Welcome to Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rowan

Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at Rowan is a modern, innovative, hands-on project-based program, where we train and graduate proficient engineers who will be successful in solving not only today’s problems, but also tomorrow’s evolving and emerging engineering challenges. Through an innovative curricular structure that includes such unique elements as Engineering Clinics and Clinic Consulting in addition to core courses as well as a wide spectrum of technical electives on emerging topics, the department instills six core qualities that define and distinguish Rowan ECE graduates to be

agile · contemporary · communicative · entrepreneurial · transdisciplinary · competent 

A Message from the Dept. Head

Fall 2020 COVID-19 Update:
Welcome and Welcome Back 

Dear ECE Students:

If you are a new student joining us this Fall, a very warm welcome aboard to you all. Returning students: welcome back, we missed you!

I am sure you have all been following the news coming from the Governor’s Office as well as from the University in order to plan for your Fall semester. The news cycle seems to be changing very rapidly, which then impacts the statements coming out, so you probably have a fair amount of uncertainty on how your Fall semester will begin, and even a bigger uncertainty on how it will end.

In the midst of such uncertainty,  ECE Department has been working very hard all summer to find the pedagogically most effective way to teach our classes. The most effective way, of course, depends very much on individual courses, so we have been working on developing appropriate strategies for each class. 

There are so many constraints and so many unknowns: on one hand we want to provide you with as much meaningful in-person, face-to-face, hands-on experience as possible, doing so as safe as possible  (with reduced density and personal protection), while being as accommodating as possible to all students’ need (including to those who prefer a 100%-remote attendance), all at the same time being as flexible as possible to ensure that we are prepared for all possible scenarios the current uncertainty may throw in our way. There are a lot of constraints here, some of which conflict with each other, so this is no easy task. Therefore, we are structuring our classes (i.e., classes offered by ECE) with the following departmental guidelines:

1. We will not have a class with a mandatory physical presence required; for all of our classes we will either have physical presence optional, or at least one section where physical presence will be optional.
2. Any student who wishes to have a 100% remote experience, will have the opportunity to follow such a format.
3. You may choose to have 100% remote experience for some classes, and face-to-face experience for others (if/when face-to-face experience is offered for that class).
4. A subset of our courses will offer face-to-face experience for those students who would prefer such an experience. We will give the priority for in-person / face-to-face experience to our lower level lab courses.
5. Some upper level courses will also have a face-to-face component, if the course instructor decides that such an experience is particularly helpful (but even in such courses, 100% remote attendance will be offered, per guideline (2) above).
6. All face-to-face experiences will necessarily split the students into sub cohorts to ensure that we have reduced density in our labs.
7. All courses and all sections of all  courses - regardless of the delivery format - are designed such that educational objectives and course outcomes can be met through the format the student chooses. 

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to me, or in the case of course specific questions, to your course instructor. Course formats and instructors are listed on the Section Tally.

We are very excited to welcome you (back) for the 2020-2021 academic year, which certainly promises many challenges, but ultimately many more rewards. Whatever uncertainty we may come our way, we will always address them with your best interest inmind.

Please stay safe.

Robi Polikar,
Professor and Department Head
polikar at rowan . edu
(856) 256-5372 
  

Rowan ECE Ranked #15

The annual college rankings are out: Rowan's ECE program is ranked #15, and Henry M. Rowan  College of Engineering is ranked #21 in 2020 US News Best Colleges list.

Rowan ECE Receives "Most Innovative Program" Award 

Rowan ECE is recognized as the winner of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department Heads Association (ECEDHA) 2018 Innovative Program Award, recognizing the transformative nature of our Engineering Clinics and ECE Clinic Consultant in shaping the future of ECE education. ECEDHA describes the Innovative Program Award as follows:

This award is given to individual(s) or department(s) that has (have) created, implemented, and sustained the implementation of a successful innovative program and possibly assisted in the implementation of that program at other institutions. A successful program is one that has stood the test of time (i.e., formal integration into a program of study) and has produced measurable improvements in the quality of the electrical and computer education received by a significant number of students at one or more institutions.

The award was presented during ECEDHA's annual conference and ECE Expo in March 2018. We are truly honored by this recognition, as it is made by the Department Heads of other ECE Departments across the nation.