Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Samuel P. Kozaitis, Ph.D., Head

Degree Programs

Professors
Barry G. Grossman, Ph.D., fiber-optic sensor systems and smart structures, fiber-optic communications.

Samuel P. Kozaitis, Ph.D., automated feature extraction, image processing.

Syed H. Murshid, Ph.D., photonics, fiber-optic sensors, acoustic and fiber-optic communications, power electronics, instrumentation.

Associate Professors
Georgios C. Anagnostopoulos, Ph.D., machine learning, pattern recognition.

Susan K. Earles, Ph.D., semiconductor modeling, processing and fabrication, microelectronics, solid-state device physics.

Veton Z. Këpuska, Ph.D., human-machine interaction and communication, speech recognition.

Ivica Kostanic, Ph.D., telecommunications, wireless telecommunications.

Brian A. Lail, Ph.D., antenna-coupled sensors, computational and applied electromagnetics, EMI, EMC.

Carlos E. Otero, Ph.D., system analysis and design, quality engineering, self-customizing software systems.

Josko Zec, Ph.D., wireless communications.

Assistant Professors
Chul-Ho Lee, Ph.D., wireless networks.

Hua Mu, Ph.D., wireless communication, networking, applied physics.

Fareena Saqib, Ph.D., computer architecture, efficiency/effectiveness in telecommunications.

Anthony Smith, Ph.D., high-performance computing, cloud computing, machine learning, data analytics, computer vision.

Adjunct Faculty
T.L. Crandell, Ph.D.

Professors Emeriti
Charles D. Beach, Ph.D.; Rufus H. Cofer, Ph.D.; Raghvendra Deshmukh, Ph.D., P.E.; John Hadjilogiou, Ph.D., P.E.; Fredric M. Ham, Ph.D.; Andrew W. Revay Jr., Ph.D.; Thomas J. Sanders, Ph.D.; M. Mehdi Shahsavari, Ph.D.; Robert L. Sullivan, Ph.D.; H.P. Weber, D.Sc.

Student Coordinator
Cheryl Mitravich

Mission Statement

The mission of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering is to prepare students to become successful professionals in a dynamic global environment. By fostering a desire for lifelong learning through a broad-based interdisciplinary core education, both electrical and computer engineering programs provide opportunities for undergraduate research that reflects the expanding world around us, and gives students the tools to advance the state-of-the-art in a chosen specialization area.

Research

Current areas of research include image processing, electromagnetics, computer vision, neural networks, speech processing, wireless communications and pattern recognition. These activities are being carried out in relation to the following general areas of research interest.

Electromagnetics: Applied and computational research is conducted in order to manipulate electromagnetic fields. Antennas, frequency selective surfaces, high impedance ground planes, and bandgap structures are designed and analyzed using computational tools, then tested for validation. The ability to model electromagnetic properties of complex structures requires full-wave analysis with finite element, method of moments or finite difference techniques. RF measurements are conducted in the antenna laboratory that houses an anechoic chamber and screen room.

Image processing: Much of the research is directed at basic problems and contributes to the solution of major national problems in vision and image processing. These include automated object detection and perception, computer imaging, modeling and other areas of image analysis. Techniques being used include traditional techniques and others that include wavelets, fractals, higher-order statistics and morphology. Application areas include autonomous inspection in manufacturing and other commercial uses. Projects include the fusion of infrared and visible imagery, and denoising of imagery using advanced methods. In addition, many of the techniques in image processing are being applied to speech processing.

Lightwave and Optronics Laboratories: The laboratories are dedicated to research and development efforts in the field of optical electronics such as optical communications and optical sensors. Activities with regards to communication span the development of state-of-the- art multi-Tb/s optical transmission architectures to design and development of cryogenic instrumentation for the space program. Current activities are focused on innovative optical communications architectures such as spatial and orbital angular momentum (OAM) photon-based, multiplexing in optical fibers. As a result, revolutionary capabilities for future optical networks using hybrid architectures have already started to emerge and several multi-Tb/s optical systems employing multiple photon degrees of freedom were recently reported. Sensor research includes 2D and 3D structural health monitoring of strain and material failure, and environmental parameters. These laboratories are equipped with instrumentation such as tunable lasers, optical spectrum analyzers, bit error rate test sets, fiber amplifiers and digitally controlled attenuators, optical time domain reflectometers, fiber splicers and customized data processing systems for data acquisition and signal processing.

Signal processing: Research is performed in neural networks, image processing, pattern recognition and speech processing. Algorithms have been developed for near-real-time detection and classification for several applications such as communications, noise reduction, and speaker identification. Techniques being used include traditional techniques and others that include wavelets, fractals, higher-order statistics and morphology. Projects include the analysis and classification of infrasound signals, development of pattern recognizers, denoising of imagery and speech identification.

Wireless Center of Excellence (WICE): Research within WICE focuses on areas related to wireless communication, wireless multimedia communications and wireless sensor systems. Students are involved in research projects evaluating propagation of radio waves, planning and optimization of voice and data services in cellular systems, various aspects associated with wireless sensor networks and topics addressing challenges in providing multimedia communication over wireless links. WICE is well connected with several industry partners that help in selection of relevant research topics and provide the center with state-of-the-art design tools and CAD software. In recent years the center has been involved in the hurricane research program sponsored by the National Science Foundation (see also Research in the Institution Overview  section).