Computer Engineering

Computer Engineering (CE), which emerged from Electrical Engineering in the 1930s and 1940s, encompasses all aspects of the design and application of software-programmable or reconfigurable digital systems. It is an interdisciplinary field that offers diverse research opportunities for designing and implementing programmable digital systems.

The scope of CE research ranges from microscopic transistor switches with physical dimensions measured in nanometers (a nanometer is one-millionth of a millimetre) to semiconductor chip systems that contain up to hundreds of billions of transistors in only a few square centimetres to the massive, Internet-connected data centres that contain up to 5,000 or more computer servers occupying floor areas of over 10,000 square feet.

The synergy between electrical engineering and computer science is at the heart of our approach. Leveraging electrical engineering expertise, we harness miniaturized hardware circuits on silicon chips, enabling binary signals' storage, transmission, and processing at remarkable speeds and with minimal power consumption. Our collaborations with computer science enrich our understanding and application of techniques for constructing the intricate software that propels modern computer systems forward. In CE, creativity meets technology, shaping the landscape of tomorrow.

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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