Courses

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Undergraduate Courses

• Undergraduate Programs Curricula

100  200  300  400

ECE 101
Introduction to Electrical and Computer Engineering. [Introduction to the Electrical Engineering Profession.] (1 credit)
Insight into electrical engineering is gained through videos, “hands-on” experiments, use of computer software to learn basic problem-solving skills and a team-oriented design project.

ECE 203L
Circuit Analysis I (3 credits)
Basic electrical elements and sources. Energy and power. Ohm's law and Kirchhoff's laws. Resistive networks, node and loop analysis. Network theorems. First-order and second-order circuits. Sinusoidal sources and complex representations impedance, phasors, complex power. Three phase circuits.

Prerequisites: C or better in both Math 163 and C- or better in ECE 131.
Co-requisite: Math 316, Physics 161.

ECE 206L
Instrumentation. [Electrical Engineering Laboratory I.] (2 credits)
Introduction to laboratory practices and the use of test equipment. Measurements on basic electrical components, dc and ac circuits using ohmmeters, voltmeters, ammeters and oscilloscopes. Circuit simulation.

Prerequisites: C- or better in both 203L and Engl 102.

ECE 213
Circuit Analysis II (3 credits)
General transient analysis of electrical circuits. Laplace transform with applications to circuit analysis. State-space equations. Fourier series analysis. The network function; convolution; frequency response.

Prerequisites: C- or better in both 203L and Math 316.

Co-requistion: Math 314

ECE 231L
Intermediate Programming and Engineering Problem Solving. [Data Organization.] (3 credits)
Introducton to elementary data structures, program design and computer-based solution of engineering problems. Topics include use of pointers, stacks, queues, linked lists, trees, graphs, systems and device-level programming and software design methodology.

Prerequisite: ECE 131 or equivalent.

ECE 238L
Computer Logic Design (4 credits)
Binary number systems. Boolean algebra. Combinational, sequential, and register transfer logic. VHDL. Arithmetic/Logic unit. Memories, computer organization. Input-output. Microprocessors.

Prerequisites: C- or better in ECE 131

ECE 314
Signals and Communications (3 credits)
Continuous and discrete time signals and systems; time and frequency domain analysis of LTI systems. Fourier series and transforms, iscrete time Fourier series/transform sampling theorem, block diagrams, modulation/demodulation, filters.

ECE 321L
Electronics I (3 credits)
Introduction to diodes, bipolar, and field-effect transistors. Analysis, and design of digital circuits, gates, flip-flops and memory circuits. Circuits employing operational amplifiers. Analog to digital and digital to analog converters.

Prerequisites: C- or better in 213

ECE 322L
Electronics II (3 credits)
Analysis, design and characterization of linear circuits including operational amplifiers. Design of biasing and reference circuits, multistage amplifiers, and feedback circuits.

Prerequisite: C- or better in 321.

ECE 331
Data Structures and Algorithms (3 credits)
An introduction to the analysis of data structure and algorithms. Topics include asymptotic notation, recurrence3 relations and their solution, sorting, hash tables, basic priority queues, search trees and basic graph representationa dn search.

Prerequisites: 231L, CS251L, Math327

ECE 335
Integrated Software Systems (3 credits)
Course considers design principles, implementation issues, and performance evaluation of various software paradigms in an integrated computeing environment. Topics include performance measurement and evaluation, progarm optimization for the underlying architecture, integration and security for large-scale software systems.

ECE 337L
Introduction to Computer Architecture and Organization (3 credits)
Survey of various levels of computer architecture and design: microprogramming and processor architecture, advanced assembly language programming, operating system concepts, and input/output via the operating system. 3 lectures, 1hr lab.

Prerequisites: C- or better in 238, either 231 or CS241L

ECE 338
Intermediate Logic Design (3 credits)
Advanced combinational circuits; XOR and transmission gates; computer-based optimization methods; RTL and HDL; introduction to computer aided design; advanced sequential machines; asynchronous sequential machines; timing issues; memory and memory interfacing; programmable logic devices; VLSI concepts.

Prerequisite: C- or better in 238L.

ECE 340
Probabilistic Methods in Engineering. [Probabilistic Methods in Electrical Engineering.] (3 credits)
Introduction to probability, random variables, random processes, probability distribution/density functions, expectation correlation, power spectrum, WSS processes, confidence internals, transmission through LIT systems, applications of probability.

Prerequisite: 314

ECE 344L
Microprocessors (4 credits)
Computers and Microprocessors: architecture, assembly language pro- gramming, input/output, and applications. 3 lectures, 3 hrs. lab.

Prerequisites: C- or better in 238L and 206L

ECE 360
Electromagnetic Fields and Waves
Maxwell's equations, plane wave propagation, waveguides and transmission lines, transient pulse propagation, and elementary dipole antennas.

Prerequisites: C- or better in 213, Physcs 161, and Math 264.

ECE 371
Materials and Devices (4 credits)
Introduction to quantum mechanics, crystal structures, insulators, metals, and semiconductor material properties, bipolar, field effect, and light emitting devices.

Prerequisite: C- or better in Physics 262.

ECE 409
Engineering Ethics (1 credit)
(Also offered as CE, ME409) Topics in engineering practice, licensing, ethics and ethical problem-solving. Cases illustrating ethical issues facing practicing engineers. One lecture and one recitation per week for eight weeks.

Prerequisites: senior standing

ECE 419L
Senior Design I (3 credits)
Design methodology and development of professional project-oriented skills including communication, team management, and economics. Working in teams, a proposal for a large design is prepared in response to an industrial or in-house sponsor.

Prerequisites: Senior standing in electrical or computer engineering and completion of all required 300-level ECE courses except 340.

ECE 420L
Senior Design II (3 credits)
Continuation of 419L, students work in assigned design teams to implement proposal developed in 419L. Prototypes are built and tested to sponsor specifications, and oral and written reports made to the project sponsor.

Prerequisites: 419L

ECE 421/523
Analog Electronics. (3 credits)
Design of advanced analog electronic circuits. BJT and MOSFET operational amplifiers, current mirrors and output stages. Frequency response and compensation. Noise. A/D and D/A converters.

Prerequisite: C- or better in 322.

* ECE 424
Digital VLSI Design (3 credits)
CMOS logic gates and circuits, transistor implementations, applications to sequential circuits, VLSI data path and controller design, VLSI routing issues and architectures, RTL and VLSI impacts, and applications to mivroprocessor design.

Prerequisites: 322 and 338

* ECE 432/CS 442
Introduction to Parallel Processing (3 credits)
Machine taxonomy and introduction to parallel programming. Performance issues, speed-up, and efficiency. Interconnection networks and embeddings. Parallel programming issues and models: control parallel, data parallel, and data flow. Programming assignments on massively parallel machines.

Prerequisites: CS 341L or ECE 344L; CS 351L or ECE 331. Recommended: CS 481 or ECE 437L

* ECE 433/CS 433
Computer Graphics (3 credits)
Introduction to the use of computer graphics to solve engineering problems. Relevant software and hardware concepts. Use of modem hardware graphics devices. Description and manipulation of two and three dimensional objects. Hidden surface removal. Term project required.

Prerequisites: CS 361L or ECE 331

** ECE 435
Computer Engineering Design Project (3 credits)
Management and technical issues, including business conduct and ethics, related to the design of large software projects. Student teams will complete the design, specification, implementation, testing, and documentation of a large hardware/software project. 

Prerequisites: C- or better in both 331 and 337L.

* ECE 437L/CS 481
Computer Operating Systems (3 credits)
Fundamental principles of modern operating systems design, with emphasis on concurrency and resource management. Topics include processes, interprocess communication, semaphores, monitors, message passing, input/output device, deadlocks memory management, files system design.

