The University of Tennessee Knoxville
- 27,845 students (Fall 2015)
- 5,982 graduate students
- $250 million research budget
- 50% growth in research expenditures over 5 years
The University of Tennessee Knoxville (UTK) is Tennessee's flagship land grant university. Founded in 1794, and re-established as the University of Tennessee in 1879, UTK has grown continually into a research institution which today has over $250 million in research expenditures annually.
The Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), within the College of Engineering, consists of 44 faculty members, nearly 800 undergraduates, and 100 graduate students.
Of the 44 faculty in the EECS department, eight full time faculty specialize in power electronics or power systems, and an additional 5 specialize in microelectronics. Five additional joint faculty with Oak Ridge National Laboratory carry out research and teach courses in micro- and power electronics.
Knoxville, Tennessee
- 179,000 population
- Host of 1982 World's Fair
- Top 5 most affordable US cities
- Top 10 Metropolitan Hotspots in the US
- 17th best music scene in the US
Knoxville, a metropolitan hotspot within the state of Tennessee, has ranked highly in national surveys of places to live due to its low cost-of-living, rapid business growth, and close proximity to Oak Ridge National Lab, Great Smokey Mountain National Park, revitalized downtown, and epansive entertainment opportunities.
Temperatures in Knoxville rarely pass below 32 or above 90°F
EECS Department
The EECS Department resides within the Min H. Kao Engineering Building, named for UTK graduate and CEO of Garmin Ltd. The building, newly built in 2012, has over 150,000 square feet of office, teaching, and research space dedicated to Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Nearly 30,000 square feet of space are dedicated to research efforts in power electronics.
The department also hosts the lead campus of the Center for Ultra-wide-area Resilient Energy Transmission Networks (CURENT). CURENT is the recipient of over $40 million in research and eduction funding from the US National Science Foundation and Department of Energy to study and educate the future workforce for the US electrical grid. CURENT has over 30 industry partners, and three partner universities in Northeastern University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and Tuskegee University.
