The Electrical and Computer Engineering department at UC Santa Cruz aims to achieve engineering discoveries that benefit humankind through a combination of curiosity, open-mindedness, and inclusiveness. We aim to provide undergraduate and graduate students with inspiration and quality education, believing that rigor, creativity, and excitement should be part of the Electrical and Computer Engineering curriculum.
Our Electrical Engineering undergraduate program is accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET, www.abet.org. Learn more about ABET Accreditation.
#2
public university in the nation for students focused on making an impact in the world (Princeton Review, 2022)
#10
best electrical engineering master's degree school in California (College Factual, 2025)
#2
top public colleges for engineering salaries (Wall Street Journal, 2023)
AI model run on the energy needed to power a lightbulb
UCSC researchers developed an open-source alternative to large language models like ChatGPT that uses less energy while still maintaining performance — shaping the future of green computing.
ECE Research News
Explore potential Electrical and Computer Engineering career paths
- AI Engineer
- Computer Hardware Engineer
- Electronics Engineer
- Embedded Systems Engineer
- Robotics Engineer
- Signal Processing Engineer
- Software Engineer
- Systems Engineer
- Telecommunications Engineer
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Professor Holger Schmidt gives a tour of his labs and discusses his research in optofluidics. By working together, Schmidt and his UC Santa Cruz colleagues have discovered important biomedical applications for this technology.
Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering, Marco Rolandi is researching the use of technological devices to mimic biological processes.
Professor Ricardo Sanfelice and his Hybrid Systems Lab works to develop Cyber Physical Systems that incorporate networks, computers, and physics. applied to aerial vehicles and systems that operate in complex environments.
Learn about Robotics and Control Engineering at UC Santa Cruz
Dejan Milutinović and his graduate students study the control of robotic and autonomous vehicle systems, especially in the presence of uncertainty. The research is multidisciplinary, involving control theory, statistical physics, mathematics and mechanics. In the lab, they can test at a small scale, so there is no need to invest in airplanes and automobiles to test their theories.
