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Letter from the ECE Chair

As we begin a new academic year, I am filled with gratitude for the entire ECE community at UCSB. Despite challenges in higher education, there has never been a more exciting time to be part of this department.

We welcome new students at every level — Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Doctoral — and celebrate the return of those bringing fresh energy and ideas. Their creativity keeps our department vibrant and full of promise.

ECE is more indispensable than ever, from AI and quantum information science to photonics, electronics, novel devices, communications, and control. Our department is ready to rise to these opportunities, preparing the next generation of scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs.

This year we are thrilled to welcome new faculty — Elaheh Ahmadi this fall, and Rich Mirin and Erez Berg this winter — whose expertise will strengthen our community.

 

Our faculty and students continue to shine: Andy Teel and Yogananda Ishkupalli received the College of Engineering’s Outstanding Faculty Award, Kerem Camsari and the OPUS Lab earned the prestigious Misha Mahowald Prize, and two undergraduates won NSF Graduate Research Fellowships.

I also want to recognize our ECE staff, whose dedication keeps the department moving forward. Their support of our faculty, students, and programs is invaluable, and their work often makes the extraordinary seem routine.

I could not be prouder of this department. Our strength lies in innovation, collaboration, and the way we support one another. Let’s dive into the year ahead with optimism and ambition — I look forward to the discoveries and successes to come — Professor Luke Theogarajan

Faculty Awards & Honors

An overview of some of the awards and honors received by our faculty:

  • 2 Nobel Prize Laureates
  • 2 National Medal of Technology and Innovation
  • 1 IEEE Medal of Honor
  • 5 National Academy of Sciences members
  • 15 National Academy of Engineering members
  • 1 American Academy of Arts & Sciences Members
  • 11 National Academy of Inventors Fellows
  • 43 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Fellows
  • 2 Association for Computing Machinery Fellows

 

 

  • 10 American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellows
  • 10 Optica (formerly OSA) Fellows
  • 4 UCSB Faculty Research Lecturers
  • 10 UCSB Distinguished Teaching
  • 26 NSF CAREER
  • 5 NSF PYI / NYI Young Investigators
  • 3 Clarivate Analytics "Highly Cited Researchers"

More faculty awards and honors are at the bottom of this page.

Department Numbers

Faculty & Staff

  • 40 Faculty (tenured / tenure-track)
  • 5 Adjunct / Visiting Faculty
  • 14 Affiliated Faculty
  • 33 Emeritus Professors
  • 3 Lecturers
  • 2 Teaching Professors (Sr. Lecturer SOE)
  • 47 Staff Members

Research Funding

  • Total: $19.1 million
  • Government: $17.1 million
  • Corporate: $900K
  • Other: $1.1 million

* 3-Year Annual Avg. 2021-2024

Enrollment (Fall 2025)

Degrees (2024-25)

  • 68 Master's | 24 PhD
  • 82 BS EE | 53 BS CE

Research

We attract some of the top faculty researchers from academia and industry. Our research is categorized into four focus areas – Control Systems, Communications & Signal Processing, Computer Engineering, and Electronics & Photonics. Our faculty partner their research efforts with industry, government, outside academic institutions, other UCSB departments, and within the Department.

Undergraduate Studies

We offer BS degrees in Electrical Engineering (EE) or Computer Engineering (CE). Qualified EE students may apply in their junior year for the combined BS/MS program with an MS degree either in ECE or Materials. Qualified CE students may apply for the combined BS/MS program with an MS degree in either ECE or Computer Science. A range of options are available including communications, control systems, signal processing, computer engineering, microwaves, and semiconductor devices & applications.

Graduate Studies

We offer both Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy degrees. The Department has three types of degree programs (MS, MS / PhD, or PhD) with emphases in Communications, Controls & Signal Processing, Computer Engineering, and Electronics & Photonics. One of the department's strengths is its history of collaborative and interdisciplinary research.

