I used to think computer science was the coolest department on campus. Now I think Electrical and Computer Engineering is the coolest department on campus. If your institution has one take a look at what they’re up to. Here are some of the research labs at Maryland: Bioelectromagnetics; Digital Signal Processing; E-Beam Lithography; Intelligent Servosystems; Nanomagnetics; Photonic Switching; Quantum Devices; Ultrafast Optoelectronics.
I guess what appeals to me about this stuff, in so far as I understand it—and it’s actually not hard to come up to at least a modicum of speed on many of these topics—is its roots, sometimes explicit (as in E-beam lithography) sometimes not (as in optoelectronics)—in prior technologies of reproduction and representation. Kari is fond of saying that textual criticism is being overtaken by linguistics and computer science; perhaps analytical bibliography in the 21st century will look more like nanomagnetics.
Posted by mgk at November 21, 2003 11:00 AMJust returned from a talk by a former UK CS student who works at Google (and has for several years).
Yes, discipline envy. I like what I've seen the culture of engineering. From events like this as well as one or two of their conferences I've been to, I like the attitude toward innovation, the openness, the clarity about why we *have* things like public talks, the optimism about difficult challenges.
Posted by: Ross at November 25, 2003 05:58 PM | Link to Comment