Computer Engineering

Combining equal parts electrical engineering and computer science, computer engineering research is continuing to improve digital technology. A major practical concern of computer engineering is to develop methods that allow our engineers to successfully apply powerful, but also exceedingly complex, computer technology to complex applications effectively, efficiently and reliably.

Research in this field is quite varied due to its interdisciplinary nature. At its heart, computer engineering is concerned with the design and application of programmable digital systems, including computers. Electrical engineering knowledge provides us with the miniaturized hardware circuits on silicon chips that allow binary signals to be stored, transmitted and processed reliably at very high speed and with minimal power consumption. On the other hand, computer science has contributed many techniques that are required to build the complex software of modern computer systems.

Hardware-oriented research:

  • design of microprocessors, digital signal processors, and other programmable processors
  • investigation of novel and specialized computer architectures
  • design for reliability and fault tolerance; design for testability; self-testable systems
  • design of synthesizable, re-usable, and reconfigurable systems
  • low-power digital devices, circuits and design methods
  • application of emerging digital switching technologies to computer design
  • integration of conventional digital technology with analog, microfluidic and micromachined devices

Software-oriented research:

  • co-design and optimization of software-hardware systems
  • design of parallel processing systems
  • design of fault-tolerant systems
  • structured system design methodology and computer-aided design environments
  • hardware description languages; high-level system modeling
  • system simulation and system design verification

Application-oriented research:

  • novel applications of computerization and embedded programmable systems
  • biomedical applications including prosthetic, instrumentation and medical robotics
  • applications of computers to bioinformatics, geomatics, and massive database processing
  • signal processing, video processing, entertainment (special effects, computer gaming)
  • industrial robotics and computerization

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