Computer engineering research at UCSB deals with many problems in the design of digital hardware and software systems, including communication facilities, general-purpose computers of all types and sizes, application-specific function units, and devices that contain computers. Problems are tackled at all levels, from VLSI implementation and testing technologies through design and performance evaluation of digital systems and networks to algorithms, software, and applications.

Faculty and graduate-student research results are published in the most prestigious journals within the field and presented at highly select conferences. The novelty, interdisciplinary nature, and high impact of research in computer engineering has brought the program significant visibility and recognition.  According to the 2005 Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index, UCSB's Computer Engineering Program is ranked sixth among similar programs at top research universities. This index by Academic Analytics ranks 7,294 individual doctoral programs in 104 disciplines at 354 institutions. 

The Computer Engineering faculty at UCSB have a wide range of expertise in hardware, software, and system integration. Nurtured by collaborative efforts with scientists and engineers on campus, at other academic institutions, and in industry, this broad base allows our research teams to investigate difficult, leading-edge problems in the field and to advance the state of the art with their contributions.

Specific research projects change over time as new challenging problems are uncovered by emerging technologies and greater demand is placed on the computational capabilities, energy efficiency, cost-effectiveness, compactness, reliability, and security of digital systems. However, there are always numerous on-going projects in the areas of computer architecture, computer-aided VLSI design, high-level synthesis, design and test methodologies, mixed analog/digital circuits, nanoscale integrated circuits, computer communication, fault-tolerant computing, wireless and ad-hoc sensor networks, databases and data mining, and multimedia processing.

Please see the links to associated research centers, labs, and groups for more detailed descriptions of faculty research interests and activities.