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ECE Highlights

U.S. News Ranks UC Santa Barbara Graduate Programs Among Best– In its annual rankings of leading graduate and professional programs at American universities, U.S. News & World Report magazine has rated UC Santa Barbara's College of Engineering and its Gevirtz Graduate School of Education among the country's leaders. The Ph.D. programs in the biological sciences and in chemistry were also highly rated - more... (April 2007)

U.S. News Rankings

	UCSB has been listed as number one on the The Princeton Review's Top 20 Graduate Engineering Programs... In an effort to help inform students about quality graduate engineering programs, The Princeton Review has collected and validated institutional and program specific data over the past two academic years to develop its first-ever list of the Top 20 Graduate Engineering Programs - more...
UCSB Graduate Engineering is #1

Electrical & Computer Engineering Mission Statement

The Electrical Engineering program seeks to provide a comprehensive, rigorous and accredited educational program for the graduates of California’s high schools and for postgraduate students, both domestic and international. The department has a dual mission in education and research.

Full ECE Mission Statement, Educational Objectives, and Program Outcomes (pdf)

Undergraduate Programs

Electrical Engineering Program

Electrical Engineering is a broad field encompassing many diverse areas. The EE program emphasizes teaching and research in the areas of computers and digital systems, control systems, communications, electronics, signal processing, electromagnetics, electro-optics, physics of electronic devices, device fabrication, and VLSI design.

We provide a faculty that is committed to education and research, is accessible to students, and is highly qualified in their areas of expertise. And, we offer a good balance between theory and practice. Many of our required and elective courses have lab components.

You will find that we have recently introduced a freshman design course option. This is intended to give students a design experience early in their engineering curriculum. In addition, the EE program has formalized the senior design project or capstone project as an elective. In this, a team of senior EE students work together to create a project of significant complexity that integrates elements learned in the EE curriculum to produce a visible product.

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ECE Undergraduate Student page: info for current undergraduate students including degree requirements

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EE Brochure: "Why Choose UC Santa Barbara Electrical Engineering" (pdf)

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Student Interview: Merritt Miller, ECE Senior interviewed by ECE Professor, Stephen Long (3:24/mp3)

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Faculty Interview: Stephen Long, ECE Professor interviewed by ECE Student Merrit Miller (4:21/mp3)

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ECE Featured Course: ECE 4 Design for Freshmen is offered in the Spring of each year as an intro class to engineering for freshmen. It was designed to be project and team oriented. This year’s project focused on developing sensors that monitor the UCSB Lagoon to better analyze temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH and turbidity levels. Students worked w/ Dr. Stratton from Ecology, Evolution & Marine Biology to spot trends in the lagoon.

** For more information contact the ECE Undergraduate Program Staff Advisor at 805/893-8292 or ugradinfo@ece.ucsb.edu

Computer Engineering Program

The Computer Engineering Program is offered jointly by the Computer Science Department and the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department in the College of Engineering at UC Santa Barbara. It is a multi-disciplinary program of study that promotes the integration of computer hardware and software through computer science and electrical engineering curriculums.

Students may pursue a general program or choose to specialize in areas such as computer-aided design for hardware, computer systems, multimedia computing, computer networks, computer operation systems and computer languages, real-time computing, or very large-scale circuit design.

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Computer Engineering Mission Statement: To prepare our students to reach their full potential in computer engineering research and industrial practice through a curriculum emphasizing the mathematical tools, scientific basics, fundamental knowledge, engineering principles, and practical experience in the field.

Full CE Mission Statement, Educational Objectives, and Program Outcomes (pdf)

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CE Brochure: "Why Choose UC Santa Barbara Computer Engineering" (pdf)

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"ECE News" Student Spotlight: The Computer Engineering Capstone Project - gives senior undergraduate students the opportunity to put their education into practice. Students work in small teams to design and engineer innovative hardware and software systems - more...

** For more information contact the ECE Undergraduate Program Staff Advisor at 805/893-8292 or ugradinfo@ece.ucsb.edu

Additional Undergraduate Programs

College of Engineering Technology Management Program: Many ECE students have found the TMP to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship. The TMP's educational programs include classes in management, entrepreneurship, new product development, marketing, and much more taught by world class scholars, highly successful business lecturers and entrepreneurs.

