They were at Waterloo, my alma matter. CS was far more mathematical and EE had a much broader basis in physics. Comp Eng was the middle ground with overlap on both.

That's right, and that's harmful to people who want to "higher up the stack" than EE. This new major helps address that problem.

They certainly are at UT Austin! But UT Austin has a separate Computer Engineering degree that's very similar to EE.