HERSHEY, Pa. — The Penn State Board of Trustees on Friday (March 20), has approved the College of Engineering to house a new School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science -- a move that follows current business trends and will open up opportunities for students.
The board’s Committee on Academic Affairs and Student Life today (March 19) approved the creation of the new school, an association between the electrical engineering and computer science and engineering departments.
“Both departments are very successful in education, research and service and have strong leadership,” said Amr Elnashai, The Harold and Inge Marcus Dean of Engineering. “A formal association between the two departments as part of a school will create additional opportunities, including more effective integration of the curricula, better coordination of graduate student recruitment, more strategic hiring at the interface between electrical engineering and computer science, improved collaboration in interdisciplinary research and greater student access to the expanded curricula offered by the other department.”
The Industrial and Professional Advisory Councils (IPACs) in the two departments highly recommended the association based on current business trends. The new school would allow greater access to courses offered by both departments for undergraduate and graduate students, and exciting collaborative research in fields such as robotics, computer vision, cyber physical systems, machine learning and embedded systems.
“The proposal has been favorably reviewed by a majority of faculty in both departments, by other College of Engineering unit heads, by other Penn State deans and institute directors and by the University Faculty Senate Council,” said Elnashai. “Penn State engineering is a premier college of national and international acclaim. This is an important advancement that I fully endorse.”
While an international search for a permanent head of the proposed new school is underway, Elnashai named Raj Acharya, currently the head of computer science and engineering, as interim head. If approved, the new school will be housed administratively within the College of Engineering and will reach out to all academic and research units at Penn State, nationally and globally. The new school of nearly 80 professors also would have a head and two associate heads, who also will be the leaders of their respective departments.
Established in 1893, the Department of Electrical Engineering is among the largest, oldest and the most innovative in the nation. Approximately 528 undergraduate students and 220 graduate students are enrolled in the department, which has 40 faculty members. The Department of Computer Science and Engineering was created in 1993 with the merger of the Computer Engineering Program and the Computer Science Department. The department offers bachelor of science degrees in both computer engineering (CMPEN) and computer science (CMPSC) through the College of Engineering. There are approximately 455 undergraduate students and 154 graduate students enrolled in the department, with 43 faculty members.