ECE Research

Research Areas


Nanoelectronics and Photonics

The NEP Qualifying Review (QR) will follow the requirements stated in the ECE graduate handbook for PhD students, with additional constraints added to ensure high quality within the Nanoelectronics & Photonics area. The spirit of this approach is to ensure good practices in technical assessment, analysis, and problem solving relevant to the nature of modern interdisciplinary electrical engineering. This process will also serve as a valuable tool for improving writing skills for documents that the student will face as he/she completes the PhD program and enters into a successful engineering career.

Exam Administration

Note the following mandatory regulations for the exam:

  • Students entering with a BS degree must complete the exam between the third and fifth semesters of study (inclusive).
  • Students entering with an MS degree must complete this exam between the first and third semesters of study (inclusive).
  • Students may take the exam even if they have not found their permanent academic advisor (i.e. they are still assigned to their interim advisor).
  • Students must register for ECE 834 during the exam semester.
  • Students will be given two chances to pass this exam.
  • Students must sign up for the exam by emailing the NEP QR Committee Chair (Dr. Escuti) and enrolling in ECE-834 (section for Dr. Escuti).
Exam Committee

The oral and written portion of the QR will not be chaired by the thesis advisor of the student candidate. A Committee will be formed consisting of at least three members of the NEP faculty (voting members) plus the thesis advisor (non-voting member). As of 2010, the core QR Committee consists of Profs. John Muth, Mehmet Ozturk, and Michael Escuti (Chair).

Schedule

The NEP QR exam involves writing a full research proposal and defending it in an oral presentation. Students taking this QR exam will be required to attend roughly five face-to-face meetings distributed throughout the semester, beginning within the first two weeks of the semester.

Guidelines

All exam guidelines are provided in the NEP QR Proposal Guidelines document.

The written review/exam will be a response to proposal solicitations (e.g. NSF, SRC, and DARPA) as described within the NEP QR Proposal Guidelines. The written review will be judged on several criteria, primarily including: the adequacy and quality of its literature review, knowledge of the state-of-the-art, problem statement, and quantitative assessment.

The oral review/exam will take place near the end of the semester, and will be conducted by the Committee in a closed session with each student. The review will consist of two parts, a defense of the written review, and an oral review on fundamentals of ECE courses the student has taken. A strict time limit of one hour will be allowed for the entire oral exam. Both sections of this oral exam must be passed to the satisfaction of the Committee in order to pass the QR.

The academic advisor, if already attained, may give initial direction in the choice of topic but should remove him/herself from the process of analysis and writing. Students should expect limited faculty support, as this is an exam, but feedback on topic and proposal should be especially sought from the QR committee. All University policies concerning plagiarism, cheating, or other unethical behavior will be enforced.