Electrical engineering adds 'computer' to name

By David Brand

The School of Electrical Engineering has changed its named after more than a century in business. The new name is the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, or ECE.

"We are just trying to look like other leading electrical engineering departments across the country," said department director James Thorp, who is the C.N. Mellowes Professor in Engineering. "We have finally voted to make our name 'electrical and computer engineering' to reflect the fact that we are and have been for 25 years a department offering computer engineering."

The name change was suggested by the 1999 Electrical Engineering Advisory Committee to attract students who might be unaware that the Cornell department is active in the computer field. After several weeks of debate, the department faculty voted overwhelmingly in favor, and John Hopcroft, dean of the College of Engineering, approved the change earlier this year. The new name became official July 1.

Thorp noted that 60 per cent of Carnegie one institutions now have computer engineering in their titles, "and when I go to national meetings, the ECE department heads really dominate the proceedings."

Cornell boasted one of the very first electrical engineering departments in the country when it was founded in the 19th century, and it was the first to graduate a Ph.D. candidate in the discipline. (The Massachusetts Institute of Technology was the first to award an undergraduate degree.)

But although MIT and other leading institutions over the past two decades added "computer engineering" to their departments' names, it was not until two or three years ago that the subject came to the fore at Cornell. That discussion was precipitated by a fall-off in enrollment for the master's of engineering degree, a result of a booming job market tempting graduating engineers away from further education. The department's advisory committee, Thorp recalled, said it felt "we were not doing a good job of projecting an image of a modern electrical engineering department."

Now, with computer engineering in its name, the department must gain state approval to make required changes in the graduate credentials, even though the course of study remains essentially the same. Undergraduate credentialing will remain largely untouched by the name change.

In the meantime the department is busy changing letter-heads and building signs. But don't expect a gala celebration, said Thorp.

"We are reluctant to do anything such as a ribbon cutting because there really isn't much to celebrate, except the recognition that students who enroll here will study computer engineering," he said.