Invest in ECE

We invite you to invest in the Department by visiting Giving to ECE. Opportunities include:

  • Unrestricted Support to the ECE Department
  • Undergraduate Capstone Project Fund
  • George Matthaei Undergraduate Award Fund
  • Herbert Kroemer Endowed Fellowship Fund
  • Roger C. Wood Endowed Fund
  • Petar V. Kokotovic Distinguished Visiting Professorship

For more info contact Hannah Hultgren, Dir. of Development, Robert Mehrabian College of Engineering

Academic & Admin Officers

  • Department Chair: ECE Prof. Luke Theogarajan
  • Vice Chair & Graduate Program Director: ECE Assoc. Prof. Elaheh Ahmadi
  • Vice Chair & EE Undergraduate Program Director: ECE Prof. Shiv Chandrasekaran
  • Vice Chair & CE Undergraduate Program Director: ECE Prof. Yogananda Isukapalli
  • Academic Business Officer: Mike Moore

Faculty w/ Endowed Chairs

• Cree Chair in Solid State Lighting and Display (Materials) - Shuji Nakamura
• Doluca Family Chair in ECE – Mark Rodwell
• Richard A. Auhll Professorship and Dean’s Chair of Engineering – Umesh Mishra
• Donald W. Whittier Professor of ECE – Umesh Mishra
• Kavli Chair in Nanotechnology – John Bowers
• Kavli Chair in Optoelectronics and Sensors – Larry Coldren
• Mitsubishi Chemical Corp. Chair in Solid State Lighting and Display (Materials) – Steve DenBaars

Recent Books by ECE Faculty

Jerry Gibson: Information Theoretic Principles for Agent Learning | SpringerLink (2025)

Steve Long: Communication Electronics/RF Design with Practical Applications | River Publishers (2024)

Jerry Gibson: Analog Communications: Introduction to Communication Systems | SpringerLink (2023)

Jerry Gibson: Digital Communications: Introduction to Communication Systems | SpringerLink (2023)

Jerry Gibson: Fourier Transforms, Filtering, Probability and Random Processes: Introduction to Communication Systems | SpringerLink (2023)

Faculty Honors & Awards

Nobel Prize Laureates

National Medal of Tech. & Innovation

IEEE Medal of Honor

Members and Fellows

 National Academy of Sciences

National Academy of Sciences

  • Lawrence Rabiner (1990) *
  • David Auston (1991) *
  • Arthur Gossard (2001) *
  • Herbert Kroemer (2003) *
  • Evelyn Hu (2008) *
National Academy of Inventors

National Academy of Inventors

  • Steven DenBaars (2014)
  • Shuji Nakamura (2014)
  • Umesh Mishra (2015)
  • John Bowers (2015) *
  • Larry Coldren (2016)
  • Dan Blumenthal (2017)
  • Rod Alferness (2018) *
  • Sanjit Mitra (2019) *
  • Nikil Jayant (2020) *
  • B.S. Manjunath (2022)
  • U. Madhow (2022)
AAAS Fellows

American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellows

  • Venkatesh Narayanamurti (1983) *
  • David Auston *
  • Evelyn Hu (1998) *
  • Sanjit Mitra (1982) *
  • Pierre Petroff (2009) *
  • Arthur Gossard (2010) *
  • Kaustav Banerjee (2016)
  • Yuan Xie (2019) *
  • John Bowers (2021) *
  • Chris Palmstrøm (2023)
National Academy of Engineering

National Academy of Engineering

  • Lawrence Rabiner (1983) *
  • Arthur Gossard (1987) *
  • David Auston (1989) *
  • Venkatesh Narayanamurti (1992) *
  • Petar Kokotovic (1996) *
  • Nikil Jayant (1996) *
  • Herbert Kroemer (1997) *
  • Evelyn Hu (2002) *
  • Rod C. Alferness (2003) *
  • Sanjit Mitra (2003) *
  • Shuji Nakamura (2003) 
  • Larry Coldren (2004)
  • John Bowers (2005) *
  • Umesh Mishra (2009)
  • Steven DenBaars (2012)
IEEE Fellows

