Electrical and computer engineers shape the future through innovation. They develop and improve systems that serve everyday needs of society spanning from high-voltage engineering and sustainable energy, to breakthroughs in wireless technology. Our faculty and students do everything from creating low-cost digital x-ray imagers to combat tuberculosis in developing countries, to building real-time embedded systems to advance the design and reliability of commercial products. The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) is founded on leading engineering education and research, a world-renowned co-operative study program, and a bold history of innovation. Waterloo Engineering is ranked among the top 50 engineering schools in the world, our ECE department is committed to sustaining that excellence in our areas of research while venturing into growing areas of opportunity. We attract the best and brightest students and faculty from around the globe, and our graduates are recruited worldwide by leading engineering firms, corporations, government agencies, and research-intensive universities. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree is ideal for students pursuing a career in fundamental or applied research in academia, government, or corporate environments.
The research area of Communications and Information Systems (CIS) focuses on challenging, relevant problems in communications science and information systems. Research sub-areas of CIS professors span all aspects of communications and information systems from theory to practice, including information theory, stochastic processes, statistical signal processing, coding and network codes, multimedia compression, pseudorandom sequences, cryptography, signal and image processing, digital communications, spread spectrum communications, wireless communications, wireless/Internet networking, broadband networks, optical networks, cooperative and cognitive networks, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems, space-time communications, wireless security, and communication security. Many professors in this area serve or have served as Associated Editors (or Chief Editor) for IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, Communications, Wireless Communications, and Vehicular Communications. Of the faculty working in CIS, two are University Research Chairs, and four are Canada Research Chairs. CIS faculty hold numerous research grants from the federal and provincial governments, and industrial partners.
