Letter from the Chair

In 1889, North Dakota State University was established as the North Dakota land-grant university with a focus on agriculture and mechanical arts. In 1926, to meet the needs of the national electrification project, the Electrical Engineering Department was established, focusing on undergraduate engineering education. Later the name changed to Electrical and Electronics Engineering (EEE), and in 2000 the name changed again to its present Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE).

Currently, the ECE department has over 420 undergraduate students, over 60 graduate students (M.S. and Ph.D.), 16 faculty and offers two majors (Electrical and Computer Engineering) making it the 39 th largest ECE department in the nation (ASEE 2003). Our department offers specialization in biomedical, computer, controls, communication and signal processing, electronics, electromagnetics, power, and optics. In total, the College of Engineering and Architecture (CEA) has successfully educated quantities of engineers that helped industrialize this nation.

Our Department offers Bachelor degree programs in Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering. We offer M.S. and Ph.D. programs in Electrical and Computer Engineering. We graduate approximately 75 B.S., 5-10 M.S. and 1-2 Ph.D. degrees per year. The ECE department is located within the ECE building on the main campus and contains numerous facilities available for instruction and research in ECE

Starting in Fall 2004, we launched a new educational paradigm termed the Engines of Innovation which is a plan for combining education and economic development in a systematic approach. The basis of this plan is to form teams of students and faculty to generate ideas that result in patents, licenses, and spin-off companies and is self-sustained through funding from private and public sources.

NDSU produces considerable intellectual capital in our students as evidenced by our well-above-average on national standardized engineering exams, and this plan recoups that intellectual capital before the student leaves the university, and often, our state. Scholar teams are the backbone of our Engines of Innovation plan. Freshmen through faculty with common interests are grouped into Scholar Teams with approximately 10 members each. Faculty will be able to move their scholarly work forward by recouping the educational investment made in the students. As the freshman move through this system and become seniors, their productivity in generating innovations is greatly enhanced. Currently we have 17 scholar teams involving over 100 students (Scholar Teams ). Our current research activity includes every area of our specializations, and faculty and former students have successfully spun off hi-tech companies that contribute to the economic health of our region.

We encourage you to browse the information provided on our web site. If question or comments arise, feel free to contact us. As you get to know ECE at North Dakota State University , we believe that you will be amazed at what our students and faculty can accomplish.

Dan Ewert
Chair and Professor