Computer technology pervades nearly every aspect of our lives. The driving force behind the explosion of many engineering applications is the fact that available computer power per dollar is more than doubling every two years. This has been going on for the past 20 years, and is expected to continue into the future.

Everything from personal digital assistants (PDA's) to VCR's to automobiles contains computer chips, and with the continuing cost reductions of digital hardware, this trend will accelerate. The integration of computing power or "intelligence" into every day mechanical objects makes applications plausible, which were totally impossible, when a computer took up tens of cubic feet of space and consumed kilowatts of electrical power.

Traditionally, electrical engineers design the circuits and hardware, while computer scientists work with software and applications. With the increasing demand for computer and systems to interact efficiently, developers are looking for professionals whose knowledge integrates expertise from both the electrical engineering and computer science fields. Computer engineers meet this demand by combining expertise in low-level software, high-level hardware and integrated system design.