The Department is one of the leading departments in its subject area, worldwide, and of departments that submitted all of their academic research staff for assessment in the 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF), UCL was ranked as the leading department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering in the UK in terms of research outputs, with 37.7% of research outputs given the highest 4* world leading rating and 58.3% given 3* internationally excellent. Departments were also assessed for the non-academic impact of their research and for the quality of their research environment to arrive at an overall rating. Here UCL was ranked as one of the top two departments of Electronic and Electrical Engineering in the UK who submitted all of their academic research staff for assessment, with an overall ratings profile of 40% 4*, 57% 3*, 3% 2* and no 1* or unclassified activity.
The Department leads the EPSRC funded Centres for Doctoral Training (CDT) in Integrated Photonic and Electronic Systems (IPES) and Photonic Systems Development, both joint centres with the University of Cambridge. Other CDTs that EEE academics are involved in are the Imperial-UCL CDT in Advanced Characterisation of Materials and the UCL CDT in Developing Quantum Technologies.
We are proud of our heritage as the first Electrical Engineering department in England and our ethos of constant development and innovation continues a tradition inspired by our first Head of Department, Professor Sir Ambrose Fleming, inventor of the thermionic valve and hence the founder of the discipline of electronics. We offer both three year (BEng) and four year (MEng) undergraduate programmes, which are continually updated and shaped by both industrial and academic requirements, as well as a range of specialist MSc and PhD programmes.
