<p>Is it worth it for a chemical engineering student to learn a low level programming language like C? At my school, chemical engineering majors are not required to take any java/ c programming. We learn a great deal of MATLAB and I’ve heard that upper level courses use programs like AspenPlus extensively. Do chemical engineers in industry typically need to create stand alone programs “from scratch”?</p>
<p>C is considered low level these days? I thought that was reserved for assembly. Anyway, I do not foresee you having to make programs from nothing, but modifying code in a specific (unpredictable) language is not out of the question.</p>
<p>C is not considered low level…</p>
<p>Yea like these guys said, C is not low level, assembly is. And I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to learn C++ or something like that, since at my school the intro computer science class where you learn C++ is a requirement for all engineers.</p>
<p>C is technically a high-level language, but compared to most other high-level languages, it is definitely closer to the low-level side.</p>
<p>Knowing some C wouldn’t kill you. Probably the biggest drawback is that after learning C, seeing Matlab scripts will make you physically ill.</p>
<p>I know some chemical engineers that build their own software to solve problems. In fact, I knew one guy that would find problems at work without software to solve it, and rather than building the software (since it wasn’t in his job description), he went home, coded it, then made a business justification for the company to buy it from him. He made a nice supplemental income from doing that. </p>
<p>But, all-in-all, you’ll probably need to know VBA for some office applications and how to use AspenTech software, and that’s about it. The exception would be if you go to work for AspenTech (or a similar firm) designing software.</p>
<p>Most of my “programs” are through Excel, so VBA is helpful. We use ChemCad for modeling. That type of program will depend on where you work.</p>
<p>I had to learn Fortran in college, never used it. I don’t find a need for any real programming. I find if I need it someone else has already done, or can do it quicker then I can.</p>
<p>At least in Aspen, you can program non-standard operating equipment in Fortran. That’s the only real use I’ve ever found for that.</p>
<p>I thought that this was going to be about microcode or assembler programming.</p>
<p>I think that knowing a programming language (Java, C, Pascal, BASIC, LISP) is just one of those things that college grads should know to better appreciate what computing is.</p>
<p>Who cares if it is useful? C rules. </p>
<p>Plus, you’ll probably learn a little about computer organization (you kind of have to in order to avoid writing bad C programs), which will probably help you with other kinds of programming as well.</p>