Department of Electrical and Microelectronic Engineering
Department of
Electrical and Microelectronic Engineering
Overview
The department of Electrical and Microelectronic Engineering (EME) offers bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees that combine the rigor of theory with the flexibility of engineering practice. From technology development to technology application, the innovations of electrical and microelectronic engineers are shaping our future.
The department’s mission is to establish its electrical and microelectronic engineering programs among the top programs in the world by providing high quality, inclusive education that cultivates intellectual curiosity. Our curricula apply mathematical and scientific foundations to the varied electrical and microelectronic disciplines in order to train high quality, independent thinking engineers and researchers that make measurable impacts on the world.
Electrical Engineering
Electrical engineering is a discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, magnetism, and electromagnetism. The discipline is divided into multiple focus areas, including: Analog and Mixed-Signal Electronics, Electronic Devices and Components, Digital and Computer Systems, Electromagnetics and Waves, Mechatronics, Electrical Power Systems, Telecommunications, Signal Processing, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Robotics. As a result, electrical engineers work in a wide variety of industries and are required to possess skills such as device modeling, circuit design, system architecture, algorithm development, and project management. Electrical engineers intensively use computer assisted design tools and methods, and test equipment.
Microelectronic Engineering
Microelectronic engineering focuses on the study, design, and fabrication of very small electronic devices and components (micrometer scale or below). These are semiconductor and photonic devices that impact virtually every aspect of human life, from communication, entertainment, and transportation, to health, solid-state lighting, and solar cells. There is an ever-increasing need for talented engineers that not only understand the design of these devices but can direct and optimize their fabrication. Integrated nanoelectronic and microelectronic circuits and sensors drive our global economy, increase our productivity, and help improve our quality of life.
Accreditation
The BS degrees in electrical engineering and microelectronic engineering are accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET, www.abet.org, which certifies that they meet the highest quality standards of the corresponding professions and that the graduates are well prepared to enter a global workforce.
For Enrollment and Graduation Data, Program Educational Objectives, and Student Outcomes, please visit the college’s Accreditation page.
32
Faculty members in electrical and microelectronic engineering
10
Undergraduate, graduate, and accelerated dual degree options
Research
The faculty and students in the electrical and microelectronic engineering department conduct research in a wide range of interdisciplinary fields including, but not limited to: digital and computer systems, signal processing, electromagnetics, power and energy systems, robotics, telecommunications, machine learning, analog and mixed-signal electronics, mechatronics, microelectromechanical systems, semiconductor devices, advanced integrated circuit manufacturing. Research is externally supported by an array of federal, state, and industry sponsors, such as the National Science Foundation, the US Air Force, and the US Navy. Faculty offer research mentorship to BS, MS, and Ph.D. students.
Prof. Mukund does cutting edge research in analog and RF integrated circuit design. His current research is focused on the migration of fundamental analog circuit blocks from 28nM planar technology to 14nM FinFET technology, which is sponsored by RAMBUS, Inc. He and his team of students were one of the first to come up with working RF front end circuits that were self healing, including LNAs, mixers and VCOs in the multiple GHz frequency range. His work has been sponsored by NSF, SRC, LSI, K-Micro, Harris and others.
High-performance, low-power, lightweight, and low-energy implementations for cryptographic solutions providing various security mechanisms/properties are being researched and developed for different platforms, applicable to constrained, sensitive nodes in different applications ranging from industrial networks to implantable and wearable medical devices deeply embedded in the human body.
Research and development of custom, low power, high performance, digital systems for target applications such as image processing, color space conversion, audio processing, and general digital signal processing, with proof of concept emulated in reconfigurable hardware devices, such as FPGAs and/or CPLDs. Research and development of computer architectures for late and post silicon technologies.
Research in the Electromagnetics Microwave and Antenna Laboratory activities include theoretical modeling and measurement of microstrip antennas and integrated microwave circuits, composite right/left handed materials and applications, numerical optimization techniques, and bioelectromagnetics. Recent research projects include the following.
- Bio-electromagnetics:
The project is the development of a noninvasive technique for measuring blood glucose levels. The feasibility of monitoring and estimating glucose level in real time using a microstrip antenna strapped on a patient’s arm has been demonstrated successfully. Work under progress is the optimization of the technique with a larger sample of patients - Left handed metamaterials and applications:
Negative permittivity or zero permittivity materials known as left handed materials have some unique properties that overcome wavelength size limitations imposed by right handed materials. The Nanoplasmonics and Metamaterials Research group at RIT has created different types of left handed materials which we have implemented for reducing antenna sizes by 70% and for enhancing gain. A variety of projects with LH metamaterials is being pursued. - Wireless Medical Telemetry:
This is a collaborative antenna research with the Communications research group. Creeping wave antennas have been designed and constructed for wireless body area networks. Data packets providing received signal strength indicators are used to demonstrate that creeping wave antennas provide reliable on-body communications while significantly reducing inter-network interference. - Wireless Network-on-Chip (WNoC):
This is a collaborative project with the Digital Systems Group. the principal aim is to explore methods for achieving thermal efficiency in multicore chips with wireless interconnects for operating at 60GHz. Wireless interconnects have been successfully designed and modeled in a novel 3-D WNoC of different configurations with embedded micro fluidic layers to address the interior heating. It is also shown that there is no transmission at the clock frequencies.
The Dynamic Energy Systems Laboratory at the Rochester Institute of Technology is motivated by the current need to provide cleaner, renewable, and more efficient electric power to mitigate the harm that fossil fuels have on the environment. We are investigating the integration and management of renewable sources and energy storage to the utility grid and microgrid networks through the use of power electronics and control. Moreover, optimization and robust control techniques are being investigated to optimally operate these electric networks and increase their stability margins.
With rapid developments in satellite and sensor technologies, there has been a dramatic increase in the availability of multi-modal imagery albeit through remote sensing, multimedia or biomedical type applications. For example, the WorldView-2 sensor can capture images at less than 0.5 m resolution with a collection capacity of 300,000 sq mi/day. Similar challenges are also present in multimedia and biomedical areas. To this end, full motion video (FMV) content is being acquired on an ongoing basis via airborne sensors and UAVs for extracting intelligence to perform day-to-day reconnaissance, combat support, forensic analysis, security, and search/rescue duties. Hence, several FMV Terabytes are being uploaded daily and manually analyzed, contributing to a multi-billion dollar budget. Consequently, techniques for assisted analysis are urgently needed to support analysts in generating effective results in an efficient and timely manner.
The mission of the Image, Video and Computer Vision laboratory (IVCVL) is to conduct research and explore algorithms to establish a firm foundation for mining, exploitation, interpretation, enhancement, classification, storage and compression of multimodal imagery by performing meaningful segmentations//analysis that efficiently combine spectral, gradient, motion and textural information in order to facilitate effective classification of objects/regions that are similar but spatially separated and/or undergoing varying degrees of occlusion. Achieving these objectives will allow analysts/image experts to organize, sort, query information which will facilitate better decision making/understanding in the various image analysis tasks.
The mission of the Multi Agent Bio-robotics Laboratory is to study robotics and biologically inspired learning models for multi-agent and complex system of systems. There are three main track of funded research in MABL: Embedded Fault Analysis and Prognosis, Bayesian Network Learning for Knowledge Discovery, and System of Systems Engineering. In addition, the characterization and modeling of materials for MEMS devices including soft and active materials is also another partially funded research activity. There are other ongoing research activities in Machine Learning and Robotics fields. More specifically, MABL students have designed humanoid and hexapod series of robot with full inverse kinematics and control. Finally, the navigation and localization of mobile robots for the disabled is another important research endeavor where some funding has been secured for designing and testing of a Smart Walker for elderly.
Dr. Monteiro’s research interests lie in the theory and application of machine learning, focused on problems in robotics and remote sensing. The primary goal of his research is to develop practical probabilistic methods to enable agents to sense, learn and act in complex, dynamic environments. His research seeks to address the major challenge of how to build efficient, accurate 3D representations of the surrounding environment to enable robust, long-term operation of autonomous systems. He has made many contributions in the field of hyperspectral image and signal processing. Applications of interest include environment monitoring, disaster response, defense, and biomedical imaging.
Research activities in the Communications Laboratory are in the areas of Wireless Communications, Signal Processing and their use in biomedical, vehicular and industrial applications. Specific topics of investigation include reliable low-power communications in the presence of channel fading conditions, securing communications with low overhead on system resources and unobtrusive monitoring of physiological state. Much of the research is performed in the context of Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs) used to monitor the health of patients. For more information please visit Dr. Tsouri's site.
Latest News
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December 13, 2021
![Santosh Kurinec, professor, Kate Gleason College of Engineering.]()
Santosh Kurinec named to national computer chip initiative
Professor Santosh Kurinec will represent RIT on the American Semiconductor Academy—an extensive, national consortia being established to meet the challenges of computer chip shortages.
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November 16, 2021
![portrait of Jennifer Indovina.]()
Engineering alumna wins New York Emmy as host of youth program ‘I Can Be What?’
Jennifer Indovina—RIT alumna, entrepreneur, international TED Fellow and adjunct faculty member—was part of the WXXI team that won a 2021 New York Emmy for its educational and career focused programming, “I Can be What?”
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November 15, 2021
![two researchers wearing masks and sitting next to a computer setup.]()
Engineering faculty awarded NSF funding to improve computing system memory
Dorin Patru and Linlin Chen, faculty-researchers at RIT, received a grant from the National Science Foundation to upgrade functions of programmable memory. They, along with colleagues from University of Rochester, will develop new algorithms to improve the internal computing memory system to enable scalable and more robust performance.
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Conferences and Short Courses
Annual Microelectronic Engineering Conference at RIT
The Annual Microelectronic Engineering Conference (AMEC) at RIT started in 1983 as a means of bringing together students, faculty, alumni, and industry interested in microelectronic engineering.
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Short Courses
Short courses are comprehensive, hands-on, educational experiences intended for individuals seeking a better understanding of the overall theory and practice of microelectronic engineering.
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Student Resources
The Electrical and Microelectronic Engineering Department offers a variety of resources for our students that vary from academic support to handbooks and more. Visit our Student Resources page for more information.