Infographic by Dalton Runberg / The Collegian

Fresno State offers three routes for those whose goal it is to make their living in modern computer technology, and some programs are gaining highly praised regional attention.

“I was an electrical engineer at Camp Miramar and I wanted to do computer engineering,” said DeAngelo Hudson, a third-year computer engineering major. “Fresno has one of the best computer engineering schools on the West Coast.”

The information systems and design sciences option at Craig School of Business option focuses on the use of computer systems in businesses. Computer engineering program at the Lyles Engineering College gives students the opportunity to learn everything from hardware design to programming for social media.

For those looking for more theoretical foundation in computer design, software engineering, systems analysis, database design, computer graphics and technical programming, the School of Math and Science offers a degree in computer science. The degree program lends graduates to companies involved in manufacturing, as well as high-tech applications companies.

“I know there are a whole variety of opportunities,” said computer science student Michael Loyd. “You’re not really limited to a specific job set. You have a better shot than people in other countries with a degree in computer science here.”

Total student enrollment for all three emphases is less than 400 in a student body of more than 22,000. The likelihood of each student getting internships an jobs after graduation is varied.­ Hudson intends to search for work outside the Central Valley because he is focusing on programming for companies like Google, Facebook and Microsoft. Yet computer engineering instructor Nell Papavasiliou directs a group of 12 companies from Mojave to Modesto (called Valley Industry Partnership for Cooperative Education) that offer internships to engineering students, including those in computer engineering.

“We have a manufacturer of security cameras, which are really just mini-computers,” Papavasiliou said.

Papavasiliou said that there is some demand in the Valley for computer engineering majors in the manufacturing and agribusiness sectors.

Computer science majors face greater obstacles to getting internships in the Valley that develop into positions after graduation. The California Employment Development Department projects 25,000 software developer jobs will be added in the next 10 years. But the figures, when broken out by county, show that Central Valley counties of Fresno, Kern and Madera are just more than 400 of that total.

Computer science has no formal internship program for its students. Computer science Master’s student James Cha is helping to close that gap by forming a computer science club starting this semester.

“You have to pursue real-life experience before you get out of here, through internships or outside jobs,” Cha said. “So I’m trying to be the middle person to find opportunities to get experience, but it’s hard. Most people want to stay in the Valley. They have family here, but there are few companies.”

One solution for the computer science students is to keep going to school, as Cha is doing. Another is to relocate after graduation, as Fresno State computer science alumni Mark Gilmore recommends.

Gilmore has given presentations to computer science and computer engineering classes and will be appearing Thursday to give a presentation for the Computer Science club on the third floor of the Henry Madden Library. He is President of Wired Integrations in San Jose, Calif.

“Students simply must get summer internships before they graduate,” Gilmore says. “But there is a growing need for tech jobs in the San Jose area after disappointments with foreign programmers in India and China.”

The brightest picture for both internships and hiring in the Fresno area is information systems through the college. This is partly because the school has its own formal internship office geared toward getting students employed in the local job market before graduation. It is also because there is a need for information systems graduates in agriculture firms, medical and dental offices and hospitals, a growing and robust part of the local economy.

“We have openings we can’t fill,” said Internship Coordinator Michaela Ford.

With only 63 students enrolled in the information systems major in fall 2011, and rising demand in the local economy, information systems appears to be a good choice for those who wish to learn computer skills and remain in the Valley after graduation.

“The future looks pretty bright for the major,” said Debbie Young, the internships director of the school. “Shortage of information systems in the healthcare industry is being related to the nursing shortage of 10 years ago.”