Electrical and computer engineering: A unified discipline

Abstract

Departments of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) (and departments with similar names) emerged during the past twenty years in response to the growth of computer engineering as a distinct discipline. Most ECE departments still offer two separate bachelors degrees in electrical engineering and computer engineering, and ABET has two distinct accreditation requirements for programs in electrical engineering and programs with "computer engineering" in their titles. This paper argues that this distinction between "electrical engineering" and "computer engineering" is no longer useful or helpful in undergraduate ECE education. We believe all ECE students need a solid, unified foundation that cuts across the traditional boundaries and that advanced courses should be associated with more refined distinctions than the binary classification of EE vs. CE. We present a new ECE core curriculum that eliminates the outdated EE/CE distinction and describe how this core better prepares ECE students to pursue advanced courses and careers in all sub disciplines of ECE.