The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering offers two core undergraduate programs in

• Computer Engineering and
• Electrical Engineering.

Each year, we admit approximately 360 students in three cohorts of 120 students each. Each cohort is a blend of both electrical and computer engineering students. The first three Academic Terms see all students taking the same foundational courses; the next three Academic Terms see the students specializing in their chosen programs; and the fourth year sees the cohorts joining again allowing students to select their technical electives in their chosen areas of specialization and interest.

The Department also participates in three interdisciplinary programs:

• Software Engineering,
• Nanotechnology Engineering, and
• Mechatronics Engineering.

The interdisciplinary programs are run jointly between our Department and the School of Computer Science, the Departments of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry, and the Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Systems-Design Engineering, respectively. The relationship between these programs and our core programs is summarized in Figure 1.

Figure 1. The relationships between the ECE programs.

The Electrical and Computer Engineering programs consist of three major components:

1. Education: a solid program of thirty core courses and eleven electives,
2. Application: e.g., the capstone fourth-year design project, and
3. Experience: the co-operative education program.

Waterloo's unique intellectual property rights agreement allows our students to keep the ownership of anything they produce as an undergraduate student including their assignments, projects, reports, and their 4th-year Design Project. Some of these projects have even resulted in patents.