Spring 2007 Special Topics Courses

ENG SC 500 A1 - Fundamental Limits of Point-to-Point Communication: An Introduction to Information Theory  (Ishwar)

Concepts of source and channel; Models for sources and channels (memoryless and with memory, discrete and continuous); Idea of block encoding and decoding (sources and channels); Notions of source compression rate and channel transmission rate; Constraints of source distortion and channel cost; Law of large numbers and notions of typicality; Entropy, cross-entropy, and mutual-information; Random coding, random binning, and information inequalities; Fundamental limits of source compression (distortion versus rate) and channel transmission (rate versus cost); linear source and channel codes; Universal source and channel coding; Source and channel reliability functions (error exponents); Variable length source and channel coding; Channel coding with noiseless feedback and source coding with noiseless feedforward; Shannon's source-channel separation theorem as the foundation of modern point-to-point digital communication; Bits as currency of information exchange in point-to-point communication; Measure-matching and uncoded transmission; Source and channel coding as functional duals.

ENG BE 700 A1/SC 700 A3- Advanced Optical Microscopy and Biological Imaging   (Mertz)

This course will present a rigorous and detailed overview of the theory of optical microscopy starting from basic notions in light propagation and covering advanced concepts in imaging theory such as Fourier optics and partial coherence. Topics will include basic geometric optics, photometry, diffraction, optical transfer functions, phase contrast microscopy, 3-d imaging theory, basic scattering and fluorescence theory, imaging in turbid media, confocal microscopy, optical coherence tomography (OCT), fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS), fluorescence resonant energy transfer (FRET), and nonlinear-optics based techniques such as two-photon excited fluorescence (TPEF) and second-harmonic generation (SHG) microscopy. Biological applications such as calcium and membrane-potential imaging will be discussed. A background in optics is preferable. A background in signals and analysis is indispensable. In particular, the student should be comfortable with Fourier transforms, complex analysis, and transfer functions. 4 cr.

ENG SC 700 A1 - Semiconductor Quantum Structures and Photonic Devices (Paiella)

Prereq: SC574; Optical properties of semiconductors: interband optical transitions; excitons. Low-dimensional structures: quantum wells, superlattices, quantum wires, quantum dots, and their optical properties; intersubband transitions. Lasers: double-heterojunction, quantum-well, quantum-dot, and quantum-cascade lasers; high-speed laser dynamics. Electro-optical properties of bulk and low-dimensional semiconductors; electroabsorption modulators. Detectors: photoconductors and photodiodes; quantum-well infrared photodetectors.

ENG SC 700 A2 - Randomized Network Algorithms (Starobinski)
Probabilistic techniques and paradigms in the design and evaluation of network algorithms. Review of basic concepts in probability, graph theory, and algorithms. Tail inequalities and Chernoff bounds. Random graph models. Markov chains and random walks.The probabilistic method. The Lovasz local lemma. The Monte Carlo method. Coupling. Introduction to martingales. Networking applications:distributed content storage and look-up in P2P networks, IP traceback, universal hash functions, packet routing.