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Fellows

  • Phillip Ordung (1959) *
  • Glen Wade (1962) *
  • Herbert Kroemer (1970) *
  • Sanjit Mitra (1974) *
  • Lawrence Rabiner (1976) *
  • Petar Kokotovic (1980) *
  • David Auston *
  • Allen Gersho (1982) *
  • Larry Coldren (1982)
  • Nikil Jayant (1982) *
  • Venkatesh Narayanamurti (1987) *
  • Adel Saleh (1987) *
  • James Merz (1988) *
  • Rod C. Alferness (1989) *
  • Pochi Yeh (1991) *
  • Jerry Gibson (1992) *
  • Hua Lee (1992)
  • John Bowers (1993) *
  • Evelyn Hu (1994) *
  • Umesh Mishra (1995)
  • Behrooz Parhami (1997)
  • Margaret Marek-Sadowska (1997) *
  • Tim Cheng (2000) *
  • Arthur Gossard (2001) *
  • Andrew Teel (2002)
  • Dan Blumenthal (2003)
  • Mark Rodwell (2003)
  • Ken Rose (2003)
  • Steven DenBaars (2005)
  • U. Madhow (2005)
  • B.S. Manjunath (2005)
  • Nadir Dagli (2006) *
  • Joao Hespanha (2008)
  • Bob York (2009) *
  • Kaustav Banerjee (2012)
  • Yuan Xie (2015) *
  • Peng Li (2016)
  • Li-C. Wang (2017)
  • Clint Schow (2017)
  • Yasamin Mostofi (2020)
  • James Buckwalter (2022)
  • Dmitri Strukov (2023)
  • Jason Marden (2024)
Other Fellows

Other Fellows

 American Academy of Arts & Sciences

American Academy of Arts & Sciences

  • David Auston (1992) *
ACM Fellows

Association for Computing Machinery Fellows

  • B.S. Manjunath (2018)
  • Yuan Xie (2019) *

IEEE Awards

IEEE

IEEE

Medals

Technical Field Awards

Other IEEE Awards

IEEE Society

IEEE Society

Circuits and Systems Society (CAS)

Communications Society

Computer Society

Control Systems Society (CSS)

Education Society

  • McGraw-Hill / Jacob C. Millman Award
    Sanjit Mitra (2001) *

Electron Devices Society (EDS)

Microwave Theory and Technology Society (MTT-S)

Photonics Society

Signal Processing Society (SPS)

  • Technical Achievement Award
    Lawrence Rabiner (1978) *
    Sanjit Mitra (1996) *
  • Society Award
    Lawrence Rabiner (1980) *
    Sanjit Mitra (2001) *
  • Education Award
    Sanjit Mitra (1989) *

More Awards

Societies

Other Societies

Acoustical Society of America (ASA)

American Physical Society (APS)

American Society for Engineering Education

Optica (formerly OSA)

Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM)

The Minerals, Metals and Materials Society (TMS)

Fellowships

Fellowships

Early Career

Early Career

Industry

Industry

UC System & UCSB

U. of California & UCSB

U. of California Systemwide

UC Santa Barbara

Academic Senate

  • Distinguished Teaching Award
    Glen Wade (1978) *
    John Skalnik (1986) *
    Hua Lee (1988)
    Roger Wood (1989) *
    Nadir Dagli (1990) *
    John Shynk (1992) *
    Alan Laub (1993) *
    Evelyn Hu (1999) *
    Steve Butner (2007) *
    Yogananda Isukapalli (2021)
  • Outstanding Graduate Mentor Award
    Kaustav Banerjee (2023)
  • B.S. Manjunath (2025)
Other Awards

Other Awards

* No longer active in the Department.