Directors Message

 Director's Message

Our school has emerged from the budget stresses of the last two years stronger than ever.  ASU has protected our core academic mission from budget cuts and has even made new investments through two new faculty hires this past year.  This investment continues with several faculty searches in the current academic year.  Of particular note are the positions in photovoltaics and in flexible electronics. These positions support key investment areas for ASU which have led to two NSF ERC proposal site visits this year. ASU is the lead institution and ECEE faculty play key roles in each of these ERC proposals.

Our research expenditures continue to grow at an impressive rate nearly tripling in the past five years from $9.9M in the fiscal year ending in 2005 to $28.1M in the fiscal year ending in 2010.  Our new research awards are even higher totaling more than $32.5M and predicting continued growth in expenditures.  Our program enrollments are growing with more than 550 undergraduates and more than 750 graduate students, including more than 250 Ph.D. students.  Our class of entering freshmen includes more than 100 students and our transfer student enrollment at all levels remains strong. 

Major research initiatives with ECEE faculty leadership and involvement include:

• Flexible Display Center
• Arts, Media and Engineering Program
• Sensor Signal and Information Processing Center
• Center for Ecogenomics in the Biodesign Institute
• Center for Solid State Electronics Research
• Arizona Institute for Nanoelectronics
• Arizona Initiative for Renewable Energy
• Power Systems Engineering Research Center
• Connection One Center
• Center for Photonics Innovation
• Center for Bioelectronics and Biosensors

Our school name reflects the strong academic and research programs in the areas of Computer Engineering and Energy Engineering that have been led by Electrical Engineering degree program faculty for many years.  We are launching new graduate degrees in Computer Engineering (pending formal university approval). These programs will be jointly administered by ECEE faculty and faculty from the Computer Science and Engineering program.

Our EE program has also been recognized through our strong showing in the recently released NRC rankings of ECE Ph.D. programs.  In both the “R” and “S” rankings we have placed in the top-20 group (see table from http://graduate-school.phds.org/rankings/electrical-engineering).  While the debate continues about the methodology and accuracy of these rankings it is rewarding to see the accomplishments of our faculty, staff and students recognized by this prestigious national organization. 

Stephen M. Phillips, Ph.D., P.E.
Professor of Electrical Engineering; Director
School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering