Electrical & Computer Engineering

  • ENG EC 575: Semiconductor Devices
    Fundamentals of carrier generation, transport, recombination, and storage in semiconductors. Physical principles of operation of the PN junction, metal-semiconductor contact, bipolar junction transistor, MOS capacitor, MOSFET (Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor), JFET (Junction Field Effect Transistor), and bipolar junction transistor. Develops physical principles and models that are useful in the analysis and design of integrated circuits.
  • ENG EC 577: Electronic Optical and Magnetic Properties of Materials
    This course in intended to develop an in depth knowledge of solid state concepts that are important for students in the areas of material science and electrical engineering. Specifically, this course focuses on the study of different apsect of solid state physics necessary to study technologically relevant crytalline and amorphous systems. Particular enphasis is placed on the study of the crystal structure, crystal diffraction and the related techniques used as diagnostic tools; the electronic, thermal, optical and magnetic properties of material systems important for electronics and photonics device applications. Furthermore the course will also consider the theory of superconductivity, the chemistry aspcts of solid state materials and will provide an introduction to solid state biophysics. This course complements EC 574 (Physics of semiconductor material) and EC575 (semiconductor devices) with its focus on technologically relevant structural, optical, thermal and magnetic material properties. Meets with ENG MS 577. Students may not receive credit for both.
  • ENG EC 578: Fabrication Technology for Integrated Circuits
    Presentation of fabrication procedures for silicon-integrated circuits: physical properties of bulk and epitaxially grown silicon; silicon processing, such as oxidation, diffusion, epitaxy, deposition, and ion implantation; silicon crystallography, anisotropic etching, photolithography, piezorestivity, and chemical and plasma techniques. The limitations these processes impose on the design of bipolar and MOS devices and integrated circuits are discussed. Design of an integrated circuit and the required processing. Includes lab. 4 cr.
  • ENG EC 579: Nano/microelectronic Device Technology
    Physical processes and manufacturing strategies for the fabrication and manufacture of microelectronic devices. Processing and device aspects instrumental in silicon, including the fabrication of doping distributions, etching, photolithography, interconnect construction, and packaging. Future directions and connections to novel devices, MEMS, photonics, and nanoscale structures will be discussed. Emphasis will be on "designing for manufacturability." The overall integration with methods and tools employed by device and circuit designers will be covered. Same as ENGME579. Students may not receive credit for both. 4 cr. either sem.
  • ENG EC 580: Analog VLSI Circuit Design
    Anatomy of an operational amplifier using chip design techniques. Applications of op amps in wave-shaping circuits, active filters including capacitive switching. Analog multiplexing and data acquisition circuits, A/D, D/A, S/H are examined. Frequency selective circuits and interface circuits such as optocouplers are analyzed. 4 cr.
  • ENG EC 582: RF/Analog IC Design Fundamentals
    Fundamentals related to CMOS and SiGe BICMOS analog circuits for RF applications. Topics include low noise amplifiers, oscillators, mixers, demodulators, phase-locked loop, switched capacitor circuits, A/D and D/A converters, low power design, RF design techniques, and mixed-signal circuitry typical of modern telecommunications technology. VLSI laboratory exercises involving the design, layout, and simulation of RF/analog integrated circuits using Cadence SpectreRF CAD software tools. Real-world examples in advanced mixed-signal integrated circuit applications, such as a single chip radio.
  • ENG EC 583: Power Electronics for Energy systems
    Introduction to power electronics with emphasis on conversion circuits for energy systems. DC to DC conversion using buck, boost, and buck-boost converters. DC to AC inverters. Connection to power grid. Properties of MOS transistors used for high power conversion applications. Properties of magnetic elements and interactions with power circuits. Applications of power electronic circuits to energy systems, including solar cell installations, wave and wind power, and electric vehicles. High frequency inductors and transformers.
  • ENG EC 591: Photonics Lab I
    Introduction to optical measurements. Laser safety issues. Laboratory experiments: introduction to lasers and optical alignment; interference; diffraction and Fourier optics; polarization components; fiber optics; optical communications; beam optics; longitudinal laser modes. Optical simulation software tools.