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Interview with Dr. Leslie Edwards, Technology Management Program (4:49/mp3)

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"ECE News" Program Highlights : Twenty-one ECE students are participating in the Technology Management Program (TMP) this year. The program includes networking with California's top business and entrepreneurial leaders, a New Venture Competition, student mentoring, an evening lecture series - more...

Leadership in Team Engineering (LITE) Program: The LITE program is a new way to look at engineering. We separate from the conventional way student engineers are taught. Instead, LITE lets the student and his/her team take control of the direction and outcome. Learning from experiencing how to identify the client's main concerns; brainstorm and design; prototype and build; milestones, assumptions and timelines; and review.

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"ECE News" Student Spotlight - The Santa Barbara Zoological Gardens have partnered with the LITE Program. The program helps students learn how to work effectively in teams as consultants on complicated engineering projects throughout Santa Barbara - more...

Helpful Links

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College of Engineering Undergraduate Studies Office: advising, publications, resources and more...

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UCSB Admissions: applications, academics, housing, financial aid, visits and more...

Graduate Program

Master of Science (MS) and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Degrees

The ECE department offers both Master of Science (MS) and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degrees. Applicants must specify one of three programs:

	1.	MS Program: This is for prospective students who are primarily interested in a Master's degree. It does not preclude entering the PhD program at a later date if you become more interested in research.

	2.	MS/PhD Program: This is for students intending to do research towards the PhD degree. If you already have an MS from a non-US institution, we recommend that you apply to the MS/PhD program even if your primary interest is in the PhD degree.

	3.	PhD Program: This is for students who already have an MS degree and intend to do research towards the PhD degree.

Financial Support

Many forms of financial aid are possible and the main sources are outlined below:

•	Fellowships: The University and the Department offer the following prestigious fellowships. In all cases the stipend is sufficient to cover living expenses for the duration of the scholarship. All fellowship awards also guarantee the student access to University housing. Applicants do not apply directly for any of these fellowships; the top candidates are automatically nominated by the ECE Department's admissions committee.

	-	Chancellor's and Regents' Fellowships: these cover full tuition, fees, health insurance and pay a stipend. Both International and domestic PhD students are eligible. The last two or three years of this fellowship are funded by the ECE Department via a Teaching Assistantship or Graduate Researcher position.

	-	Merit and Diversity Fellowships: these also cover full tuition, fees, health insurance and a stipend. They are open to domestic PhD students and the selection criteria emphasizes students who have had to overcome severe financial or other hardships and are committed to advancing other economically or educationally disadvantaged segments of society. There are several such fellowships with durations between 1 and 5 years. The information provided in the Personal Statement part of the application is used to assess applicability for these fellowships.

	-	Ralph M. Parsons Foundation Fellowship: this is a three year fellowship aimed at students who have left academia for at least 5 years or who currently have young children. The fellowship covers fees, health insurance and a full stipend for the first year. It also covers up to $6500 of childcare costs for three years. The Department provides a Teaching Assistantship or Graduate Student Researcher position for the second and third years.

•	Teaching Assistantship: A Teaching Assistantship (or "TA") position covers full tuition, fees, health insurance and pays a stipend which will cover living expenses. The student will have up to 20 hours per week of teaching related duties. TAs are available for both domestic and international students. The majority of our financial aid offers for first year students are TA positions.

•	Graduate Student Researcher: All PhD students work towards their degree under the guidance of a faculty advisor, and these students are usually employed as Graduate Student Researchers (or "GSRs") by the faculty advisor. GSR positions cover all tuition, fees, health insurance and pay a stipend to cover living expenses. The majority of our PhD students are supported by GSR positions. Because GSRs are offered by individual faculty for particular research projects, they are usually offered to students for their 2nd and subsequent years. In some cases a student might be offered a combination of a GSR position and a TA position.

The Department sends out financial aid offers directly to applicants. Formal offers of admission to the University are made by the Graduate Division and do not contain details of financial aid.

Application Deadlines

•	Fall quarter (MS, MS/PhD and PhD applicants): December 15th of the prior year for priority consideration for financial aid; January 15th if you do not wish to be considered for financial aid.

•	Winter quarter (PhD applicants only - an MS degree from a US institution is required prior to application): November 1st of the prior year.

•	Spring quarter (PhD applicants only - an MS degree from a US institution is required prior to application): January 1st.

Application Procedure

There are three parts which must be completed by the deadlines given above:

UCSB Graduate Division online application

The UCSB Graduate Division officially admits all graduate students and you must begin the application process by going to their web-site and completing their online application procedure.

