To get an size/speed effective codes to be fed to the mcu, no one could start without first deep dive to the architechture. I think any body could easily do that, but EE guys need less time to collect all treasures than CS. When u on surface, don't forget to include the knowledge of interfacing to real world such speed, intensity of light, noises etc.

If u're dealing with PC programming in these days, i think we don't have to worry if the codes are effective enough.
U know what's the fastest PC with the biggest RAM supplied ? U should take that ! It doesn't matter if u have to use someone else's code library ...