December ECEDHA Community Summit Recap

Preparing the ECE Workforce in the AI Era



This month, ECEDHA continued its Summit Series with a focused Community Summit on Preparing the ECE Workforce in the AI Era, advancing an ongoing, multi-month conversation about how artificial intelligence is reshaping engineering education and workforce expectations. This session built directly on themes raised across earlier summits, regional meetings, and category discussions.

The summit brought together academic and industry voices to examine how AI is changing entry-level roles, redefining technical and professional competencies, and influencing how students and families evaluate ECE programs. From the outset, the discussion acknowledged that AI is no longer a peripheral topic. It now sits at the center of curriculum planning, advising conversations, and employer engagement.

What ECEDHA Heard This Fall

Shared Priorities from

Regional Conversations

Throughout fall 2025, ECEDHA regional meetings brought department heads and academic leaders together at for discussions about how departments are thriving and what challenges they are facing. While each meeting reflected local contexts, the conversations converged around a shared set of topics shaping departments nationwide. From California to the Southeast and the Mid-Atlantic, chairs described an environment defined by rapid AI adoption, uncertainty in federal funding, evolving accreditation expectations, and concerns about how to sustain faculty and student success amid change.

Across regions, AI emerged as both an opportunity and a source of tension. Departments are working to determine how it should be taught and who should lead it. Faculty described the challenge of integrating AI meaningfully without hollowing out foundational knowledge, particularly in circuits, signals, and systems. Participants emphasized a shift away from banning AI tools toward teaching students how to verify outputs, understand limitations, and demonstrate learning through process, presentation, and applied problem-solving. These conversations reflected broader national debates about AI literacy, workforce readiness, and academic integrity as generative AI becomes embedded across industry and higher education.

World’s Smallest Programmable Robots Perform Tasks

By: Kate McAlpine, Michigan Engineering 

Microscale swimming bots developed by U-M and Penn take in sensory information, process it and carry out tasks, opening new possibilities in manufacturing and medicine.

The world’s smallest fully programmable, autonomous robots have debuted at the University of Pennsylvania, sporting a brain developed at the University of Michigan.

These microscopic swimming machines can independently sense and respond to their surroundings, operate for months and cost just a penny each.

Barely visible to the naked eye, each robot measures about 0.2 by 0.3 by 0.05 millimeters, operating at the scale of many microorganisms. They can be programmed to move in complex patterns, sense local temperatures and adjust their paths in response.

How Quantum Entanglement Can Advance Disaster Relief, Communication Methods

By: Noah Frank

Doctoral student Alexander DeRieux, under the advisement of Professor Walid Saad, used the unique properties of quantum bits, or qubits, as a method of transmitting information.

Any time you use a device to communicate information — an email, a text message, any data transfer — the information in that transmission crosses the open internet, where it could be intercepted. Such communications are also reliant on internet connectivity, often including wireless signal on either or both ends of a transmission.

But what if two — or 10, or 100, or 1,000 — entities could be connected in such a way that they could communicate information without any of those security or connectivity concerns?

That’s the challenge that Alexander DeRieux, a Virginia Tech Ph.D. student and Bradley Fellow in the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, under the advisement of Professor Walid Saad, set out to tackle using quantum entanglement. In short, they used the unique properties of quantum bits, or qubits, as a method of transmitting information.

Researchers Tackle AI's Energy Problem with a Greener Fix By: Grace Stanley, Cornell Tech



Artificial intelligence is getting more powerful – but it’s also racking up a massive energy bill. Some estimate that one maximum-length ChatGPT query can use about twice as much power as an average U.S. home does in one minute. Multiply that by billions of queries and the enormous training AI models require, and the energy impact is staggering.

As researchers are racing to find greener ways to power AI, a new study led by Tianyi Chen, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Cornell Tech, with collaborators from IBM and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, explores a promising solution: analog in-memory computing (AIMC), utilizing analog chips.



Unlike traditional architectures, which constantly move data back and forth between memory and processors, AIMC stores and processes data in a single location. “This leverages physics to perform the math calculation instantly without moving the data, potentially slashing power consumption by 1,000 times and making the next generation of AI sustainable,” said Chen, who is also associate professor at Cornell Engineering.

Purdue ECE Researcher Helps Develop Award-Winning Tool to Make AI Model Sharing Safer By: Purdue University

A Purdue University researcher is part of a multi-institution team recognized at one of the world’s leading cybersecurity conferences for developing a new tool that helps protect users from malicious artificial intelligence models.

The paper, “PickleBall: Secure Deserialization of Pickle-based Machine Learning Models,” received a CCS Distinguished Artifact Award at the 2025 ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS). Purdue’s James Davis, an assistant professor in the Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, is a co-author along with Purdue alumnus Wenxin Jiang. Purdue collaborated with Columbia University, Brown University, Technion–Israel Institute of Technology, Google, and Socket on the project.