You will need to provide information in the following categories: Degree selection, Personal information, Address information, Citizenship and residency, Past educational record, Exams (GRE and TOEFL), and Financial. Please note that the ECE Department does not require a pre-application for international students.

To complete the UCSB Graduate Division's application you will have to pay a non-refundable application fee. Do not send this fee to the ECE Department; see the instructions on the Graduate Division web-site for payment options. After this fee has been paid you will be assigned a unique perm number. This number will be emailed to you after the completion of the application and processing of the fee. Please allow several days for the processing of your fee. The perm number is required to complete the next step in the procedure.

Supplemental documents

The ECE Department requires that you submit the following information as a part of your application:

Statement of Purpose

Personal Achievements/Contributions Statement: You have the option of combining this with the Statement of Purpose.

Letters of Recommendation from three recommenders.

You may also send the following optional information in support of your application:

Resume: This is optional but is highly recommended. Please do not include papers, technical reports or copies of Bachelor or Master's theses as these will be discarded. A mention of their existence in the resume is sufficient.

The names of faculty members with whom you have discussed potential research. This is useful in ensuring that your application is reviewed by the faculty closest to your area of interest.

There are two ways of submitting this supporting documentation: via an online service managed by Embark or by postal mail to the ECE Department.

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Postal Mail Option:

Download the Statement of Purpose coversheet and include it with your supplemental materials. Please mail the coversheet and supplemental documents (items a, b, d and e) to:

	Graduate Program Assistant Department of ECE University of California Santa Barbara, CA 93106-9560 USA

Download the Letter of Recommendation Coversheet for each of your recommenders and have them mail their sealed recommendation letter directly to the Graduate Program Assistant address above.

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Online Submission Option:

All of the above items may be submitted online via the Embark service and this method of
submission is highly recommended. You will need to enter your perm number on the Embark site before your materials are transferred to the ECE Department for evaluation.

Using the Embark site allows your recommendation letter writers to submit online letters of recommendation.

If you have problems using the Embark site you can contact Embark customer service at support@embark.com (or by phone, +1-415-615-1805, Monday to Friday, 9 am to 5 pm US Pacific Time).

Submitting Official Transcripts

You must arrange to have each post-secondary institution that you have attended to submit official copies of your transcripts to the ECE Department at the Graduate Program Assistant address given above. Two copies must be sent in sealed envelopes directly from each
institution.

	Graduate Student Contact Information

	Please include your perm number (if known) in the subject line of any email communications.

	•	Graduate Admissions: Erika Klukovich - erika@ece.ucsb.edu

	•	Graduate Advising / Student Affairs: Val de Veyra - val@ece.ucsb.edu

	Helpful Links

	•	ECE Graduate Student page: info for current graduate students including degree requirements
	•	UCSB Graduate Division: More information regarding graduate studies at UCSB...
	•	Electrical & Computer Engineering Department: Research Areas and Faculty Research
	•	College of Engineering: Overview, Institutes and Centers, Programs, Faculty and more...
	•	UCSB Financial Aid: UCSB cost budget (living expenses), loans, and more...
	•	Graduate Student Association: Provides graduate students with information concerning decisions that are relevant to graduate student life and organize graduate social events.
	•	Office of International Students and Scholars (OISS): Visa issues, financial costs and more...

ECE Student Affairs Contacts

ECE Student Affairs Office

	Dr. João Hespanha ECE Vice Chair ECE Graduate Advisor	hespanha@ ece.ucsb.edu	(805) 893-7042	Rm 5157 Harold Frank Hall

	Dr. Stephen Long EE Undergraduate Curriculum Chair	long@ ece.ucsb.edu	(805) 893-3965	Rm 2231F Eng. Science Bldg

	Val DeVeyra ECE Student Affairs Mgr	val@ ece.ucsb.edu	(805) 893-2269	Rm 101 Trailer 697

	Jaima Ortega ECE Undergraduate Advisor	jaima@ ece.ucsb.edu	(805) 893-8292	Rm 101 Trailer 380

	Erika Klukovich Grad Admissions Coordinator	erika@ ece.ucsb.edu	(805) 893-3114	Rm 101 Trailer 380

Map and Mailing Address

	ECE Department Directions and Map

	Electrical & Computer Engineering Department Student Affairs Office University of California Santa Barbara, CA 93106-9560