On A Combined Electrical Engineering And Computer Science Department

In the United States, more than 10% of traditional electrical engineering programs have combined with computer science into a single department 1 . Historically computer science programs emerged from mathematics or electrical engineering departments in the mid to late 1960's. Since mathematics is not typically in the engineering college many computer science programs developed independently from engineering programs. In the 1970's and early 1980's, with the advent of the microprocessor and embedded computer systems, computer engineering evolved mostly out of existing electrical engineering programs and has since become a separate discipline distinct from electrical engineering with its own accreditation process. It is common to see electrical engineering and computer engineering in the same department. Computer engineering course work complements courses in computer science and in many cases there is considerable duplication. Thus, it makes sense to consider a combined electrical engineering and computer science department. At the authors' university, electrical engineering and computer science have been combined into a single department since 1990, with computer science, computer engineering, and the more traditional electrical engineering as ABET accredited programs within that department. A combined department offers the obvious advantages of administrative efficiency and elimination of duplication. There are many not-so-obvious advantages as well in the areas of program assessment, shared resources, team projects, and the new ideas and opportunities that are generated when programs are mixed. Disadvantages of a combined department have arisen as well. This paper presents the advantages and disadvantages of a combined department, details the methods used to accomplish the successful combination, and provides advice for those contemplating such a change.