Department of Computer Engineering and Sciences

Phil J. Bernhard, Ph.D., Head

Degree Programs 

Undergraduate Minor Program

Computer Science Minor  

Graduate Certificate Programs 

Data Science Graduate Certificate  
Information Assurance and Cybersecurity Graduate Certificate  

Professors

William W. Arrasmith, Ph.D., unconventional detection methods, imaging systems, adaptive optics, atmospheric turbulence compensation, infrasound propagation and modeling, virtual/mixed/augmented reality, and systems engineering.

Marco Carvalho, Ph.D., intelligent communication and information systems, network and computer security.

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

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

Ronaldo Menezes, Ph.D., network science, data science, swarm intelligence, human dynamics modeling, social network analysis, agent coordination.

Debasis Mitra, Ph.D., artificial intelligence, spatial and temporal reasoning.

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

Associate Professors

William H. Allen III, Ph.D., computer networks, digital forensics, computer and network security.

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

Philip J. Bernhard, Ph.D., database systems, theory of computation.

Philip K. Chan, Ph.D., scalable adaptive methods, machine learning, data mining, parallel and distributed computing, intelligent systems.

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

Thomas C. Eskridge, Ph.D., human–computer interaction, machine learning and data mining, knowledge representation and artificial intelligence visualization, user interface design.

Keith B. Gallagher, Ph.D., software engineering, software evolution, empirical studies, program slicing, program comprehension, software visualization, software testing.

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

Michael C. King, Ph.D., biometrics, cyber-identity protection and privacy, machine learning, computer networks.

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

Carlos E. Otero, Ph.D., computer systems, wireless ad-hoc and sensor networks, performance evaluation and optimization of systems.

Luis Daniel Otero, Ph.D., transportation systems engineering, decision support systems, remote sensing on UAV platforms.

Adrian M. Peter, Ph.D., systems engineering, statistical data analysis, machine learning, image analysis.

Eraldo Ribeiro, Ph.D., computer vision, image processing, pattern recognition.

William D. Shoaff, Ph.D., functional programming, analysis of algorithms, numerical analysis.

Marius C. Silaghi, Ph.D., cryptology, speech recognition, multi-party computation.

Ryan Stansifer, Ph.D., programming languages, compilers, internationalization.

Josko Zec, Ph.D., wireless communications.

Assistant Professors

Siddhartha Bhattacharyya, Ph.D., formal methods, model-based software/systems engineering, autonomous systems, software/security assurance, wireless sensor networks.

Heather Crawford, Ph.D., computer security, human–computer interaction.

Ondrej Doule, Ph.D., architecture and space architecture, design methods, extreme environments, human-centered design, integration of space, modeling and simulations, space and terrestrial design methods.

Aldo A. Fabregas, Ph.D.,  manufacturing systems analytics, intelligent transportation systems, model-based systems engineering.

Chul-Ho Lee, Ph.D., complex/social network analysis, statistical data analysis, networking, mobile computing, design and analysis of algorithms and protocols.

David Levan, Ph.D., novel uses of magnetic energy, computer network protocols and fault tolerance.

Bernard Parenteau Ph.D., applied software development, economics, analytics, block-chain, virtual currencies.

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

A. Lucas Stéphane, Ph.D., human-centered design, virtual intelligence in process control.

Ersoy Subasi, Ph.D., operations research, financial mathematics, stochastic programming.

Shengzhi Zhang, Ph.D., computer security, virtual machine security, operating system security.

Lecturer

Marilyn Scott, M.S.

Professor Emerita

Celine Lang, D.P.A.

Professors Emeriti

Frederick B. Buoni, Ph.D.; Cem Kaner, J.D., Ph.D.; Gerald A. Marin, Ph.D.; J. Richard Newman, 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.; Lynn E. Weaver, Ph.D.; H.P. Weber, D.Sc.

Mission Statement

The mission of the Department of Computer Engineering and Sciences is to prepare computing, engineering and systems  students for success and leadership in the conception, design, management, implementation and operation of complex engineering problems, and to expand knowledge and understanding of computing and engineering through research, scholarship and service. 

Fast Track Master’s Programs for Students in the Department of Computing Engineering and Sciences

This program allows undergraduate students in the department who meet certain requirements to complete a master’s degree program at an accelerated pace. Students must have completed a minimum of 95 credit hours towards their undergraduate degree, with at least 35 credit hours at Florida Tech, and have an earned GPA of 3.4 or higher.

Students who are accepted into the program may enroll in graduate-level coursework during their senior year and apply up to six graduate credit hours (with a grade of B or higher) to both the bachelor’s and master’s degrees. The graduate credit hours applied to both degrees are treated as transfer credit (GPA does not apply) when applied toward the master’s degree. Interested students should consult their program chair for more information about this program.

Research

Computational intelligence: computer vision, constraint reasoning, data mining, machine learning, speech recognition, swarm intelligence, spatio-temporal multidimensional reasoning.

Computational science: bioinformatics, statistical computing.

