Computer Engineering

The Computer Engineering programme is unique in providing a holistic view of system design. An in-depth understanding of hardware and software is necessary to provide the enabling technology for new societal trends such as ubiquitous online presence and the Internet of Things.

Big data and cloud computing, multicore processors, heterogeneous accelerators, parallel computing are all emerging technologies that are crucial in many domains like the economic sectors, but also increasingly in the medical domain. As future computer engineer, you will be contributing to the design of systems and computational platforms. You will make sure that the requirements of particular applications are optimally supported, by selecting the right combination of hardware and software architectures for satisfying specific constraints with regard to performance, power and cost.

What you will learn

The programme provides you with the skills that are needed in order to design, develop and use software and hardware for computer systems. The courses in the programme address the three different aspects of computer engineering: software design, hardware design and the integration of the two. Understanding the theories that underlie system software (including programming, operating systems and compilers) will help you to create software designs. In addition, the Computer Engineering programme will prepare you for the engineering challenges that lie ahead. You will learn about modern computer architectures and networks and how to explain processors and their ability to perform their calculations, in addition to suggesting methods for optimising these calculations. The processor design project challenges you to optimise your own processors for specific applications with given optimisation targets (e.g. high speed or low power). The purpose of this hands-on project is to achieve optimum system performance that meets the design criteria.

Career prospects

A Master’s degree in Computer Engineering is considered one of the top 10 studies in the world, in terms of job opportunities and salary prospective. A degree from TU Delft constitutes an excellent foundation for a successful international career. Our graduates are employed in many companies, both local and international, and they have taken on a wide variety of tasks. Examples range from designing custom-made computational circuits for mobile phones and implantable medical devices to the design and maintenance of large-scale telecommunication networks. Many of our graduates are working in prominent companies, including NXP, ASML, Philips, Apple, IBM, SUN, Intel, Google and NVIDIA. Others have opted for academic careers, continued their studies in order to pursue a PhD or started their own companies based on their Master’s thesis work.