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History of the ECE Department: 1990-1999

 

1990
	Motorola, Inc., Portable Products Division in Plantation, Florida, donated 100 two-way radios worth $200,000.  The radios will be used  for instruction in the laboratory component of the senior level communications course.
	Valid Logic Systems helped department move forward in engineering education and research by donation $2.6 million of electronic design tools.  The extensive software gift will provide EE students to opportunity to design integrated circuits with state-of-the-art design capabilities.
	IBM donated computer equipment and software to EE. The equipment will be used for computer-aided design, reducing the time required to generate photomasks to test newly designed electronic circuits.  Used in conjunction with photomask equipment previously donated by IBM, the computers will enable researchers to study areas that have been unexplored because of the length of time required for outside vendors to generate photomasks.
	Hewlett Packard Co., donated money for an electrical engineering lab to provide instruction in analysis and design of electronic circuits
	Dr. Martin Uman becomes department chair
	A team headed by EE professor, Dr. Peter Zory, develops the world's first optically powered room temperature blue laser.
1991
	Dr. Rudolf A. Kalman was elected of the National Academy of Engineering for pioneering contributions to the estimation and control of dynamical systems.
1992
	UNF BSEE program splits from UF to stand on its own
1993
	Joint UF/UWF BSEE and BSCEN program established
	Dr. Julius Tou invented the first machine that can translate Chinese correctly into idiomatic English.
1994
	In November, UF and Camp Blanding Army National Guard Base sign agreement forming the International Center for Lightning Research and Testing. The agreement allows EE's Lightning Research Lab to use an 81-acre site for artificially initiating lightning from existing thunderstorms.
1995
	The department has 29 research laboratories and groups
	Groundbreaking ceremony for the New Engineering Building.  This building will be shared by Electrical, Aerospace, and Environmental Engineering
1996
	Departmental name changed to Electrical and Computer Engineering
	Begins offering BSCEN degree jointly with CISE Department
1997
	February 21 College holds dedication ceremony for the New Engineering Building.  ECE departmental facilities expand to include three floors of the newly dedicated New Engineering Building. The second floor houses EE's teaching labs and office for graduate assistants and support staff. The fourth and fifth floors house faculty offices and lab space for digital signal procesing, communications, systems and controls, computer engineering, electronics, and power areas.