Electrical and Computer Engineering
Chairperson: Kwang Y. Lee
Graduate Program Director: Keith Schubert
Electrical & Computer Engineering (ELC)
Design of avionics systems for civil and military aircraft. Topics include avionics system technology and architectures; system engineering principles; radar, electro-optical, and radio frequency sensors; displays; and communication and navigation systems.
Geometrical optics, electromagnetic waves, diffraction, interference, polarization, Fourier optics, laser fundamentals, and optical communication basics. Laboratory sessions include semiconductor laser measurement, fiber optic coupling, and Michelson interferometer setup.
Analysis of robot manipulators, including forward and inverse kinematics, rigid-body rotation parameterizations, velocity kinematics, path planning, nonlinear dynamics, single and multi-variable control.
Analysis and design of linear feedback control systems. Laplace transforms, transfer functions, signal-flow graphs, electrical and mechanical system modeling, state variables, system stability, time-domain response, root-locus method, Nyquist criterion, and compensator design. Laboratory exercises to illustrate course concepts.
Analysis of power systems, including energy sources, transmission lines, power flow, transformers, transmission and distribution systems, synchronous generators, stability, power system controls, short-circuit faults, and system protection.
Introduction to power electronic systems with emphasis on power control and switching circuits for AC/DC, DC/DC, and DC/AC converters. Associated laboratory component.
Signal analysis, modulation techniques, random signals and noise, digital transmission, information theory, coding.
Introduction to image formation systems that provide images for medical diagnostics, remote sensing, industrial inspection, nondestructive materials evaluation and optical copying. Image processing, including image enhancement, analysis, and compression. Student specialization through assignments and project.
Software engineering methods and tools. Topics include the development lifecycle, requirements, specifications, design, implementation, verification, validation, and maintenance, project management and professional ethics.
Characterization and design of large-scale wireless sensor networks. Topics include wireless channel utilization, media access protocols, routing, energy management, synchronization, localization, data aggregation, and security. Laboratory exercises using wireless sensor devices, cross-development, and real-time operating systems.
Principles of biomedical instrumentation and their real-world applications. Emphasis on understanding the basic design principles and technologies used in bioelectrical, biomechanical, and clinical instrumentation.
A first course in the principles of solar energy collection, conversion and storage. Topics include solar photovoltaic and thermal collectors, sun-earth geometry, ground and sky radiation models, and balance-of-system components including stratified tanks, pumps, and power inverters. Students will learn industry-standard TRNSYS energy modeling software.
Fundamentals of radiation and propagation, antenna parameters, linear antennas, linear and planar phased arrays, and microstrip antennas. Analysis and design principles, simulation and measurement.
Introduction to passive RF, microwave, and wireless circuit design. Topics include transmission line theory; network analysis; impedance matching techniques; design of resonators, couplers, and filters; diodes; mixers; and principles and techniques of microwave measurements.
This is a second course in radio-frequency and microwave circuits covering microwave amplifier and oscillator design. Topics include the ZY Smith chart, matching network design, gain calculations, design for amplifier stability, noise figure and low-noise amplifier design, gain matching, and negative resistance oscillator design. A final project will require the design, simulation, construction, and testing of an amplifier using microwave CAD tools and hands-on measurements.
Study of advanced topics in electrical or computer engineering. This course may be repeated once under a different topic.
Design and implementation of embedded computer systems using microcontrollers, sensors and data conversion devices, actuators, visual display devices, timers, and applications specific circuits. Software design using microprocessor cross-development systems and real-time operating system principles.
Advanced topics and/or special project activities in electrical or computer engineering.
Selected topics in applied engineering mathematics. Topics include advanced linear algebra, signal theory, and optimization methods.
Computer-automated design of digital circuits. Functional specification; structural and behavioral modeling using hardware description languages; simulation for design verification and timing analysis; circuit synthesis for FPGA implementation; testing and fault diagnosis.
Advanced topics in computer architecture, including instruction set design, instruction pipelines, super scaler and very-long instruction word processors, cache and virtual memory systems, multiprocessor systems, large data storage systems and computer networks.
Hardware and software characteristics of real-time concurrent and distributed reactive control systems; design methodologies; performance analysis; case studies and development projects.
