Message from the Chair

Greetings from Michigan’s beautiful Upper Peninsula and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Michigan Technological University. I hope you enjoy browsing our new website and learning about the department. Whether you are a prospective student, a current student, a parent, a former Husky, a government or industry representative, or just a curious onlooker, I think you will find plenty here to interest you.

Michigan Tech is a singular sort of place. The University was founded in 1885 to serve the educational needs of the Keweenaw Peninsula’s booming mining industry; to this day, members of Michigan Tech’s exceptional learning community exhibit the same practical, self-reliant, can-do attitude that has always epitomized this part of the country. Our graduating engineers enjoy a nationwide reputation for bringing immediate value to their employers and for having a strong entrepreneurial spirit. The passion for education and knowledge shared by our faculty members is evident in their classrooms and laboratories. And the great thing is, we get to do it all from this stunning location, which is near Lake Superior and gets over two hundred inches of snowfall per year.

In my role as department chair, I love being an ambassador, not only for this fine department, but also for the fields of electrical and computer engineering in general. In my view, electrical engineers defined the twentieth century, all the way from universal electrical power and global telecommunications to computers and the Internet. The world today would be a quite different place were it not for the efforts of the brilliant professionals who figured out how to push electrons around for the benefit of humankind. Our catch phrase here is “Thank an electrical/computer engineer.” I invite you to do just that the next time you turn on a light switch, pick up a phone, watch a hockey game on TV, or send an email halfway around the world. I am proud to be a part of this profession and proud that Michigan Tech grads were there every step of the way.

Our department has 28 faculty members, about 600 undergraduate and 250 graduate students, and about $2M in externally funded research grants and contracts. We are about much more than numbers, though. Our mission is to educate the next generation of electrical and computer engineers and to bring about technological innovations in electrical energy, computer systems, applied physics, signal processing, and industrial control that are critical to the economic competitiveness of the US and the state of Michigan. As a student, parent, employer, alumnus, or research sponsor, you can be a part of that mission, too. We’re all in this together. I invite you to get to know us, and if you see something you like—or don’t like—feel free to drop me a line.

Daniel R. Fuhrmann
Professor and Chair