Graduate Program in Computer Engineering
Faculty
Professors: Poras T. Balsara, Farokh B. Bastani,
Dinesh K. Bhatia, Cyrus D. Cantrell III, Dingzhu Du,
Andrea Fumagalli,
Gopal Gupta, Kamran Kiasaleh, William
J. Pervin, Balakrishnan
Prabhakaran
, Lakshman
Tamil, Carl Sechen, Hsing-Mean
(Edwin) Sha,
I-Ling Yen, Kang Zhang, Si-Qing Zheng, Dian Zhou
Associate Professors: Jorge A. Cobb,
Ovidiu
Daescu,
Neeraj
Mittal,
Mehrdad
Nourani,
Ivor
P. Page, Issa
Panahi,
Ravi Prakash,
S. Venkatesan,
Yuke
Wang, Weili
Wu
Assistant Professors: Roozbeh
Jafari
Senior Lecturer: Nathan Dodge
Objectives
The M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Computer
Engineering emerged as a bridge between the increasingly overlapping
disciplines of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering. The M.S.C.E. degree
program provides intensive preparation for engineers who seek knowledge and
skills necessary for the design of complex systems comprised of both hardware
and software components. It has a heavy emphasis on the design of high speed
and complex hardware and highly reliable and time critical software systems.
Computer Engineering at UTD is a broadly
based engineering discipline dealing with the sensing, processing, and
transmission of information by making extensive use of electrical engineering
and computer science principles. The CE program at UTD also encourages students
and faculty to develop synergies with disciplines outside of engineering, such
as medicine and the life sciences. CE faculty members are actively involved in
advanced research and teaching in all major areas of computer engineering. The
Erik Jonsson
School is home to several research centers, and promotes graduate and
undergraduate curriculum innovation. It is the driving force behind computer
engineering´s rapid success and growth. The Erik Jonsson
School has a large infrastructure of computing and other laboratory resources.
The M.S.C.E. degree program provides intensive preparation for engineers who
seek knowledge and skills necessary for the design of complex systems comprised
of both hardware and software components. It has a heavy emphasis on the design
of high speed and complex hardware and highly reliable and time critical
software systems. It is designed to serve the needs of engineers who wish to
continue their education. Courses are offered at a time and location convenient
for the student who is employed on a full-time basis.
Facilities
The Erik Jonsson
School of Engineering and Computer Science has developed a
state-of-the-art computational facility consisting of a network of Sun servers
and Sun Engineering Workstations. All systems are connected via an extensive
fiber-optic Ethernet and, through the Texas Higher Education Network, have
direct access to most major national and international networks. In addition,
many personal computers are available for student use.
The Engineering and Computer Science Building
provides extensive facilities for research in electrical engineering,
telecommunications, and computer science and engineering.
The Center for Integrated Circuits and
Systems (CICS) promotes education and research in the following areas: digital,
analog and mixed-signal integrated circuit design and test; multimedia, DSP and
telecom circuits and systems; rapid-prototyping; computer architecture and CAD
algorithms. There are several laboratories affiliated with this center. These
laboratories are equipped with a network of workstations, personal computers,
FPGA development systems, prototyping equipment, and a wide spectrum of
state-of-the-art commercial and academic design tools to support graduate
research in circuits and systems.
The Center for Systems, Communications, and Signal
Processing, with the purpose of promoting research and education in general
communications, signal processing, control systems, medical and biological
systems, circuits and systems and related software, is located in the Erik Jonsson
School.
In the Digital Signal Processing Laboratory
several multi-CPU workstations are available in a network configuration for
simulation experiments. Hardware development facilities for real time
experimental systems are available and include microphone arrays, active noise
controllers, speech compressors and echo cancellers. The Distributed Computing
Laboratory has a network of personal computers running Linux to support network
simulation using discrete-event simulation packages. The Hardware/Software
Co-design Laboratory has many workstations and PCs with DSP modules to support
the experiments for various implementations in DSP and communications.
In addition to the facilities on campus,
cooperative arrangements have been established with many local industries to make
their facilities available to U.T. Dallas graduate engineering students.
Master of
Science in Computer Engineering (M.S.C.E.)
Admission
Requirements
The University´s general admission
requirements are discussed here.
A student lacking undergraduate prerequisites
for graduate courses in electrical engineering and computer science must
complete these prerequisites or receive approval from the graduate advisor and
the course instructor. A diagnostic exam may be required. Specific admission
requirements follow.
The student entering the M.S.C.E. program
should meet the following guidelines:
Applicants must submit three letters of
recommendation from individuals able to judge the candidate´s probability of
success in pursuing master´s study. Applicants must also submit an essay
outlining the candidate´s background, education and professional goals.
Students from other engineering disciplines
or from other science and math areas may be considered for admission to the
program on a case-by-case basis; however, some additional course work may be
necessary before starting the master´s program.
Degree
Requirements
The University´s general degree requirements
are discussed here.
The M.S.C.E. requires a minimum of 33
semester hours.
All students must have an academic advisor
and an approved degree plan. Courses taken without advisor approval will not
count toward the 33 semester-hour requirement. Successful completion of the
approved course of studies leads to the M.S.C.E. degree.
