150 years of teaching, research and innovation
The department has a long and proud history as one of the leading institutions for electrical and electronic engineering. Discover some of the key events, notable people and pioneering research - from the Victorian era to the information age.
Bright sparks
From the first generation to the modern age..
1878
Evening classes in practical electricity first taught at Finsbury Technical College
1884
City & Guilds London Institute opened in South Kensington
1899
Hertha Ayrton becomes the first woman to present a paper at the Institution of Electrical Engineers
1907
Imperial College founded
1914-18
JT Irwin's parabolic reflector and hot wire microphone detects enemy aircraft from up to 100 miles
1931
Alan Blumlein invents stereo sound, one of the most important advances in C20th audio engineering
The next wave
From human communication to human-computer interaction
1937
Pulse code modulation, the digital representation of analogue sound, is invented by Alec Reeves
1957
Colin Cherry's 'On Human Communicaion' influential in telecommunication and cognitive science
1967
Eric Laithwaite, pioneer of magnetic levitation - tv lectures insipre a new generation of young engineers
1971
Denis Gabor, inventor of holography, is awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics
1978
New 'Management' degree features business and social studies to help train future engineering leaders
1980
Bob Spence's 'Bifocal Display' - information visualisation techniques are now a familiar concept in modern computer interfaces.
Future innovation
Engineering for a changing world, and other planets..
1985
Tony Constantinides awarded Palmes Academiques for pioneering work in digital signal filters
1992
Igor Aleksander, designer of neural pattern recognition system WISARD, demonstrates Magnus — the thinking machine
2001
Testing begins on implantable prosthetic cochlear, an analogue chip developed by Chris Toumazou
2005
Maria Petrou, developer of novel image recognition techniques and prolific scientific author becomes EEE's first woman Professor.
2008
NASA Phoenix misson to Mars. Tom Pike leads the building of a microscope to detect the presence of ice.
2009
Smart Energy Lab opens. £1M facility investigating smart control for future global energy needs
Smarter, faster, greener
Meeting 21st century challenges in energy, healthcare, security and communications
2011
Student entrepreneurs continue to develop projects such as BBOXX and help solve real-world engineering problems
2014
World class research including David Mayne's work in control theory helps us achieve the highest research rating of all EEE departments in the UK
2020
Global pandemic inspires developments in rapid lab-on-a-chip diagnostic testing, and advances learning and teaching innovations
2020
Esther Rodriguez Villegas awarded RAEng Silver Medal for her pioneering and commercially successful work in wearable devices
2021
Launch of I-X — Imperial’s new flagship interdisciplinary initiative in artificial intelligence, machine learning and data sciences
What comes next..?
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