The work tackles a growing problem in AI: attackers hiding harmful code inside machine learning models.

IEEE Texas Symposium on Wireless & Microwave Circuits and Systems

April 15-16, 2026

The Texas Symposium on Wireless and Microwave Circuits and Systems conference will be held on April 15-16, 2026, at the Baylor Research and Innovation Collaborative (BRIC) building on the Baylor University campus in Waco, TX.

In addition to the paper presentation sessions, the symposium will include a Plenary talk, several invited talks and tutorials, an exhibition, and a student poster competition for both graduate and undergraduate students. Awards will be given for the best poster presentations.

Call for Papers

Submissions Due 2/19/26

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN!

Conference Home | Register | Program Schedule | Hotel & Travel

Join us for the largest annual gathering of ECE academia and industry across North America. This premier event will include:

• An intensive conference program of Keynotes, Plenary Panels, & Breakout Sessions
• Specialized programming for ECE Lab Professionals, New Chairs & Students
• ECExpo technology exhibition
• Full-day Workshops
• Ample opportunity for networking

New Conference Program Feature!

ECEDHA AI ECE Accelerator Symposium

Thursday, March 19, 2026, from 11:30 am - 5:00 pm

ECEDHA’s AI ECE Accelerator Symposium is a curated experience designed to connect academic innovators and industry partners and showcase how AI is being integrated across ECE education to prepare the future engineering workforce.

Register today to take advantage of the Early Bird Discount (a $200 savings)

Discount Deadline: Friday, February 6, 2026

Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort and Spa is expected to sell out. Secure your accommodations soon!

Hotel Deadline: Friday, February 13, 2026.

For assistance with registration, please contact information@ecedha.org

Upcoming Summit

ECEDHA Community Summit: Preparing Power Engineers for an AI-Enabled Energy Future Wednesday, February 11, 2026, 1:00 - 2:00 pm CT

2025-2026 ECEDHA Memberships

Renew Today!



Renew your institution's membership today to continue receiving valuable ECEDHA member benefits for you and your department.

For assistance with membership renewal, please contact membership@ecedha.org or 312-268-5601

Renewing your ECEDHA membership keeps you connected to a collaborative network of ECE leaders, valuable resources, and opportunities to engage in programs and events. It ensures access to best-practice sharing and partnerships that strengthen your department and advance the ECE community.

Final Nominations Call for the 2025 ECEDHA Awards!

Nominations due by Monday, December 22, 2025

ECEDHA members are encouraged to nominate outstanding colleagues and leaders within the ECE community. All nominations are due by Monday, December 22, 2025. Award recipients will be notified in January 2026. The ECEDHA Annual Awardees will be honored during the ECEDHA Awards Ceremony, which will take place on Saturday, March 21, 2026, at the ECEDHA Annual Conference & ECExpo in Santa Ana Pueblo, New Mexico.

ECEDHA Community Development Award

ECE Technology Integration Award

ECEDHA Industry Award

ECE Innovative Program Award

ECEDHA is pleased to provide a platform for members to post job announcements

University of Minnesota - ECE Faculty Positions: Artificial Intelligence, Optics, and Computer Engineering (Posted 12/2/2025)

Tufts University - Multiple open-rank openings in Electrical or Computer Engineering (Posted 12/3/2025)

University of Wyoming - Inaugural Dean of the School of Computing (Posted 12/3/2025)

Cleveland State University - Tenure-Track Faculty Position in Electrical and Computer Engineering (Posted 12/4/2025)

Rutgers University - Tenure-Track Faculty Positions in Electrical and Computer Engineering (Posted 12/9/2025)

Norfolk State University - Tenure-Track Faculty Position - Department Chair, Department of Engineering, College of Science, Engineering, and Technology (Posted 12/9/2025)

University of Nevada, Las Vegas - Assistant Professor-In-Residence, Electrical and Computer Engineering Department (Posted 12/10/2025)

University of Delaware - Assistant Professor (Tenure Track) – Electrical & Computer Engineering (Artificial Intelligence) (Posted 12/18/25)

Featured Job Posting

Norfolk State University - Tenure-Track Faculty Position - Department Chair, Department of Engineering, College of Science, Engineering, and Technology (Posted 12/9/2025)

View Job Posting

To post a job announcement, please contact information@ecedha.org

ECEDHA TIMEE Summit

Bringing Physical AI into the ECE Classroom

Explore how ECE departments are integrating physical, edge-enabled AI across the curriculum, from hands-on freshman labs to capstone projects, through practical models and industry-informed tools you can apply in your own courses.

ECE WEBINAR

The Future of Hands-On Learning for

Modern ECE Curriculum

Featuring Southern Methodist University and industry partner Red Pitaya, this session highlights how hands-on instrumentation is enhancing ECE teaching and learning across the curriculum.