Solid state device behavior. Among the topics covered are semiconductor fundamentals, p-n junction theory, and both the bipolar and the field effect transistor. Emphasis is placed on those transistor parameters that need to be considered in VLSI and microwave applications.

Solution of Maxwell's equations for radiation problems. Hertzian dipole as a fundamental radiation element is described. Radiation patterns, directivity, gain, antenna impedance, radiation efficiency, and antenna polarization are defined. The course reviews wire dipole antennas, loop antennas, antennas above ground plane, and corner reflector antennas. Topics include receiving antenna properties, antenna arrays, and microstrip patch and slot antennas. Rectangular horn antennas and parabolic reflector antennas are studied. Also discussed are ground-wave propagation and ionospheric propagation.

Vector analysis in a generalized orthogonal coordinate system. The course reviews basic electromagnetic-field theorems. Two- and three-dimensional boundary value problems are addressed and solution methods presented. Topics include wave propagation in multi-layer media and wave polarization. Waveguides with cylindrical conducting boundaries, special waveguide types, waveguide devices, cavity resonators, radiation, and scattering are also studied.

Review of transmission line theory. The concept of impedance transformation is presented. The characteristics of coaxial lines, waveguides and microstrip lines are studied in detail. Propagation and impedance properties of these lines are derived. Smith charts are used for designing matching and tuning circuits. The use of S-parameters and the analysis of multi-port networks are presented. Passive multi-port devices such as microwave power couplers and dividers are described. The fundamentals of microwave and RF filters and resonators are discussed, and their implementation using microstrip lines and waveguides is also presented.

Design of microwave and RF wireless systems. Transmission line theory and network analysis are reviewed and the fundamentals of antenna theory are presented. Basic antennas such as dipoles, slots, and horns are covered. System noise and its description are discussed. Operational concepts of microwave detectors and mixers are presented. The design and analysis of detector and mixer circuits are covered. Operational concepts of microwave and RF amplifiers, oscillators and frequency synthesizers are presented. The integration of components in microwave and RF receivers and their performance are covered. Microwave systems such as radar, remote sensors and radiometers are also described.

Transformers and rotating machines. Among the AC devices studied are three-phase transformers, induction motors, reluctance motors, stepper motors, and synchronous motors. DC motors and electric vehicle drive circuits are included.

Electronic circuit design techniques using power semiconductor devices for industrial and residential applications. Typical applications include switching DC power supplies, power conditioners, DC-to-AC inverters, DC-to-DC converters, motor controllers, AC-to-AC converters, and utility-intertie.

First course of a two-semester sequence covering energy sources such as fossil-fuels, nuclear, hydro, photovoltaic, wind, and bio-mass; loads such as residential and commercial end-users; and the transmission-distribution networks that connect them.

Second course of a two-semester sequence continuing with the modeling, analysis, and design of power generating plants, loads, and transmission-distribution networks.

Techniques for designing and analyzing dependable and fault-tolerant computer-based systems. Topics addressed include: fault, error, and failure cause-and-effect relationships; fault avoidance techniques; fault tolerance techniques, including hardware redundancy, software redundancy, information redundancy, and time redundancy; fault coverage; time-to-failure models and distributions; reliability modeling and evaluation techniques, including fault trees, cut-sets, reliability block diagrams, binary decision diagrams, and Markov models. In addition, availability modeling, safety modeling, and trade-off analysis are presented.

Mathematical methods useful to the engineer, including topics from numerical analysis and linear algebra. Students learn how and when to apply a particular numerical analysis tool or method and how to analyze and interpret the results provided by the method. Emphasis is placed on selecting appropriate numerical tools for a variety of basic problems, applying them, and studying their reliability, efficiency, and computer implementation. A large number of problems are solved using the computer.

An examination of various components that make up a computer system, including CPU, memory, input/output, and buses, as well as how they work together to form a functioning computer system. The major advances in computer organization and architecture including von Neumann architecture, interrupts, the family concept, microprocessors, cache memory, virtual memory, virtual I/O, pipelining, RISC, superscalar processors, IA-64 (EPIC), micro-programmed control unit as well as parallel processing are also presented. This course includes team projects.

