Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Electrical Engineering Graduate Major

We offer an MS and PhD in electrical engineering. The MS degree, which generally requires a thesis, is recommended for students who intend to continue toward the PhD or wish to pursue a career in research and development. The nonthesis MS degree requires an independent study project. Faculty and students routinely pursue multidisciplinary projects that cut across the current research areas. Undergraduate students also can enter the master's program while completing their bachelor's.

Program of Study

• Electrical engineering graduate course descriptions
• Rules and procedures
  
  

Degree requirements

• Master of Science without thesis
• Master of Science with thesis
• Doctor of Philosophy
  
  

Departmental Research History

Electrical and computer engineering has a distinguished history at Iowa State University. Alumni include:

• Clifford Berry, a graduate student who helped Iowa State physics professor John Vincent Atanasoff build the world's first electronic digital computer
• David Ditzel, co-originator of the RISC concept and designer of high-performance SPARC-based computers for Sun Microsystems
• Thomas Whitney, the leader of the Hewlett-Packard team that designed and built the first handheld scientific calculator
• David Nicholas, a graduate student in the 1960s who invented the encoding process that is essential to nearly all fax machines
  
  

Electrical Engineering Research

Our highly interdisciplinary and innovative research is focused on the the following:

• Communications, controls, and signal processing (includes communications and signal processing, and systems and controls research areas)
  
• Electric power and energy systems
  
• Advanced materials and electronics (includes microeletronics and photonics; VLSI; and electromagnetic, microwave, and nondestructive evaluation research areas)
  
  

More About Our Research

• Research Highlights 2006 (pdf)
• Research Highlights 2004 (pdf)
  
• Faculty research interests (pdf)
  
  

Computer and Research Laboratories

You can't do cutting-edge research without cutting-edge equipment. We understand your needs and continually upgrade our labs to enable you to do the type of research you need to do. Find out more about our laboratories.

Get Paid to Learn

Research assistantships and teaching assistantships are available to qualified students to help offset the cost of graduate education. In addition, there are graduate scholarships and fellowships available to highly qualified students. For more information, see Financial Aid for Graduate Students.

Admission to Graduate Study

The Graduate Admissions Office handles all admissions to Iowa State graduate programs. Graduate information is available from the ECpE Admissions page or on the Graduate College.

You may also contact the college by mail:
Graduate Admissions Office
100 Alumni Hall
Iowa State University
Ames, IA 50011-3232

Prerequisites

The normal prerequisite to graduate work in an ECpE graduate program is undergraduate work substantially equivalent to our electrical or computer engineering majors.

However, studys may qualify for graduate study in certain areas even if their previous education was in another discipline. Prerequisites in these instances often depend upon the student's background and area of research interest.

Read more about admissions guidelines.

Learn More

For more information about the graduate program, contact Student Services, ecpegradiastate.edu, 515-294-2667.