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File 1883The ECE department offers seven undergraduate areas of concentration for technical electives. These enable students to gain expertise and specialized knowledge and personalize their programs of study.  
    
All students in the electrical engineering program of study must take at least 11 hours in one of the areas of concentration, including at least one 700-level class. Students must also take either a second concentration of 11 hours in another of the areas (including one 700-level class), or two additional concentrations of five hours each.  

Students in the computer engineering program of study must take 12 hours of technical electives from a list of classes that includes subjects such as microprocessors, signal processing, computer networks and architecture, semiconductors and applied software design. Computer engineering students also have the option of exploring additional areas outside of computers, such as business, other engineering fields and additional Electrical Engineering coursework.

Refer to the Undergraduate Handbook and ECE bingo sheets for complete information on all degree requirements.

Start planning your technical elective program early, while you're taking ECE 323, to help ensure desired courses will be available when needed. Many technical electives must be taken in sequence and usually sequences are only offered once each year.

Click on the links below to learn more about each of the areas of concentration or download an areas of concentration brochure.

Circuits and Electronics

Beyond the core requirements, circuits and electronics is available as an area of concentration. Desktop and embedded computers are only practical because of the advances in circuit design in integrated circuits. All electrical systems depend on electronic circuits that evolve to become smaller, faster, cheaper, and better.

Students interested in circuits and electronics can obtain more hands-on electronic experience by studying both analog and digital integrated circuits.

RF/Microwave electronics is crucial in implementation of wireless systems, including integrated transceiver circuits and RF power amplifiers.

Power electronics deals with circuit elements used to transform, regulate, and manage power signals.

Classes:

For more information
Contact any of the circuits and electronic faculty: Profs. Bibyk, DeGroat, Ismail, Khalil, Roblin (chair), Rojas, Wang and Xu


Communications and Signal Processing

Communication systems and signal processing are long-standing areas of interest for electrical engineers. Audio, image, and video compression (JPEG, MPEG, MP3); medical imaging (MRI), image denoising/deblurring (Hubble telescope), music signal processing, radar, wireless computing (iPhone), sensor networks, and digital television are but a few examples of today’s communication and signal processing technologies.

A full set of technical electives are available for further study in both disciplines. Some of these are system oriented and prepare the student for industry, while others are more theoretical and are recommended for preparation for graduate school.

Classes:

  • Communications: 501, 508 (lab), 702
  • Digital Signal Processing: 600, 609 (lab), 700
  • Image Processing: 706, 706D, 707
  • Strong focus on Communication and Signal Processing: 501, 508 (lab), 600, 609 (lab), 700, 702
  • Preparation for advanced studies: 700, 702
  • Estimation: 650*
  • Data processing for transportation applications: 675

* ECE 650 hours may only be counted once in an area of concentration even though it appears in both the Communications and Control areas.

For more information
Contact any of the communications and signal processing faculty: Profs. Clymer, Coifman, Ekici, El-Gamal, Eryilmaz, Ismail,  Koksal, Krishnamurthy, Martinez, Moses, Potter (chair), Schniter, and Shroff
 

Computers

Computer technology continues to be at the heart of the growth that is taking place in American industry. Its role remains strong in business and manufacturing, while the consumer industry is increasingly affected by improvements in cost, size, and performance. Computers are a strong element in any Electrical Engineering program.
 
The Computer Engineering program allows students to specialize in this important area and has more specific guidelines for technical electives (see the Undergraduate Handbook).

A number of elective courses are available, both in the ECE program and in the CpE program. Many of the courses are design oriented and provide excellent preparation for a job in industry. Others provide a further development of the theory and are especially effective in preparation for graduate study in Computer Engineering.

Classes:

  • Computer Design: 561, 567 (lab), 662, 667 (lab), 694A, 694.03, 762, 764
  • Microprocessor Systems: 765
  • Computer Interfaces and Protocols, Networking: 766
  • Robotics: 763
  • Preparation for advanced studies: 662, 694A, (also 779 from Communications)
  • Component Based Systems: 668, 767

For more information
Contact any of the computer faculty:

Computer Networks
Students wishing more information should contact any of the faculty in the area: Profs. Ekici, El-Gamal, Eryilmaz, Khan, Klein, Koksal (chair), F. Ozguner, Schniter and Shroff

Computer Systems
Students wishing more information should contact any of the faculty in the area: Profs. Catalyurek, DeGroat, Khan, Klein (chair), Krishnamurthy, and F. Ozguner

Computer Vision/Image Processing/Multimedia
Students wishing more information should contact any of the faculty in the area: Profs. Clymer, Krishnamurthy, Martinez (chair), Moses and Zheng


Control

An automatic feedback control system is composed of three key components. First, there are sensors that measure the state of a system. Second, there are actuators that can manipulate system variables. Third, there is a decision-making system (controller) that uses information from the sensors to decide how to modulate the actuators so that the overall system behaves in a desirable manner. For instance, by sensing roll, pitch, and yaw, the control system on board an airplane can autonomously fly the plane in a smooth manner even in the presence of significant wind disturbances. Control systems are the essential components in other aerospace systems, space exploration, autonomous robots, automotive systems, manufacturing, and intelligent systems. With its emphasis on analysis and design for complex systems, students frequently find control a fascinating area of study.