An in-depth study of electromagnetic fields and waves and their applications in modern wireless communication and sensor systems. Topics include Maxwell's equation for complex media, scalar and vector potentials, non-ideal transmission lines, cylindrical waveguides, general properties of guided waves, and antennas.
Fundamentals of microwave sensor design and applications. Emphasis on understanding the basic principles, fundamental electrical and magnetic properties of materials, and the sensor configurations of RF/microwave instruments used in industrial and biomedical application.
Design and analysis of solid-state electronic circuits at RF and microwave frequencies. Emphasis on operational characteristics and design procedures for two- and three-terminal semiconductor devices and the associated passive components and circuit fabrication techniques used for generating, amplifying, and processing signals in this frequency range.
The design of linear amplifiers and oscillators at microwave frequencies, including an emphasis on design procedures for optimum gain, stability, and noise performance of amplifiers and the negative resistance method for oscillators.
Electromagnetics of radar, signal processing of radar, radar imaging, Doppler processing, and radar antenna arrays. Analysis and design principles, simulation, and measurement.
Introduction to the processing and analysis of images in higher dimensions, including images and video. Characterization of higher dimensional signals. Multidimensional Fourier analysis, FFT's, systems and convolution. Reconstruction of images from projections. Tomography, Abel transforms, Radon transforms. Synthesis and restoration of signals using projection methods. Alternating projections onto convex sets.
Applications of signal theory and digital signal processing concepts toward biomedical signals. Topics include filters, signal modeling, adaptive methods, spectral analysis and statistical signal processing methods.
Foundational treatment of probability, random variables and stochastic processes used in the analysis of random signals and noise in many areas of engineering. Topics include the modeling and properties of probability, scalar and vector random variables, the central limit theorem, stochastic processes, stationarity, ergodicity, the Karhunen-Loeve expansion, power spectral densities, response of linear systems to random signals, and Markov chains.
Unified introduction to the theory, implementation, and applications of statistical and adaptive signal processing methods. Key topics focus on spectral estimation, signal modeling, adaptive filtering, and signal detection.
See BME 5357 for course information.
Foundational knowledge of computational intelligence and its application to engineering problems. Discriminant analysis, artificial neural networks, perception training and inversion, fuzzy logic, fuzzy inference engines, evolutionary computation, particle swarms, intelligent agents, and swarm intelligence.
Analysis of linear systems, including system modeling, state-variable representations, discrete-time systems, linear algebra, linear dynamic equations, stability, observability, controllability, state-feedback and state-estimators, realization, and pole placement.
Optimal control problems, static optimization, optimal control of discrete-time systems, the variational approach to optimal control, linear quadratic regulator problems, the maximum principle, extensions of LQR problem, time-optimal control problems, dynamic programming.
Introduction to intelligent control and optimization using a control-engineering approach. Topics include decision-making techniques, neural network architectures for modeling and control, system identification, fuzzy systems, evolutionary algorithms, and swarm intelligence.
Topics include: information models, entropy measures, data compression, coding theory, error correcting codes, the Kraft inequality, optimal codes, Shannon coding theorem, Burg’s theorem, evolutionary informatics, Kolmogorov complexity, algorithmic information theory, and Chaitin's number.
Introduction to distributed power generation, power conversion topologies and their control, power factor correction circuits, harmonic concepts and power quality, modeling and control of grid-connected loads and filters, interconnection standards and control issues, and control systems for rotating machines.
Designed for students in the process of selection of thesis or project topic. Students will gain experience in literature and/or laboratory research methods and formulation of a project appropriate for their area.
See EGR 5396 for course information.
See EGR 5397 for course information.
Students completing a master's program with a thesis must complete six hours of ELC 5V99.
Supervised research for developing a dissertation prospectus that will be the subject of the preliminary exam that will admit students to candidacy. A student may repeat this course for credit with a maximum of ten total hours. Registration for this course is sufficient for achieving full-time status.
Required of all doctoral candidates. In no case will fewer than 12 semester hours be accepted for a dissertation. Students may not enroll for dissertation hours until they have been officially accepted into candidacy for the doctoral degree. After initial enrollment, students must register for at least one semester hour of dissertation every semester thereafter (summer semester excluded).