Bachelor of Science (BS) in Computer Engineering
Departments: Electrical & Computer Engineering and Computer Science (offered jointly by the two departments)
Enrollment: 345, Fall 2025
Degrees Awarded: 54, June 2025
Research areas: Bioinspired Computing; Circuit and System Design; Computer Architecture; Electronic Design Automation & Testing; Emerging Technologies for Computing; Energy-efficient Computing; Nanotechnology; Networking; Operating and Distributed Systems; Software and Language
Program Overview
The undergraduate computer engineering program is offered jointly by the departments of Computer Science and Electrical & Computer Engineering at UCSB. The multidisciplinary program of study promotes the evolution of computer hardware through a combination of these curricula. The curriculum provides a broad education in the fundamentals of computer engineering, as well as a solid foundation in basic science, including mathematics. Students can specialize in areas such as computer networks, computer systems design, distributed systems, multimedia, programming languages, real-time computing and control, very large scale integration (VLSI), robotics, signals and systems, design and test automation, machine learning, and system software architecture.
Subjects & Careers
Ever wonder how your mobile devices really work? The technology is a combination of specialized audio decompression circuits, delicate touch sensors, nonvolatile flash memory, tiny embedded processors, and layers of complex carefully choreographed software. Computer engineers build these systems at a discipline that intersects both computer science and electrical engineering. UCSB’s computer engineering program focuses on the design of computer systems. Students learn a mixture of hardware design and software concepts and gain unique capabilities related to creating and interfacing computer systems — including robotics, circuit design, and networking — in the real world. Computer engineers gain more software-based training than electrical engineers, and differ from computer science majors in that the curriculum focuses more on lowest-level interactions between software and hardware, digital hardware design, and peripheral systems interfacing.
Senior Year Projects
Computer Engineering majors are required to complete a two-quarter course in their senior year, culminating in a Senior Capstone Project presented prior to graduation.
Specialized Student Organizations
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
Robotics Club
Women in Software and Hardware
+ View all engineering student organizations