Welcome from the Department Head

Welcome to the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at Carnegie Mellon University. 

I am honored to be the newly appointed head of ECE. Our department has been a leader in both research and education for several decades. As the largest department within the College of Engineering—with 76 active faculty and more than 1,159 PhD, MS, and BS students—we are proud of our bold ideas, unbridled enthusiasm, and innovative results. Each year, more than 160 undergraduates earn degrees in electrical and computer engineering from Carnegie Mellon. We have a long history of providing a curriculum built on strong theoretical fundamentals and practical problem-solving.

With today’s evolving technology landscape, we are at the forefront of a number of social challenges that can only be met through multidisciplinary teamwork. Our goal is to prepare our students to lead this wave of change by focusing on engineering skills, creativity, and the practical understanding needed to develop impactful solutions. We are engaged in the pursuit and dissemination of knowledge across a wide range of areas in electrical engineering and computer engineering—from cyber-physical systems to the technologies that have revolutionized our world, such as revolutionary data storage. Our interdisciplinary research includes biomedical and energy projects, spanning brain–machine interaction, wirelessly powered implants, thermoelectric devices, and building tomorrow’s smart grid. Read about our research here. We are uniquely positioned to address these challenges in a transformative and impactful way due to our department’s size, quality, and diversity. Our laboratories provide unique hands-on opportunities for students to create, and we teach engineering from that perspective. We offer a wide range of classes and innovative research programs supported by state-of-the-art research equipment. Students can choose from more than 150 course offerings each academic year.

At Carnegie Mellon University, you will receive a world-class education while building lifelong friendships with peers, faculty, and staff. The generosity of our friends and alumni allows us to continue to make the ECE experience at CMU so special. It is through donations that we can offer departmental teaching and research awards, facilitate our recruitment efforts, provide research opportunities, and improve our infrastructure. We are extremely grateful for these gifts.

We hope you will share the same enthusiasm and excitement we have for the future of our department! Browse our website to learn more about us, and please contact us with any questions.

Larry Pileggi
Coraluppi Head and Tanoto Professor
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Carnegie Mellon University