The year in review: 2011-2012 annual report published

The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering achieved record student enrollment and sustained continued strong research expenditures of $21.6 million in the 2011-2012 school year. In addition, the department welcomed six new faculty members, with the total number of ECE faculty growing to 59.

Highlights of the 2011-2012 annual report include:

• Building Better Autonomous Vehicles: Six Ohio State faculty from the departments of electrical and computer engineering, and computer science and engineering are working to scale up the capabilities of fully autonomous vehicles so that they are capable of operating in mixed-traffic urban environments with many other vehicles, including those driven by humans. Their research is funded with a $1.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation’s Cyber-Physical Systems program. 
   
• Saving Energy One Computer at a Time: With the cost to power data centers now outpacing the cost to equip them, Xiaorui Wang, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, sees an enormous opportunity to improve both the efficiency and the reliability of data centers.
   
• Transforming Undergraduate Education: With new, modern lab spaces and a completely redesigned curriculum, the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering is transforming the way its undergraduate students are educated in laboratory courses. ECE’s award-winning new lab model exploits technology to expose undergraduate students to advanced concepts early, and empowers self-guided learning on state-of-the-art equipment through video instruction and carefully designed lab manuals. Calling the ECE-approach a game changer in undergraduate education, Texas Instruments partnered with the department and provided $160,000 to support the effort.