Computer engineering: Research in computer engineering focuses on areas related to hardware/software systems including embedded systems, machine intelligence, speech processing, scientific high-performance computing, and wireless communications and networks. Students are involved in research projects dealing with hardware security, wireless sensor networks, algorithm development for intelligent and data-intensive systems, analysis and design of computer communications and networks, and development of large-scale, secure and dependable computer systems.

Computer security: cryptology, cryptography and cryptanalysis; secure software development and testing; malicious code, network security, resilience and intrusion detection, usable-security.

Data science: data mining, knowledge representation, visualization.

Distributed computing: agents and coordination, internet computing, negotiations, peer-to-peer networks.

Electromagnetics: Applied and computational research is conducted in order to understand and manipulate electromagnetic fields. We are interested in the interaction between fields and matter, specifically the coupling of infrared and optical fields with other resonant responses such as polaritons, periodic structures and molecules. The ability to model electromagnetic properties of complex structures requires full-wave analysis with finite element, method of moments or finite difference techniques. Antennas, waveguides, metamaterials and bandgap structures are designed and analyzed using computational tools, then tested for validation. Applications include sensing, imaging, photonic-integrated circuits and communications.

Languages: functional language, internationalization, type systems.

Photonics: This specialization deals with recent advances in photonic devices and systems. Research in this area is complemented by the Optronics Laboratory that is dedicated to advancements in the field of optical systems such as optical communications and sensors. Recent Optronics lab activities in communications span the development of state-of-the-art, multi-Tb/s hybrid optical transmission architectures. Sensing activities include design and development of cryogenic instrumentation for the space program as well as 2D and 3D strain measurement for structural health monitoring, material failure and environmental parameters. The laboratory has added two new degrees of photon freedom to optical fiber multiplexing techniques; spatial domain multiplexing (SDM) and orbital angular momentum (OAM) of photon-based multiplexing. These techniques are orthogonal to other popular multiplexing techniques and allow for multidimensional increase in channel capacity. The laboratory is equipped with the necessary lasers, optics, electronics and computational tools and provides research facilities to faculty and students.

Signal processing: Research is performed in adaptive optics, atmospheric turbulence compensation (ATC) image processing, pattern recognition, and speech processing and recognition. Algorithms have been developed for high spatial-resolution ATC imaging systems and near-real-time detection and classification for several applications such as communications, noise reduction and speaker identification. Projects include the analysis and classification of signals and the development of pattern and speech recognizers.

Software engineering: software documentation, maintenance and evolution, reliability and testing.

Systems engineering: Research is conducted in modern systems development concepts and methods encompassing the full inception to retirement lifecycle, including model-based systems engineering (MBSE), complex, complicated and adaptive systems, intelligent systems and enterprise systems, as well as contemporary modeling methods, decision, risk and optimization methodologies, system reliability, systems thinking and big data issues. Research benefits span the governmental, industrial, scientific and academic sectors and have wide-ranging impact on the transportation, medical, space and defense communities.

Research Facilities

Research facilities provide open access to a wide range of computing hardware, operating systems, software development applications and general purpose computing applications. Several research centers and laboratories support specialized research interests of faculty and students.

BioComplex Laboratory: The laboratory focuses on the abstraction and modeling of real-world processes using techniques inspired in biology (mostly insect societies) and the use of theories from network science to uncover hidden patterns in complex systems. In network science, the lab has focused on the understanding of real-world phenomena such as academic production and organ transplantation, using concepts from statistical physics, graph theory and data mining. Biologically-inspired subjects in the lab have concentrated on the production of algorithms and heuristics inspired from insect societies applied to real-world areas such as sensor networks and optimization. A more recent effort includes the understanding of human dynamics (movement) and related phenomena derived from such dynamics (such as crime prediction).

Center for Computation and Intelligence (CCI): The center studies how to make computers more intelligent as well as how intelligence can change the way we compute. Specifically, CCI investigates algorithms that can help computers learn (machine learning), listen (speech recognition), reason (constraint reasoning, spatio-temporal reasoning) and see (computer vision). Moreover, the center examines how distributed intelligent agents can interact (coordination, distributed constraint reasoning, cryptography). CCI also studies how simple animal behavior can provide a novel way to solve problems (swarm intelligence). Applications of techniques include computational biology, computer security, device monitoring, digital government, surveillance and web personalization.

Computer Vision Laboratory: This laboratory conducts research on computer vision, pattern recognition, and image and video processing. Ongoing research topics include human–motion recognition, object tracking, image registration and object recognition.

Harris Institute for Assured Information: Advances the field of computer security through interdisciplinary approaches to education, research and outreach. Supporting Florida Tech’s designation as a DHS/NSA center of academic excellence in cybersecurity research, HIAI provides a unique environment for innovation, technology transfer and development of cutting-edge research.

Wireless Center of Excellence (WICE): Research within WICE focuses on areas related to wireless communication, wireless multimedia communications, wireless sensor systems and remote sensing. 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, satellite and airborne remote sensing systems and topics addressing challenges in providing multimedia communication over wireless links. WICE cooperates with the University of Central Florida and Florida Polytechnic University, and 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 and RapidScat data processing sponsored by NASA.