After the re-establishment of National Chiao Tung University (NCTU) in Taiwan in 1958, the first institute to be founded was the Institute of Electronics. Recognizing the rapid advancements in automatic control technology and the growing demand for skilled professionals, the university established the Department of Automatic Control in 1965. Two years later, in 1967, it was renamed the Department of Control Engineering.
At that time, Taiwan’s computer technology was in its infancy, and the department played a crucial role in nurturing talent in this emerging field. In 1970, it was renamed the Department of Computing and Control Engineering, comprising two divisions: Computing and Control. In 1972, the Computing division was separated to form the Department of Computer Science, which later evolved into today’s Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering at NCTU. The original department was then renamed back to the Department of Control Engineering. Subsequently, a master's program was established in 1981, followed by a doctoral program in 1986, to admit graduate students.
With the rapid advancement of technology, the scope of control engineering continued to evolve and became closely integrated with various fields of electrical engineering, including information technology, electronics, communications, networking, signal processing, and artificial intelligence. As the department's faculty and research areas expanded in complexity and diversity, the name "Control Engineering" no longer fully reflected its academic scope. Consequently, in 1997, it was renamed the Department of Electrical and Control Engineering.
Over the following decade, the field of electrical engineering saw unprecedented advancements in practical applications. A simple renaming was no longer sufficient to keep pace with these developments. To cultivate well-rounded electrical engineering students, discussions began on establishing a dedicated Department of Electrical Engineering. After three years of collaboration in undergraduate curriculum planning and research projects, the department merged with the undergraduate program of the Department of Telecommunications Engineering in 2009, forming the Department of Electrical Engineering. Meanwhile, the graduate programs were reorganized into the Institute of Electrical and Control Engineering, which continues to this day.