Electrical and Computer Engineering

The Department offers M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering with a concentration in Electrical Engineering and in Computer Engineering. Because most graduate courses are not repeated every quarter, students should make every effort to begin their graduate program in the fall.

Detailed descriptions of the two concentrations are as follows.


Electrical Engineering Concentration

The Electrical Engineering faculty study the following areas: optical and solid-state devices, including quantum electronics and optics, integrated electro-optics and acoustics, design of semiconductor devices and materials, analog and mixed-signal IC design, microwave and microwave devices, and scanning acoustic micro­scopy; systems engineering and signal processing, including communication theory, machine vision, signal processing, power electronics, neural networks, communications networks, systems engineering, and control systems. Related communication networks topics are also addressed by the Networked Systems M.S. and Ph.D. degrees (listed in the Interdisciplinary Studies section of the Catalogue).


Computer Engineering Concentration

The concentration in Computer Engineering provides students with a solid base in the design, development, and evaluation of computer systems. Thrust areas include computer architecture, software, and embedded systems, but the program is highly customizable to the specific interests of the student. The research activities of the faculty in this concentration include parallel and distributed computer systems, distributed software architectures and databases, ultra-reliable real-time computer systems, VLSI architectures, reconfigurable computing, computer design automation, low-power design, embedded systems, computer communication protocols, computer networks, security, programming languages for parallel/distributed processing, knowledge management, service-oriented architectures, and software engineering.