September 30, 2022

Dear UW ECE Community,

  It is the beginning of a new academic year! I hope you all had a wonderful summer. I am very happy to see everyone back on campus today, and to welcome all of our new students! I am filled with optimism that this will be a wonderful year for our Department. 
  I am particularly excited that this autumn marks the start of the new BSECE degree. I would like to congratulate everyone who worked over many years to make this new degree a reality! It is a major upgrade. The degree includes everything that makes the EE degree great, plus more flexibility, adaptability, and versatility for our students and instructors. It also includes a few new courses, such as EE 201 (Hardware Skills) and EE 280 (Exploring Devices). Our advising team will be working hard to make sure everyone has a great experience with the new curriculum. Please give them a big “thank you” next time you see them. 
   I am happy to welcome our new faculty members, Akshay Gadre, Mahmood Hameed, Nathan Kutz, Sep Makhsous, and Rahul Trivedi. You can read about their work on our website. We are very glad these faculty chose UW ECE and we look forward to working with them for years to come. 
   We also have some leadership changes. Prof. Mo Li will be our Associate Chair for Research, taking over from Prof. Maryam Fazel. Prof. Denise Wilson will our Associate Chair for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, taking over for Prof. Sam Burden. They will join Prof. Payman Arabshahi, our Associate Chair for Education and Industry Liaison. I would like to thank Profs. Fazel and Burden for all your work in these positions over the last several years and thank you to Profs. Li, Wilson, and Arabshahi for your service! As Department chair, I feel very lucky to work closely with these superstars every day. 
  I would like to remind everyone to take care of yourself, and those around you. It seems that every week there is a new major international or local challenge with the potential to add significant stress to many in our community. Please reach out to Advising, your instructors, your TA’s or myself if you need resources and support. Some recently redeveloped resources include the UW Peer Wellness Coaches, the Counseling Center Mental Health Resources, the Disability Resources for Students, new Academic Skills website and the Husky Health and Wellbeing services. 
  Once again, it is great to welcome you to the start of the 2022–2023 academic year! Do good work. Appreciate and support our community. And have fun!
  Eric