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 Greetings, and thank you for your interest in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Montana State University. Check us out here on the web, then be sure to arrange a visit to campus. We are always delighted to show off our outstanding facilities and academic programs. Welcome!
Rob Maher, Ph.D.
Professor and Department Head
Designing & Building a New Generation of Computers
Would you like to be part of a team that works on and solves the computer problems of the future? If the answer is "yes", then you are invited to consider a computer engineering degree at Montana State University, Bozeman. Yes, you can do it!
Possibilities...
A computer engineer (CpE) is trained in a fashion that is quite similar to an electrical engineer. Like the EE, a CpE uses the computer as a tool, but the CpE also wants to improve the computer to transform it into a new and better tool.
For the past ten years or so, the amazing progress in computer technology has been driven by "placing more on less." Computer engineers have been very successful at increasing the density of devices on the basic silicon substrate. Physical limitations will inevitably come into play in the near future which will challenge further packing of transistors, circuit elements, and connecting runs into smaller areas...........or will CpE's discover how to use nanofabrication, advanced optics, X-rays or even shorter wavelengths to continue the increasing data storage capabilities we need?
Computer engineers from MSU will be part of the design teams that will work on and solve the computer problems of the future. Many companies from across the entire United States and particularly in the West and Northwest come to MSU to recruit engineers because they know our students are innovative, superbly trained, and fully capable of assuming design leadership roles.
Since many of the companies that are at the leading edge of computer technology are in the West and Northwest, the computer engineering graduate from our department can virtually choose to shape his or her career along any line (such as development, design, testing, entrepreneurship, sales, or management) within the computer industry and still live in some of the best areas in the United States.
- Is there any reason that ten or twenty or one hundred desk top computers can't be made to work together as parallel processors with the result being an "erector set" supercomputer?
- Is the next generation of computers going to involve three dimensional computing?
- Is it possible that data storage involving holograms complete with laser reading and writing will become one answer to the input/output bottleneck that slows almost all computing operations?
- Will it ever be possible to speak naturally to the computer and have it carry out the instructions without error?
The answers to one or all of these (and many other) questions are going to be the career focus of computer engineers during the next few years. Are you ready to take on the challenge?
Career Opportunities
Of all the areas of engineering, computer engineering is arguably the hottest area for job opportunities at the present time. This is because computers are getting smaller and smaller yet also getting more and more powerful. Thus, the use of computers inside our everyday devices is increasing at a phenomenal rate. Each new problem that is identified as being something that could be handled by a computer requires the application of skills possessed by the computer engineer. Job descriptions that do not exist today are commonplace tomorrow: there are more positions available than skilled engineers who can fill these positions. It is expected that this continued growth of opportunities will accelerate as we approach the era when artificial intelligence in computers begins to leave the laboratory and becomes a truly realizable goal.
The CpE Program
All engineers in the Department develop several common, basic skills during the first two years of their training. These include mathematics through differential equations, physics, chemistry, written and oral communications, and the essential college core courses in the humanities and social sciences.
 The computer engineering training, however, diverges from that of the electrical engineer in order to accommodate programming courses and fundamental courses in computer architecture. In the last two years of the program, the CpE continues to develop basic electrical engineering skills, but also receives in-depth training in the design, development and operation of computers.
During the senior year, as with the electrical engineers, each computer engineering student takes part in a "capstone" design project. These projects allow students to operate as a team to tackle a real world problem. The projects are designed to bring the training to a logical conclusion and further develop the key skills of the CpE: solving problems.
In short, a CpE must have the skills of an electrical engineer as well as a deep understanding of computer hardware and computer programming. The person must possess a desire to design and build the next generation of computers from the low-level circuit design to the high level programming that converts the bare hardware from a set of traces and designs on a printed circuit board to a machine that is practically capable of thinking. This is computer engineering!
If you have the skills, the urge to explore and develop uncharted areas of computer design and application, as well as the drive to complete this challenging and exciting program, please consider joining our department. There will never be a better time to do so!
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About the ECE Department