Prerequisites: 337L or CS 341L

* ECE 438
Design of Computers (3 credits)
Computer architecture; design and implementation at HDL level; ALU, exception handling and interrupts; addressing; memory; speed issues; piplining; microprogramming; introduction to distributed and parallel processing; buses; bus protocols, and bus masters. CAD project to include written and oral presentations. 

Prerequisites: C- or better in 337L, 338 and 344L

* ECE 439
Introduction to Digital Filtering (3 credits)
Bilateral Z transforms, region of convergence, review of sampling theorem, aliasing, the discrete Fourier transform and properties, analysis/design of FIR?IIR filters. FFT algorithms spectral analysis using FFT.

* ECE 440/CS 485
Introduction to Computer Networks (3 credits)
Theoretical and practical study of computer networks, including network structure and architectures. Principles of digital communications systems. Network topologies, protocols and services. TCP/IP protocol suite. Point-to-point networks; broadcast networks; local area networks; routing, error and flow control techniques.

Prerequisites: 340 or Stat 345; 337L or CS 341L

* ECE 441
Introduction to Communication Systems (3 credits)
Amplitude/frequency modulation, pulse position/amplitude modulation, probabilistic noise model, AWGN, Roce representation, figure of merit, phase locked loops, digital modulation, introduction to multiple access systems.

* ECE 442
Wireless Communications. (3 credits)
The course is an introduction to cellular telephone systems and wireless networks, drawing upon a diversity of electrical engineering areas. Topics include cellular concepts, radio propagation, modulation methods and multiple access techniques.

Prerequisite: some knowledge of electromagnetic wave theory.

* ECE 443
Hardware Design with VHDL. (3 credits)
The VHDL hardware description language is used for description of digital systems at several levels of complexity, from the system level to the gate level. Descriptions provide a mechanism for documentation, for simulation and for synthesis.

Prerequisite: C- or better in 438.

* ECE 445
Introduction to Control Systems (3 credits)
Introduction to the feedback control problem. Plant modeling, transfer function and state-space descriptions. Stability criteria. Nyquist and root-locus design. Introduction to analytical design. Z-transferms and digital control. Laboratory design project.

Prerequisite: C- or better in 314 and 304

* ECE 446
Design of Feedback Control Systems (3 credits)
Modeling of continuous and sampled-data control systems. State-space representation. Sensitivity, stability, and optimization of control systems. Design of compensators in the frequency and time domains. Phase-plane and describing function design for non-linear systems and laboratory design project.

Prerequisites: C- or better in ECE 445

ECE 448/548/CE 548
Fuzzy Logic with Applications. (3 credits)
Theory of fuzzy sets; foundations of fuzzy logic. Fuzzy logic is shown to contain evidence, possibility and probability logics; course emphasizes engineering applications; control, pattern recognition, damage assessment, decisions; hardware/software demonstrations.

ECE 460/560
Introduction to Microwave Engineering (3 credits)
This lecture/laboratory course provides essential fundamentals for rf, wireless and microwave engineering. Topics include: wave propagation in cables, waveguides, and free space; impedance matching, standing wave ratios, Z- and S-parameters.

Prerequisite: ECE 360

ECE 462/562
Electronics RF Design (3 credits)
Course will cover rf design techniques using transmission lines, strip lines and solid state devices. It will include the design of filters and matching elements required for realizable high frequency design. Amplifiers, oscillators and phase lock loops are covered from an rf perspective.

Prerequisites: 322, 360 and 460

* ECE 463
Advanced Optics I (3 credits)
(Also offered as Physics 463.) Electromagnetic theory of geometrical optics, Gaussian ray tracing and matrix methods, finite ray tracing, aberrations, interference and diffraction.

