The Computer Engineering Degree Curriculum is a combination of the core courses from electrical engineering and from computer science that most closely relate to the design of computers or to the design of systems containing computing devices. This curriculum encompasses nearly all areas of electrical engineering: e.g. 1) the design of workstation, mainframe, and supercomputers; 2) the design of communication control and signal processing systems with their special purpose processors; and 3) the design of instruments, appliances, toys, etc., that use microprocessors or microcontrollers. The following four suggested Computer Engineering Focus Areas reflect different levels of design.

Computer Architecture

Computer development is driven by the need for increased speed and decreased cost. Computer architects analyze the behavior of computers with different functionality and organization to develop new approaches for improving computer speed. They also incorporate advancements in the fabrication and design of VLSI circuits to decrease cost.

Computer and Embedded System Design

Nearly all devices and instruments contain computers, usually in the form of a microcontroller in a so-called embedded system. Engineers in this specialty design embedded systems within computers for sensing and control in many applications including automobiles, aircraft, industrial assembly lines, appliances, and instruments.

VLSI and Computer-Aided Design (CAD)

VLSI (Very Large Scale Integrated) systems are complex circuit designs that can be implemented for general purposes, i.e. microprocessors or microcontrollers, or for special purposes such as communication, control, signal processing and other applications. Computer engineers use CAD tools to design, simulate, and test these digital and analog systems.

Networks and Communication

The Internet has placed extreme demands on the network infrastructure and processor architectures connecting computers to each other and to servers. Engineers specializing in computer networks design the hardware and software to interconnect locally or widely spaced computer systems. These designs attempt to minimize network congestion.