The School of Electronic, Electrical and Computer Engineering (EECE) at the University of Birmingham employs some 30 full-time academic staff and approximately 60 research assistants, and has a population of around 100 Doctoral Researchers. EECE has an annual income of around ?3 million. Research is supported through grants from the European Union, UK Research Councils, the Ministry of Defence, and UK Industry.
EECE has a long-standing international reputation in research related to Microwave Engineering and Radar Systems and to Power and Control, particularly in Rail Systems. Over the past decade, it has been investing in, and growing, research in areas related to Computer Systems Engineering.
Research themes
The primary (but not only) concern of this research centre is the development of devices and systems for communications and radar. The centre's research covers both basic science and applications. An example of basic science is the work on materials such as dielectrics, ferroelectrics and superconductors. This basic work is complemented by the development of devices such as new, passive and active microwave circuits for real world applications. In addition there is significant work on radar and communication systems.
The Birmingham Centre for Railway Research and Education brings together a multidisciplinary team from across the University to tackle fundamental railway engineering problems. The team actively engage with industry, other universities through Rail Research UK-A, and international partners. The centre also delivers the MSc postgraduate programme in Railway Systems Engineering and Integration.
Research at the HCI Centre includes intelligent interaction, natural interaction, utilizing speech, gesture, activity and emotion, social computing, digital economy, future digital technologies, fusing physical and virtual domains, mobile and ubiquitous computing, and the psychology of interaction.