The Department

About Us

The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECpE) offers undergraduate and graduate degree programs that provide students with the knowledge and tools they need to succeed in the electrical engineering, computer engineering, software engineering, and cyber security engineering fields. Students get to interact with our departments’ diverse student body and faculty, and obtain practical experience to prepare them for exciting careers where they can make a difference in people’s lives. Research in our department focuses on five high-impact interdisciplinary areas: bioengineering, cyber infrastructure, distributed sensing and decision making, energy infrastructure, and small-scale technologies.

Quick Facts

Here’s a quick look at some facts about the ECpE department, which was established in 1909.

STUDENTS

  • Total undergraduate enrollment: 1,819
    • Electrical Engineering: 496
    • Computer Engineering: 482
    • Software Engineering: 680
    • Cyber Security Engineering: 161
  • Total graduate student enrollment: 321
    • Certificate: 2
    • M.S.: 85
    • M.Eng.: 58
    • Ph.D.: 176
  • Total Degrees Awarded: 548
    • B.S.: 452
    • M.S. & M.Eng.: 74
    • Ph.D.: 22
  • Scholarships awarded to students: More than $740,000

ALUMNI

  • Alumni: Over 12,000 alums living throughout the world
  • Job placement: Over 80 percent of Iowa State electrical, computer and software engineering bachelor’s degree graduates have accepted job offers by the time they graduate. Within six months of graduation, that number increases to around 90 percent
  • Starting salaries: Averages around $71,000

RESEARCH

  • Research expenditures: $15.6M (FY2021)
  • New awards: $23.3M (CY2020)
  • Research centers and institutes: 11
  • Research laboratories: 20

RANKINGS

  • Top 25 ECpE graduate programs among public programs: Electrical Engineering ranked 23rd; Computer Engineering ranked 22nd (U.S. News & World Report, 2022)

FACULTY

  • Faculty: 67 faculty
  • Endowed chairs and professorships: 20
  • NSF CAREER/PYI award winners on faculty: 21
  • IEEE Fellows on faculty: 19
    • Randall L. Geiger, 1990
    • David Jiles, 1994
    • Arun K. Somani, 1999
    • Sarah Rajala, 2001
    • James McCalley, 2004
    • Ian Dobson, 2006
    • Ratnesh Kumar, 2007
    • Venkataramana Ajjarapu, 2008
    • Vikram Dalal, 2009
    • Ashfaq Khokhar, 2009
    • Doug Jacobson, 2011
    • Chris Chu, 2012
    • Ahmed Kamal, 2012
    • Jiming Song, 2014
    • Manimaran Govindarasu, 2015
    • Degang Chen, 2016
    • Diane Rover, 2016
    • Zhengdao Wang, 2016
    • Namrata Vaswani, 2018
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