1. Technical Interest Groups in Electrical and Computer Engineering
ECE's faculty is organized into 11 technical interest groups (TIGs) that collectively represent the major research thrusts of the School. These areas
are highly interrelated, and many faculty members engage in research that spans multiple TIGs. Following is a brief description of each TIG, with a
bulleted list of their major areas of research. Also indicated is the academic major (EE/CmpE) that is typically associated with each TIG; however,
both EE and CmpE majors may take elective courses from any technical area if they have the appropriate prerequisites.
Technical Interest Group Research Areas
Bioengineering: Bioengineering is concerned with the  Biosensors/BioMEMS
application of engineering principles to the study and control  Neuroengineering
of biological processes. In this area, mathematical and  Medical imaging and signal processing
physical concepts are developed which are applied to
medicine and biology.
Major: EE
Computer Systems and Software: The Computer Systems  Computer architecture  System software
and Software group carries out activities that span from high  Multi-core systems  Large-scale simulation
performance microarchitecture to integrated  Embedded systems  Dependable computing
hardware/software systems to large-scale distributed  Computer networks and internetworking  Computer system and network security
software and internetworks. Computer systems and software  Distributed systems  Software analysis
activities focus on the optimization of cross cutting
characteristics, such as power/energy consumption and
security, within application domains such as health, high
performance computing, and embedded real-time systems.
Major: CmpE
Digital Signal Processing: Digital Signal Processing (DSP) is  DSP theory  Radar and array processing
concerned with the representation of signals in digital form,  Image and video signal processing  Speech and audio processing
and with the transformation of such signal representations  Multimedia signal processing and  Statistical signal processing
using digital computation. networking  Hardware/software systems for signal
 Signal processing for communications and processing
Major: EE or CmpE security
Electrical Energy: Electrical Energy is primarily concerned  Power system monitoring, analysis  High voltage engineering and power
with meeting the future demand for electric energy while protection, operation and control system components
satisfying environmental constraints.  Distributed generation  Electric machine control, condition and
 Power system simulation and visualization monitoring and protection
Major: EE  Power electronics
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2. Technical Interest Group Research Areas
Electromagnetics: Electromagnetics involves the study of  Microwave circuits  Computational techniques for
Maxwell’s equations and their application to the analysis and  Remote sensing of obscured targets electromagnetics
design of devices and systems.  Radioscience, plantary remote sensing, and  Signal integrity in digital and mixed signal
space communications systems
Major: EE  Analysis and design of antennas  Terrestrial radio wave propagation
Electronic Design and Applications: Electronic Design and  Mems circuit technology  High speed mixed signal
Applications involves device and integrated circuit  Analog vlsi  Analog
fabrication, circuit and system design and simulation, and  Radio frequency/wireless integrated circuits
instrumentation and testing techniques. (RFIC)
Major: EE
Microelectronics/Microsystems: Microelectronics is  Microsystems and nanosystems  Manufacturing and gigascale integration
concerned with the design, analysis, growth, and fabrication  Photovoltaics  Compound semiconductors
of micron/sub-micron feature length devices.  Microelectronics systems packaging  Biomedical microsystems
Major: EE
Optics and Photonics: Optics and Photonics involves the  Optical communication networks  Photonics and optoelectronics
study of lasers, optics, and holography.  Nonlinear optics  Diffractive and holographic optics
Major: EE
Systems and Controls: Systems and Controls is concerned  Mathematical systems theory  Intelligent control
with mathematical and computational techniques for  Discrete event systems and hybrid system  Sensor technologies
modeling, estimation, and control of systems and processes.  Nonlinear control  Robotics
Major: EE or CmpE  Computer vision
Telecommunications: Telecommunications is concerned  Wireless communications and networking  Inter-networking, network management,
with the characterization, representation, transmission,  Communication theory and network security
storage, and networking of information over various media  Information theory and adaptive systems  Optical networks
including space, optical fiber, and cable.  Multimedia networking
Major: EE or CmpE
VLSI Systems and Digital Design: The VLSI Systems and  Design of ultra-low power circuits and  Low power/high-speed interconnect and
Digital Design technical interest group carries out activities systems design automation for physical design
involved with designing and testing complex digital and  Embedded systems and hardware-software  Data acquisition systems for vision/sensing
mixed-signal electronic systems. These techniques optimize co design applications
power, performance, and reliability metrics across a wide  Microarchitecture and memory design for  Self-tuning/self-calibrating circuits for
range of applications. performance, power, and reliability wired and wireless communications
 Design and test of Systems on Chips (SOCs)  Design of nanotechnology and other
and Systems in Packages (SiPs) emerging computational fabrics
Major: EE or CmpE  VLSI testing and fault tolerant computing
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