Welcome to Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at the University of Waterloo

Electrical and computer engineers shape the future through innovation.  They develop and improve systems that serve everyday needs of society spanning from high-voltage engineering and sustainable energy, to breakthroughs in wireless technology. Our faculty and students do everything from creating low-cost digital x-ray imagers to combat tuberculosis in developing countries, to building real-time embedded systems to advance the design and reliability of commercial products.  ECE - the future is what we do.

Research

The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering is a dynamic and innovative hub of cutting-edge advancements in technology and engineering. Faculty members lead pioneering research in areas such as robotics, artificial intelligence, communications, embedded systems, and renewable energy, addressing real-world challenges and driving technological breakthroughs.

Learn more about our research →

News

Electrical and computer engineering professor, Amir-Hossein Karimi is the recipient of this term's Igor Ivkovic Teaching Excellence Award for his commitment and dedication to teaching the course ECE 457B.

Each term the Engineering Society welcomes nominations from students to recognize lecturers, professors, or laboratory instructors from the Faculty of Engineering who exemplify the spirit of Professor Igor Ivkovic’s teaching, through employing non-conventional teaching techniques, allowing opportunities for experiential learning, and showing a commitment and dedication towards ensuring the academic success of students. 

Dr. Mahla Poudineh, assistant professor and director of the IDEATION Lab in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, is one of five researchers to receive funding from the Ontario government.

Each award from government is valued at $100,000, and is matched by an additional $50,000 from the researcher's institution. Dr. Poudineh won the award for her project titled: A new transdermal patch to continuously and without pain track and treat diabetes. Her research will develop a new, low-cost system which is smaller (approximately seven centimetres) and capable of smart insulin sensing and delivery.

Barbara Paldus (BASc ’93 electrical engineering, BMATH ’93) has established the Professor Josef Paldus Engineering Scholarship to advance innovation in biomedical engineering. 

The scholarship's inaugural recipient is Hana Karim, a first-year biomedical engineering student.   

Karim said the  award has given her the financial freedom to look further afield for her co-op placements and “take the leap and go.”  

She hopes to follow the interdisciplinary example set by Paldus in her graduate studies to complete a double major in medicine and law. She also shares a love of music with Paldus and is able to continue practicing piano more seriously while studying thanks to the financial flexibility the scholarship has afforded her.