The goal of this course is to prepare the student to undertake and successfully complete the capstone design experience embodied in the subsequent course ECE 458 Design Project II. The objectives of this course include providing a firm basis in the methodology of planning and executing an engineering design project, exposing the student to real case studies involving engineering design, forming a design project group and developing group skills in executing design projects, preparing a design project plan, and having the student groups select a design project of appropriate complexity and their faculty advisor in preparation for the subsequent course ECE 458. Included in this course are two major written reports and two major oral presentations as well as minor reports and presentations.

Continuation of ECE 457. Goals of this course are for the student to conduct, successfully complete, and professionally present the results of his/her capstone design project under the oversight of his/her faculty advisor. The objectives of this course include executing the design project plan prepared in ECE 457, conducting group activities associated with the execution of the design project, participating in design reviews, preparing the project report, and presenting and demonstrating the results of the project activities to a group of faculty, students, and industry representatives. Included in this course are three major written reports and three major oral presentations as well as minor reports and presentations.

Probability and statistics with applications to principles of queuing theory, computer systems simulation, and empirical analysis techniques as applied to computer systems modeling. This course is oriented toward a practical application of theory and concepts to computer systems hardware and software performance.

Design and construction of a microprocessor based computer system. Students will learn how a computer operates at the chip level and develop an understanding of the interdependence of hardware and software. Students will develop circuitry and software to control CPU interaction with SRAM, ROM and peripheral chips, as well as reset and boot-up control and interrupt handling. At the end of the course, students will have produced a working computer.

Design and construction of an advanced microprocessor computer system. This course is a continuation of ECE 461 in which students will modify the previous design to accommodate multiple processors to achieve parallel computation or use an advanced microprocessor to achieve higher performance.

Database management system specification, design, implementation, operations and evaluation introduced using a current industrial grade database management system (Oracle, IBM DB2, Microsoft SQL or Informix UDS). SQL language concepts including object-relational operations, object-language relational schema modeling using entity-relationship modeling concepts, data definition language, data manipulation language, data control language, persistent stored modules, triggers and assertions specification and use, applied within both ad-hoc and embedded systems environments are investigated in a studio classroom context. The laboratories include team database application development projects utilizing all major elements of contemporary object-relational database languages aimed at developing least cost solutions to contemporary information management problems.

Database management systems and operations. Students learn how to describe and design a database, how to describe and specify embedded and ad-hoc database applications, and how to develop least cost solutions to information management problems integrated through a series of database design exercises implemented within an industry grade database management system. Topics include database management systems architecture and operations, database applications specification, database stored procedure design, database embedded program design, and database ad-hoc specification and design.

Advanced computer design, emphasizing fundamental limitations and tradeoffs in designing high performance computer systems. Students develop an understanding of the theoretical foundations in both hardware and software by studying parallel computer models; program partitioning, granularity, and latency; processor architectures and interconnects; and memory hierarchy, interleaving and bandwidth. Specific architectures such as shared memory multi-processors, message passing multi-computers, and superscalar, supervector, VLIW and dataflow designs will be explored.

Introduction to current networking methodologies. Backbone design, layered architecture, protocols, local and wide area networks, internetworking, broadband, electrical interface, and data transmission. Projects are included.

Probability theory, signals and linear networks, Fourier transforms, random processes and noise are reviewed. Analog communications including amplitude and frequency modulation with and without noise are studied. Digital communications including baseband pulse modulation, quantization, sampling theory, digital pulse shaping, matched filter, Nyquist criterion and error rates due to noise are covered.

Continuation of ECE 471. Signal-space analysis is introduced. Passband digital transmission, direct sequence and frequency-hop spread-spectrum modulation and multiuser radio are studied. Entropy is discussed and channel capacity is derived. Block and convolutional error-control coding is covered.

Methods and techniques for digital signal processing, covering the basic principles governing the design and use of digital systems as signal processing devices. Review of discrete-time linear systems, Fourier transforms and z-transforms. Topics include allpass and minimum-phase systems, linear phase systems and group delay, sampling, decimation, interpolation, discrete-time filter design and implementation, discrete Fourier series, discrete Fourier transform, the fast Fourier transform, and basic spectral estimation. Applications to digital processing of real data are included.

Applications of digital signal processing to speech signals. Course goals are to reinforce concepts learned in prerequisite courses, to introduce new tools needed to deal with time-varying signals and to have students apply what they have learned to their own voices. A semester design project is a large component of this course. Topics include a brief introduction to articulatory and acoustic phonetics, hearing and speech perception, time-domain methods for speech processing, short-time Fourier analysis, homomorphic speech processing, linear predictive coding of speech, and applications.