Lots of comments out there which say pick the one you like better. Have been through college, I remember that it was very hard to make any such decision because being in college it is very hard to figure out what each work involves, so you don't really have a basis for such a decision.
But I can give you my insight, currently being a HW engineer. Hardware is more interesting because making a chip involves a lot more types of work than making SW and generally people find variety interesting.
My understanding of a SW job is that you are either "coding" or "testing".
In a HW job, you are "coding" and "testing", but you also need to have a pretty good idea about synthesis (code to gates), timing (making chips run fast), performance and a bunch of other small things that are needed to make chips perfect. Also, in general HW coding and testing is much more complex and thorough than SW.
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Why don't you use calculators now ? :)
Wow, the contest description is just like the ICFP contest. http://www.cis.upenn.edu/proj/plclub/contest/ants. html
I would have expected something more matlab-specific.
Lots of comments out there which say pick the one you like better. Have been through college, I remember that it was very hard to make any such decision because being in college it is very hard to figure out what each work involves, so you don't really have a basis for such a decision. But I can give you my insight, currently being a HW engineer. Hardware is more interesting because making a chip involves a lot more types of work than making SW and generally people find variety interesting. My understanding of a SW job is that you are either "coding" or "testing". In a HW job, you are "coding" and "testing", but you also need to have a pretty good idea about synthesis (code to gates), timing (making chips run fast), performance and a bunch of other small things that are needed to make chips perfect. Also, in general HW coding and testing is much more complex and thorough than SW.