach microcontroller programming. This year I switched from PIC 16F887 to Cortex LPC1114. If I would use the Arduino as hardware plaform, I would not use the Arduino development environment, as it hides a lot of details that I think students should learn. –  Wouter van Ooijen Jul 24 '13 at 20:25

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"Computer science" is algorithms and other "big picture" and theoretical items. Practical learning such as embedded development (with MCUs or otherwise) falls under "computer engineering".

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Funny, Computer Science here was another name for Computer Programming. –  Passerby Jul 24 '13 at 18:00
    
Another way of looking at it is "computer science" = "doing things", "computer engineering" = "getting things done". –  Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams Jul 24 '13 at 18:09

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