Electrical, Computer & Energy Engineering Department News - Nov. 17, 2020

In March of this year, just after stay-at-home orders were announced, I accepted the job as chair of the Department of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering at CU Boulder. While I knew that we would be facing numerous challenges, I was very excited about the opportunity to help lead our department through them.

Before taking on this role full-time on July 1, I served for 25 years on the faculty at the University of Utah. Since joining CU Boulder, I’ve had numerous opportunities to meet with faculty, staff, students and alumni, and I’ve been very impressed with their commitment to the department. I’m convinced that the strength of our community is what has enabled us to continue to prosper in these difficult times.  

In addition to myself, the department welcomed faculty member Josh Combes (quantum) for the fall semester. We are also pleased to announce two faculty hires — Andras Gyenis (quantum) and Luca Corradini (power electronics) — who will be joining us in fall 2021. 

This newsletter describes a number of our most recent accomplishments:

• Multiple faculty members are part of a team awarded a $25 million interdisciplinary NSF quantum center that will build a national infrastructure for quantum sensing.
• Several faculty members are also part of a team awarded a $50 million NSF Engineering Research Center that will develop infrastructure and systems to facilitate the widespread adoption of electric vehicles. 
• NSF CAREER awards for two of our junior faculty members.
• Continued expansion of our new online master's in electrical engineering (MS-EE) degree program.
• Successful transition of many courses and labs to remote and hybrid delivery modes.

Once again, I’m very excited to be here and serving as chair of this dynamic department. I look forward to opportunities in the future to meet more of our community members. While we certainly still have a few more challenges ahead, I’m convinced that our best days are ahead of us.

Sincerely,
Professor Chris J. Myers

Two new courses — “M2M and IoT Interface Design and Protocols” and “Real-time Embedded Systems Project” — are scheduled to launch in January 2021. Hosted on Coursera, each course is eight weeks long and designed specifically for online learning. Admission is performance-based — no application required! Try a course or start working toward your master's today.  

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The department has teamed with the National Renewable Energy Research Lab to offer a professional master's program focused on building the power grid of the future. Instructors from CU Boulder and NREL teach courses designed to help students learn about grid modernization-related challenges the laboratory is addressing.

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