The M.S.C.E. program has both a thesis and a
non-thesis option. All part-time M.S.C.E. students will be assigned initially
to the non-thesis option. Those wishing to elect the thesis option may do so by
obtaining the approval of a faculty thesis supervisor.
All full-time, supported students are
required to participate in the thesis option. The thesis option requires six
semester hours of research, a written thesis submitted to the graduate school,
and a formal public defense of the thesis. The supervising committee
administers this defense and is chosen in consultation with the student´s
thesis advisor prior to enrolling for thesis credit. Each student must take Each
student must take at least 2 courses selected from Group 1 and at least 2
courses selected from Group 2:
Group 1:
CE 6302 Microprocessor Systems
CE 6304 Computer Architecture
CE 6325 VLSI Design
Group 2:
CE 6363 Design and Analysis of Computer Algorithms
CE 6378 Advanced Operating Systems
CE 6390 Advanced Computer Networks
Approved electives must be taken to make a total of 33 hours. These courses
must be at 6000 level or higher from computer engineering, electrical
engineering, computer science and telecommunications engineering curricula with
the approval of the advisor. It is highly recommended that two of these
electives be chosen from the following list:
CE 6303 Testing and Testable Design
CE 6305 Computer Arithmetic
CE 6308 Real-Time Systems
CE 6352 Performance of Computer Systems and Networks
CS 6353 Compiler Construction
CE 6370 Design and Analysis of Reconfigurable Systems
CE 6375 Design Automation of VLSI Systems
CE 6380 Distributed Computing
CE 6397 Synthesis and Optimization of High Performance Systems
CE 6398 DSP Architectures
Students must achieve an overall GPA of 3.0 or higher, a
GPA of 3.0 or higher in their core MSCE classes, and a grade of B- or higher in
all
their core MSCE classes in order to satisfy their degree
requirements.
Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Engineering
Objectives
The Ph.D. in Computer Engineering is awarded
primarily to acknowledge the student´s success in an original research project,
the description of which is a significant contribution to the literature of the
discipline. Applicants for the doctoral program are therefore selected by the
Computer Engineering Program Graduate Committee on the basis of research
aptitude, as well as academic record. Applications for the doctoral program are
considered on an individual basis.
Admission
Requirements
The University´s general admission
requirements are discussed here.
The admission requirements will be basically
the same as the existing ones for admission to the Ph.D. programs in Electrical
Engineering and Computer Science. The entrance requirements are
Applicants must submit three letters of
recommendation from individuals able to judge the candidate´s probability of
success in pursuing doctoral study. Applicants must also submit an essay
outlining the candidate´s background, education and professional goals.
Applicants must also submit a narrative
describing their motivation for doctoral study and how it relates to their
professional goals.
For students who are interested in a Ph.D. but are unable
to attend school full-time, there is a part-time option. The guidelines for
admission to the program and the degree requirements are the same as for
full-time Ph.D. students. All students must have an academic adviser and an
approved plan of study.
Degree
Requirements
The University´s general degree requirements
are discussed here.
The program will require a minimum of 75 semester credit
hours beyond the baccalaureate degree. These credits must include at least 30
semester hours of graduate level courses beyond the baccalaureate level in the
major concentration. The core requirements for the Ph.D. degree in Computer
Engineering are the same as the ones for the M.S. in Computer Engineering. All
PhD students must demonstrate competence in the Master's level core courses in
their research area. However, a student´s supervising committee may impose
course requirements that are necessary and appropriate for the student´s
research program. It is expected that M.S degree students planning to enter the
proposed doctoral program will take most of the courses as part of their M.S.
degree requirements. All students must have an academic advisor and an approved
plan of study.
Also required are:
• A research oriented oral qualifying examination (QE) demonstrating competence in the Ph.D. candidate´s research area. A student must make an oral presentation based on a review of 2 to 4 papers followed by a question-answer session. Admission to Ph.D. candidacy is based on two criteria: Graded performance in the QE and GPA in graduate level organized courses. A student entering the Ph.D. program must pass the QE within five long semesters from the date of admission into the Ph.D. program. A student has at most two attempts at this qualifying exam. The exam will be given during the fall and spring semesters.
• A comprehensive exam consisting of: a written dissertation proposal, a public seminar, and a private oral examination conducted by the Ph.D. candidate´s supervising committee.
• Completion of a major research project culminating in a dissertation demonstrating an original contribution to scientific knowledge and engineering practice. The dissertation will be defended publicly. The rules for this defense are specified by the Office of the Dean of Graduate Studies. Neither a foreign language nor a minor is required for the Ph.D. However, the student´s supervisory committee may impose these or other requirements that it feels are necessary and appropriate to the student´s degree program.
Dissertation
A dissertation is required and must be
approved by the graduate program. A student must arrange for a dissertation
advisor willing to guide this dissertation. The student must have a
dissertation supervising committee that consists of no less than four members.
The dissertation may be in computer engineering exclusively or it may involve
considerable work in an area of application.
Last Updated: September
12, 2011