The ECE department offers the Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering, which provides advanced knowledge and research experience in one of the four research areas:
Active research areas include wireless communications and networking, communications traffic modeling, pattern recognition, computer vision, medical and natural image processing, RF circuits and systems, spacecraft controls, multivariable controls, optimal controls, and nonlinear controls.
Active research projects include embedded systems and robotics, embedded computing and architectures, hardware security, hardware/software co-design, real-time OS, reconfigurable computing, multicore computing, digital VLSI, Big Data, embedded mobile computing, cloud computing, cyber-physical systems, heterogeneous many-core architecture.
Active research areas include RF circuit design, antennas, analog and mixed-signal circuit design, power electronics, fiber-optic sensors, laser and detector design, optical and optoelectronic networks, optical image processing, optoelectronic material science, photovoltaics, quantum devices, materials for submicron lithography, microstructural analyses, vacuum microelectronics, radiation hardened devices, packaging and systems integration, and device modeling.
Active research areas include power systems modeling and analysis, power electronics, Smart Grid, microgrids, power system stability and control, power system optimization, utility applications, high voltage, condition monitoring, economic operation of power systems, electromechanical systems and drives, power system protection, and renewable energy.
To earn a Ph.D. degree, students must successfully complete a doctoral dissertation that demonstrates aptitude to perform independent research and complete a specified number of graduate level coursework in the department. Successful doctoral candidates learn how to acquire advanced knowledge from published research articles, identify research problems, formulate plausible approaches to solve them, analyze and evaluate proposed solutions, and present technical material orally and in writing.
A doctoral student is expected to have one or more archival publications on research performed for the dissertation.
Students have the flexibility of selecting their advisor. The faculty contact assigned at the time of admission serves as the advisor for the first two semesters or until a permanent advisor is formally selected by the student at the time of submitting the Plan of Study.
For additional information, including admission requirements, degree requirements, Plan of Study and qualifying exam, please refer to the University Catalog.
