The prereqs for ML are the same for most STEM courses. Despite the popularity of CS, there are plenty of graduates in legacy engineering fields like mechanical and electrical who are more than equipped to be on boarded quickly via a bootcamp model. They have the knowledge (and usually know their way around basic Python and MATLAB) but lacks the real world software engineering experience and a developer's mindset.
It's rare these days to meet a traditional engineering grad who is not desperately trying to switch to CS. The job market is just not there for pure hardware careers in big cities.
