Research strengths and labs in Electrical and Computer Engineering

In the College of Engineering and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering stands a microwave nationally recognized  Microwave Remote Sensing Lab (MIRSL) and graduated NSF Engineering Research Center for Collaborative Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere (CASA).

ECE's emerging areas of research excellence include nanoelectronics, hardware and physical-layer security and IOT (Internet of Things).  The department aspires to create strength in bioelectronic devices and systems.

Using the electromagnetic spectrum from microwaves to light, ECE researchers design and deploy systems for sensing a wide-range of phenomenon ranging from the biological to the extraterrestrial. The department’s Microwave Remote Sensing Laboratory is a national strength; CASA (Center for Adaptive Sensing of the Environment) is a thriving former NSF Engineering Research Center; and the Institute for Applied Life Sciences provides significant resources for sensing in the life sciences.

Labs include:

Research areas:

  • Antennas and propagation
  • Biomedical electronics
  • E&M theory and computation
  • High-frequency circuits and devices
  • Microwave engineering
  • Radar networks 
  • Remote sensing
  • Thz electronics
  • Weather radar

Using the theory of signal representation and system dynamics, ECE faculty members conduct research in: signal and image processing; communication, computer and sensors networks; information theory, physical-layer security; biomedical systems; and algorithms for machine and brain-inspired learning.

 

Research areas:

  • Physical-layer communication theory and practice
  • Error control coding
  • Information theory
  • Compressive sensing
  • Image processing
  • Feedback control

In networking the world, the Internet profoundly impacts the way we communicate. Our faculty members’ research covers the continuing evolution of the Internet; its impact on the reliable and secure delivery of multimedia, personalized healthcare and commerce; and as the fabric connecting cyber and physical systems.

Research areas:

  • Network Science
  • Internet Routing
  • Sense-and-Response Sensor Networks
  • Network Security
  • High Performance Router Design

Theoretical, numerical, and experimental problems related to devices, circuits, and computer architectures based on nanotubes, nanowires, memristors, spin-wave structures, quantum cellular automata, and other nanostructures.

Research areas:

  • Physics of nanodevices and nanocomputing
  • Computational nanoelectronics
  • Nanofabrication
  • Nanodevices and integrated systems
  • Nanofabrics, circuits and computing architectures

Research topics include computing circuits, architectures, and applications such as: CAD for synthesis and verification; VLSI for signal processing, reconfigurable computing (FPGAs), cryptography, hardware security, and low-power design techniques.

Research areas:

  • Experimental computer systems design
  • Embedded system security
  • Computer-aided design and test
  • Computer architecture
  • Fault-tolerant computing
  • Real-time  computing
  • VLSI design

Quantum computers require new integrated technologies to scale the number of qubits for practical applications. ECE researchers design quantum processors, integrated cryogenic circuits and photonics to try to scale up quantum computers based on transmon and trapped ion qubits.

Artificial Intelligence Engineering (AI) makes it possible for engineered systems to learn from experience, perform complex tasks with human like abilities simply by learning from input data, interact with humans or other machines to learn collaboratively – ultimately evolving into system-of-systems, capable of working with multiple streams of inputs from disparate sources. Current applications of AI include autonomous systems, computer vision, speech recognition, natural language processing, multi-agent systems and systems management such as in wireless communications, where AI automates spectrum management, dynamic access and networking at the wireless edge among many others. Solving these problems require representation of real-world inputs such as image, voice or continuous time data into digital forms that are suitable for processing coupled with mathematical and formal reasoning, which are at the heart of electrical and computer engineering. As AI applications become ubiquitous, they execute distributed models running on networked machines ranging from battery operated handheld devices to data centers with varying power, performance and real-time requirements requiring optimizations from model size to mapping models onto custom hardware – where principles of electrical and computer engineering play key role.

Data Engineering (DE) involves data acquisition from physical world, representation to support high-level query, storage in distributed physical medium, analytical techniques for de-noising and conditioning data, analytical techniques for discovery of relationship across various data sets, feature extraction, and if appropriate, automatic labeling of data for higher-level learning systems such as AI. Electrical and computer engineering principles apply throughout this data lifecycle from acquisition, transformation to feature extraction, semantic analysis for higher-level learning.

Faculty:

Related Centers and Labs

Security Engineering involves the analysis and design of systems that are robust in the face of a malicious adversary, as well as accounting for privacy concerns. Computer security and privacy is a broad field that encompasses many disciplines from Electrical and Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Math, Management, Policy and Psychology. ECE faculty perform research and offer courses covering security topics in Integrated Circuit Design, Computer Aided Design, Computer Architecture, Reconfigurable Computing, Wireless Systems, Embedded Systems, Networking and Cryptography.

Faculty

Related Centers and Labs