ECE Graduate Handbook

Department Overview

The chief administrative officer in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering is the Chair.  This position is currently held by Professor Patrick O’Shea.  Several Associate Chairs assist in the administration of the department: Professors Gilmer Blankenship (External Affairs), Wesley Lawson (Undergraduate Studies), and K.J. Ray Liu (Graduate Studies and Research).

An important role in the administrative operation of the department is also played by the Department Council and several standing departmental committees:  General Academic Affairs, Graduate Studies and Research, Human Relations and Welfare, Facilities and Services, Undergraduate Affairs, Salary, and Promotion and Tenure.  Graduate students have representatives on the Council and the first four committees.  Elections for graduate student representatives are coordinated by the ECE Graduate Student Association (ECEGSA).  Also, the Graduate Studies and Research Committee (GSRC) is supported by Area Advisors, who are non-voting members of the committee.  Area Advisors are faculty members, one from each of the department’s five technical areas and appointed by the Associate Chair for Graduate Studies and Research, who can advise the committee as well as graduate students.  For more details about the administrative organization of the department, you may request a copy of the Plan of Organization from the Office of the Chair.

The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering offers graduate study leading to the Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy degrees. In Fall 2006, there were 452 graduate students in Electrical Engineering; 351 were Ph.D. students.  There were 357 full-time students. The department’s research and educational activities can be broadly divided into two areas:

(i) Information Sciences and Systems with concentration possible in:

• Communications and Signal Processing (random processes; detection and estimation; coding and information theory; digital signal processing; visual and audio signal processing; signal compression; communication networks; wireless and cellular systems; satellite communications, information security and forensics);
  
• Computer Engineering (computer architecture; VLSI design; embedded systems; computer-aided design; compiler technology; computer security; parallel and distributed computing; operating systems; software engineering; hardware/software co-design);
  
• Controls (adaptive control; intelligent control; stochastic control; robust control; control of bifurcations and chaos; geometric control theory and robotics; control of discrete event systems; smart structure control; numerical optimization and; control applications, including biomedical);

and (ii) Electronic Sciences and Devices with concentration possible in:

• Electrophysics (physical principles of wireless communications; electromagnetic theory; antennas and radio wave propagation; intense charged-particle beams and applications to accelerators; relativistic electronics and high-power microwave generation; high power microwave components; nonlinear dynamics and chaos; microwave effects in computer systems; plasmas; quantum electronics; millimeter waves; optical engineering; lasers; nonlinear optics; ultrafast optoelectronics; femtosecond phenomena; RF photonics; optical-microwave interaction; optoelectronic devices, integration, assembly and packaging; photonic networks for computing and communication; optical communications; optical control of phased array antennas; chemical physics and biophysics);
  
• Microelectronics (device and circuit modeling; semiconductor materials and devices; nanoscale and quantum effect devices and systems; compound semiconductor devices; wide band gap materials and devices, and optoelectronic applications; technology and applications of ion beams; Si based molecular beam epitaxy; biologically inspired sensory motor systems; neural network realizations; semistate theory of circuits; analog and mixed signal VLSI; circuit design and automated testing; Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) devices, materials, and technologies.)

Joint programs are maintained with other departments within the A. James Clark School of Engineering, the Mathematics, Physics and Computer Science departments, as well as with the Institute for Research in Electronics and Applied Physics, the Institute for Systems Research, the Institute for Advanced Computer Studies (UMIACS), the Institute for Physical Science and Technology, the Engineering Research Center, the Center for Superconductivity Research, the Laboratory for Physical Sciences and the Chemical Physics and Transportation Programs. Opportunities also exist for programs of study in conjunction with many national and international laboratories and technical facilities.

The department is equipped with an extensive computer facility consisting of a variety of state-of-the art mainframes, workstations, and personal computers located in several open laboratories and in a large number of specialized research laboratories. The faculty members and students affiliated with the Institute for Advanced Computer Studies have access to a Connection Machine that is housed in that institute. In addition, there are more than thirty specialized research laboratories supporting activities in speech and image processing, communication networks, robotics, control systems, system and computer architecture, VLSI design and testing, semiconductor materials and devices, MEMS, photonics, fiber optics, microwave sources, ion beam lithography, and plasma science, among others. A complete engineering library is housed nearby.

In spite of the recent economic downturn, graduates from our department have often been successful in obtaining high-level positions. In particular, in recent years, the department has placed its graduates on the faculties of such academic institutions as Harvard University, Princeton University, Penn State University, Duke University, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, University of Texas A&M, Texas Tech University, University of Washington, Seattle, University of Pennsylvania, Ohio State University, MIT, University of Minnesota, as well as at corporate and national research labs such as AT&T Bell Laboratories, IBM Research Laboratories, General Electric, Texas Instruments, Hewlett- Packard, Philips Laboratory, Microsoft, Allied Signal, Advance Micro Devices, Micron Technologies, Bell Northern Research, Silicon Valley Research, Fore Systems, Comsearch, LCC, SAIC, Intel, Cadence, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Laboratory for Physical Sciences, and Army Research Laboratory.

In addition to the general M.S. and Ph.D. programs, our department offers a cross-disciplinary M.S. program in Telecommunications (ENTS) and participates in a Professional Master of Engineering program (ENPM). In both of these programs classes meet in the evening only. For details on the ENTS program, please contact Professor Steven Tretter, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, (301) 405-3670. For details on the ENPM Program, please contact Dr. George Syrmos, College of Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, (301) 405-0362.

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