  • ENG EC 595: Tech Elective
  • ENG EC 596: Breadth Electiv
  • ENG EC 597: Comp Elective
  • ENG EC 601: Product Design in ECE
    Engineers influence their community, society and the world. Engineers build products and services that can enhance people's lives. The product starts with an idea and is delivered through research (technical and societal), design, implementation, testing and support. During this class, students will experience all of this. The course provides design and practical insights into building products that involve WEB and mobile app development, data simulation, analysis and modeling, cloud computing, signal processing and/or computer vision. In the class, we work on how to take an idea and concept and translate it into product requirements. Afterwards, we translate the product requirements into system and engineering requirements. We also discuss solution selection techniques. We then work on implementing our ideas into systems and verify that they address the product requirements and fulfill the concept we started with. During the class, we go over how to choose solutions to build our products. We also discuss real product realization, implementations and tradeoffs. The class is taught via an example product and the class sessions are interactive. Students are divided into groups where they work in parallel on their projects during class sessions and hackathons. Teams define their target audience, product mission, requirements and features. The class adopts agile software development based on a two-week sprint. Students present their sprint results to the class.
  • ENG EC 602: Design by Software
    Software plays a central role in all aspects of electrical and computer engineering. This course will provide the foundation for effectively using software as a key part of a career as a professional electrical or computer engineer. Fundamentals of software development systems: system languages, high-level object-oriented languages, and computational languages. Data structures and algorithms in problem analysis and design. Strategies for designing software and designing with software. Software design and development: methodologies, principles and practice. Formalizing software: management, requirements, specifications, testing. Survey of software applications in ECE, including real-time systems, the web, networked systems, audio, graphics, and video systems, research and engineering analysis, consumer electronics and computing, instrumentation and measurement, design, modeling, prototyping, simulation, optimization and information analysis. Students can choose projects and assignments with application to/inspired by/drawn from a broad array of ECE fields including the traditional areas of electro-physics/photonics, computer engineering, and information and data science.
  • ENG EC 605: Computer Engineering Fundamentals
    This is an introductory course to computer engineering, focusing on the hardware/software interface, and presenting a bottom-up view of a computer system. Topics include logic design: binary arithmetic, combinational and sequential logic. Computer organization: assembly language programming, CPU design, and memory systems. Introduction to compilers, operating systems, and computer networks.
  • ENG EC 674: Optimization Theory II
    This course is an introduction to optimization problems and algorithms emphasizing problem formulation, basic methodologies and the underlying mathematical structures. We will cover the classical theory as well as the state of the art. The major topics we will cover are: 1. Theory and algorithms for linear programming. 2. Introduction to combinatorial problems and methods for handling intractable problems. 3. Introduction to nonlinear programming. 4. Introduction to network optimization. Optimization techniques have many applications in science and engineering. To name a few: * Optimal routing in communication networks. * Transmission scheduling and resource allocation in sensor networks. * Production planning and scheduling in manufacturing systems. * Fleet management. * Air traffic flow management by airlines. * Optimal resource allocation in manufacturing and communication systems. * Optimal portfolio selection. * Analysis and optimization of fluxes in metabolic networks. * Protein docking. Prerequisites: Working knowledge of Linear Algebra and some degree of mathematical maturity
  • ENG EC 700: Advanced Topics in Electrical and Computer Engineering
    Advanced topics of current interest in electrical and computer engineering.
  • ENG EC 701: Optimal and Robust Control
    This course is aimed at an introduction (with rigorous treatment) to the fundamentals of optimal and robust control. It will be divided roughly into two parts. The first will cover aspects of robust control including model reduction, H_2 and H_ infinity control, and feedback control of uncertain systems. The second will delve into optimal control including topics such as the linear quadratic regulator, the calculus of variations, the maximum principle, and the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation. Meets with ENG ME701 and ENG SE 701; only one of these courses may be taken both for credit.
  • ENG EC 702: Recursive Estimation and Optimal Filtering
    State-space theory of dynamic estimation in discrete and continuous time. Linear state-space models driven by white noise, Kalman filtering and its properties, optimal smoothing, non-linear filtering, extended and second-order Kalman filters, and sequential detection. Applications to radar, sonar, and optimal multitarget tracking, parameter identification.
  • ENG EC 707: Radar Remote Sensing
    Principles of radar systems and radar signal analysis with emphasis on environmental remote sensing. Topics include antenna fundamentals, wave propagation/scattering in various media, the radar equation, radar cross-section, target characteristics, ambiguity function, radar system components, pulse compression techniques, and aperture synthesis. Highlighted systems include ground-penetrating radars, synthetic aperture radar (SAR), weather radars, and incoherent scatter radars, and LIDAR.
  • ENG EC 710: Dynamic Programming and Stochastic Control
    Introduction to sequential decision making via dynamic programming. The principle of optimality as a unified approach to optimal control of dynamic systems and Markovian decision problems. Applications from control theory and operation research include linear-quadratic problems, the discrete Kalman Filter, inventory control, network, investment, and resource allocation models. Adaptive control and numerical solutions through successive approximation and policy iteration, suboptimal control, and neural network applications involving functional approximations and learning. Meets with ENGME710 and ENGSE710. Students may not receive credit for both.

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