Some of the control elective courses listed on the right are design oriented and focused on preparing a student for entry into industry; others have a more theoretical perspective and are especially effective preparation for graduate study in control.

Classes:

  • Introduction to Feedback Control: 551, 557 (lab)
  • Analog Control: 752
  • Digital Control: 755, 757 (lab)
  • Strong focus on Control: 752, 753.01, 753.02, 755, 757 (lab)
  • Preparation for advanced studies: 650*, 750, 752, 754, 755, 757 (lab)
  • Control Applications: 753.01, 753.02, 757 (lab), 758 (lab)
  • Numerical Techniques: 759

    * ECE 650 hours may only be counted once in an area of concentration even though it appears in both the Communications and Control areas.

For more information
Contact any of the control faculty: Profs. Coifman, Hemami, U. Ozguner, Passino, Serrani, Utkin (chair) and Yurkovich
 


Electromagnetics and Optics

Electromagnetics is fundamental to all physics-based electrical engineering, such as antennas and propagation, photonics, solid state electronics, and power systems. Electromagnetism plays a central role in wireless/optical communications systems, radar, and remote sensing systems. For example, in addition to AM-FM radio and cellular antennas, future automobiles are predicted to have radar antennas for use with an automated highway system, tracking antennas for use with the Global Positioning System (GPS), and communication antennas to receive information about road conditions. A growing area of electromagnetics is electromagnetic compatibility, which involves the design of electronics which can operate properly even in the presence of electromagnetic fields generated from other sources.

In medicine, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines involve structures which must produce a very uniform magnetic field so as not to distort the image. Within the optical portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, coherent light from a laser and light from incoherent sources drive research in information technology, telecommunications, health care, the life sciences, optical sensing, lighting, energy, manufacturing, and national defense. The use of light provides a route to compact and high bandwidth systems.

Classes:
All classes, except 719, are practically oriented and are designed for students entering industry or graduate school.

  • Electromagnetics Lab: 517 (lab)
  • Electromagnetic Compatibility: 614
  • Microwave Circuits and Lab: 710, (also 723 from Circuits area)
  • Antennas and Radiation: 613, 711
  • Radio Wave Propagation: 713
  • Radar Systems: 714
  • Optics: 716, 717, (also 732, 737, 731 from Solid State Electronics and Photonics area)
  • Electromagnetic Field Theory: 719
  • Numerical Methods: 715    

For more information
Contact any of the EM and optics faculty: Profs. Anderson, Berger, Johnson, Khalil, J. Lee (chair), R. Lee, Reano, Rojas, Roblin, Teixeira and Volakis


Sustainable Energy & Power Systems

Since the electric power industry’s modest origins in 1882, the technology to generate, transport, and use electricity has expanded and modernized at an astounding rate. Today the electric power industry is among the leaders in using high technology. It has grown from Thomas A. Edison’s first electric power company, which provided energy to roughly a quarter-square-mile area, to the largest single industry in the United States.

Electric power engineers have a large choice of areas. For example, they are involved in system and component design, electric machines and control of machines, construction and installation, system operation and maintenance, management, system instrumentation and control, communication and data systems, and energy management. Power Electronics is a relatively new area in electric power engineering in which electric power is processed by solid state converters into many desirable forms.

Additionally, there are many career options in each of the above general areas. Examples of these potential challenges include high-voltage applications, computer controls, and long-range planning. Research into new energy sources and their power electronics control will provide further opportunities for electric power engineers.

Classes:

  • Electric Power Systems:  740, 741
  • Electric Machines, and Control of Machines: 447 (lab), 643, 743
  • High Voltage Engineering: 747 (incl. lab)
  • Industrial/Comm Power: Systems: 640
  • Renewable Energy: 694.01
  • Power Electronics Devices and Circuits I and II: 624, 724 (also in Circuits area)
  • Electronic Devices and Circuit Laboratory: 628 (also in Circuits area)  

For more information
Contact any of the energy and power faculty: Profs. Kasten, Keyhani, Passino, Ringel, Wang (chair) and Xu


Solid State Electronics and Photonics

The future is leading to technologies involving billions of transistors on a chip, beyond megahertz logic to gigahertz logic, beyond gigahertz analog to terahertz analog, to new optoelectronic systems for processing information, even toward computational systems with billions of analog processors, comparable to the number of neurons in the human brain.

Solid state electronics encompasses the study and design of the physical systems that allow these advances to be made. This includes the study and design of electronic materials for novel devices, and nanofabrication of nanoscale devices. Photonics combines physical electronics with light. It spans from the generation or emission of light, through engineering the manipulation of light for communications or information processing, to detection of information carried by light. Solid state electronics and photonics ranges from the design of VLSI circuits to the study of the impact of a single layer of atoms on the electronic properties of a device; from the study of light emission from laser diodes to the design of solar cells for converting optical energy into electrical energy; from the engineering of novel electronic materials to the design of processes for manufacturing integrated circuits.

Classes:

  • Semiconductors for Microelectronics and Optoelectronics: 694.05, 730, 736
  • Integrated Circuit Processing: 637 (lab), 734, 735
  • Photonics: 731, 732, 737 (lab), (also 716 and 717 in the Electromagnetics area)
  • Nanofabrication & Nanomanufacturing: 632

For more information
Contact any of the solid state electronics and photonics area: Profs. Anderson, Berger, Brillson, Lu, Rajan, Ringel, Roblin, Valco (chair) and White