Prerequisites: Physics 302

* ECE 464
Laser Physics I (3 credits)
(Also offered as Physics 464.) Gain media, atomic transitions, line broadening, excitation methods, resonators, ray tracing, Hermite-Gaussian modes, Q-switching, mode locking, oscillation and amplification, and laser types.

Prerequisites: ECE 360 or Physics 406.

ECE 469/569
Antennas for Wireless Communications (3 credits)
Aspects of antenna theory and design; radiation from dipoles, loops, apertures, microstrip antennas and antenna arrays.

Prerequisite: C- or better in 360 or equivalent.

* ECE 471
Materials and Devices II. (3 credits)
An intermediate study of semiconductor materials, energy band structure, p-n junctions, ideal and non-ideal effects in field effect and bipolar transistors.

Prerequisites: 360, 371 or equivalent.

** ECE 473
Semiconductor Materials, Devices, and Circuits. (3 credits)
This course is primarily for non-EE majors (ChE, Physics, Chemistry, etc.) who will work in the semiconductor industry. It describes integrated circuit electronics from basic concepts, transistor operation, logic circuit electronic, layout and higher level design. Credit is not allowed for undergraduate or graduate Electrical or Computer Engineering majors.

Prerequisite: senior standing in a science or engineering department or permission of instructor.

ECE 474L/574L
Microelectronics Processing I.
Materials science of semiconductors, microelectronics technologies, device/circuit fabrication, parasitics and packaging. Lab project features small group design/fabrication/testing of MOS circuits.

Prerequisite: 371 and exposure to electronics. Spring

Click here for more info about this course

* ECE 475
Introduction to Electo-Optics and Opto-Electronics (3 credits)
Basic electo-optics and opto-electronics, with engineering applications. Interaction of light with matter. Introduction to optics of dielectrics, metals and crystals. Introductory descriptions of electro-optics, acousto-optic and magneto-optic effects and related devices. Light sources, displays and detectors. Elementary theory and applications of lasers, optical waveguides and fibers.

Prerequisites: C- or better in ECE 371.

* ECE 485
Fusion Technology (3 credits)
(Also offered as Ch-NE 485) The technology of fusion reactor systems including basic magnetic and inertial confinement physics; system designs; material considerations; shielding; blanket design; fuel cycle; plant operations; magnets; and ICF drivers. Students will design a fusion reactor.

Prerequisite: Ch-NE 330 or senior standing in engineering or physical sciences.

ECE 486/586
Design for Manufacturability (3 credits)
(Also offered as ME 486.) Introduction to methods of design for manufacturability. Emphasis is on teamwork and designing to your customer's needs. This is achieved through statistical methods and computer based systems.

Prerequisites: Senior standing.

* ECE 487
Semiconductor Factory Design and Operations. (3 credits)
A detailed overview of the operations of an integrated circuit fabrication facility using Sandia’s Microelectronics Development Laboratory as a prototype. Topics include building facilities, equipment, software tracking and personnel.

Prerequisite: basic understanding of semiconductor device operation.

ECE 490
Internship
Professional practice under the guidance of a practicing engineer. Assignments include design or analysis of systems or hardware, or computer programming. A preliminary proposal and periodic reports are required. The engineer evaluates student's work; a faculty monitor assigns grade. (12 hour/week) (24 hours/week in a summer session). Offered on a CR/NC basis only.

ECE 491
Undergraduate Problems (1-6 credits)
Registration for more than 3 hours requires permission of the department chairperson.

Prerequisites: None.
{Fall, Spring}

ECE 493
Honors Seminar (1-3 credits)
A special seminar open only to honor students. Registration requires permission of department chair person.

Prerequisites:  {Fall, Spring}

ECE 494
Honors Individual Study (1-6 credits)
Open only to Honor students. Registration requires permission of the department chair person and of the supervising professor.

Prerequisites:  {Fall, Spring}

ECE 495/595
Special Topics. (1-4 credits, unlimited repetition)

Prerequisites: senior standing and permission of instructor.