Electrical and Computer Engineering

News headlines

Research Features

May 18, 2006

ECE Students Win "Meeting of the Minds" Awards

A group of 440 Carnegie Mellon students exhibited their projects at this spring's 11th annual "Meeting of the Minds" undergraduate research symposium, including more than 65 students from the ECE Department. Several ECE students won awards at the event's competitions, which were sponsored by corporations, departments, honor societies, and individuals. The symposium is organized by Carnegie Mellon's Undergraduate Research Office.

May 8, 2006

Carnegie Mellon Team Develops Disability-Friendly Devices

Sometimes tech projects that make the largest impact don't revolve around high-end, new technology. The key is the approach taken to finding a solution for the problem at hand, and being able to combine current technology with cutting-edge tech. Take Trinetra, for instance, a project that aims to develop cost-effective assistive technologies to provide blind people with a greater degree of independence in their daily activities. The Sanskrit word Trinetra refers to the powerful third eye of the Hindu god Shiva.

February 20, 2006

Charap Chosen for Outstanding Research Award

Stanley Charap, an emeritus professor of ECE, was chosen for the College of Engineering's Outstanding Research Award. The honor recognizes an exceptional research contribution that has enhanced the college's reputation in a global or national context and received significant praise from experts in the field. Charap was nominated for his micromagnetic modeling research in the late 1990s proving if hard disk drive scaling continued at the current rate, the industry had only about five years before area storage density would hit the superparamagnetic limit, becoming thermally unstable.

February 7, 2006

Carnegie Mellon Celebrates Success of Spin-off Akustica Inc.

Carnegie Mellon President Jared L. Cohon recognized the success of Akustica, Inc., as well as the university's contributions to the economic development of the Pittsburgh region during a recent meeting on campus of Akustica's Board of Directors. Founded by ECE and Robotics Professor Ken Gabriel (left), Akustica, located in Pittsburgh's South Side Works, builds microphone chips for laptops, cell phones and other digital media using microelectromechanical technology. The company, which has grown to more than 40 employees, recently shipped several of its test products to the marketplace and is awaiting its first orders.

July 11, 2005

ECE Team Brings Winning Care to Microsoft Competition

ECE classmates Mark Pimentel and Andy Shen and recent alumnus Bryan Chen (M.S. and B.S. 2005) developed a better information system for healthcare professionals for Microsoft’s Software Design Invitational. The three answered a challenge to use Microsoft® .NET Framework and .NET Web services to create a mobile application that dissolves the boundaries between people through smart technology. SmartCare is a healthcare platform that provides easy, more-secure sharing of patient information without the need to replace existing information technology.