30 courses with the subject ECE, each shown exactly as we captured it from the college's catalog, with every element we hold. Where the wording looks broken, that is our reading of the catalog, not the college's text.
ECE 1799Frontiers and Current Issues of Electrical and Computer Engineering1/6
This is a seminar-based course intended for First Year students seeking to understand the breadth of activities, career choices and technology that are considered to comprise Electrical and Computer Engineering. Students considering ECE as a major, both those who are “decided” as well as those who are “undecided” should enroll in ECE 1799. The class meets once a week during the fall semester (A & B terms). Note: There are no “recommended” or “suggested” courses for this description.
ECE 2010Introduction to Electrical and Computer Engineering1/3
The objective of this course is to introduce students to the broad field of electrical and computer engineering within the context of real world applications. This course is designed for first-year students who are considering ECE as a possible major or for non-ECE students fulfilling an out-of-major degree requirement. The course will introduce basic electrical circuit theory as well as analog and digital signal processing methods currently used to solve a variety of engineering design problems in areas such as entertainment and networking media, robotics, renewable energy and biomedical applications. Laboratory experiments based on these applications are used to reinforce basic concepts and develop laboratory skills, as well as to provide system-level understanding. Circuit and system simulation analysis tools are also introduced and emphasized. Topics: Basic concepts of AC/DC and Digital electrical circuits, power, linear circuit simulation and analysis, op-amp circuits, transducers, feedback, circuit equivalents and system models, first order transients, the description of sinusoidal signals and system response, analog/digital conversion, basic digital logic gates and combinatorial circuits.
This course investigates commonly used sensors such as resistive temperature sensors, capacitive touch sensors, and inductive motion sensors and actuators. Numerous applications are presented to motivate coverage of fundamental operating principles of circuit elements such as resistors, capacitors, and inductors; model the signals produced by these sensors; and analyze the circuits and systems used to amplify and process these signals. After a review of Kirchhoff ‘s current and voltage laws, fundamental analysis techniques such as Thevenin and Norton’s theorems and the superposition principle are used to model and analyze sensors, circuits, and systems. Concepts from analysis of linear, time-invariant continuous-time signals and systems are introduced as necessary, including Fourier series and characterization of systems such as filters in both the frequency domain (bandwidth, transfer function) and time domain (rise time, step response). Capacitance, inductance and mutual inductance are explored as energy storage elements, including consideration of resonance and energy losses in power systems. Concepts will be reinforced with the use of laboratory exercises and computer simulation. Note: Students who have received credit for ECE 2111 may not receive credit for ECE 2019.
Computational Engineering describes the methods and practices of software programming in the context of electrical and computer engineering (ECE), specifically, the construction of programs to be efficiently implemented on hardware. In this regard, the course covers programming design and methodology, developing efficient code using C programming language, hardware device abstraction, and modeling. In doing so, starting with basic programming techniques in the high-level programming language C, the course describes the relevant software and hardware device abstraction levels. Additionally, program analysis, debugging methods, issues encountered when interfacing with signals to/from external devices, and computer engineering models, such as finite state machines and timing in computing hardware, are explained. The course uses assignments/projects to provide hands-on experience with software programming to solve problems in electrical and computer engineering practice.
ECE 2049Embedded Computing in Engineering Design1/3
Embedded computers are literally everywhere in modern life. On any given day we interact with and depend on dozens of small computers to make coffee, run cell phones, take pictures, play music, control elevators, manage the emissions and antilock brakes in our automobile, control a home security system, and so on. Using popular everyday devices as case studies, students in this course are introduced to the unique computing and design challenges posed by embedded systems. Students will then solve real-world design problems using small, resource constrained (time/memory/power) computing platforms. The hardware and software structure of modern embedded devices and basic interactions between embedded computers and the physical world will also be covered in lecture and as part of laboratory experiments. In the laboratory, emphasis is placed on interfacing embedded processors with common sensors and devices (e.g. temperature sensors, keypads, LCD displays, SPI ports, pulse width modulated motor controller outputs) while developing the skills needed to use embedded processors in systems design. This course is also appropriate for RBE and other engineering and CS students interested in learning about embedded system theory and design. Topics: Number/data representations, embedded system design using C, microprocessor and microcontroller architecture, program development and debugging tools for a small target processor, hardware/software dependencies, use of memory mapped peripherals, design of event driven software, time and resource management, applications case studies. Lab Exercises: Students will solve commonly encountered embedded processing problems to implement useful systems. Starting with a requirements list students will use the knowledge gained during the lectures to implement solutions to problems which explore topics such as user interfaces and interfacing with the physical world, logic flow, and timing and time constrained programming. Exercises will be performed on microcontroller and/or microprocessor based embedded systems using cross platform development tools appropriate to the target platform. Note: Students who have received credit for ECE 2801 may not receive credit for ECE 2049. Students may not receive credit for both RBE 2020 and ECE 2049.
The object of this course is a comprehensive treatment of electromagnetic engineering principles covering the entire application spectrum from static to dynamic field phenomena. The starting point will be the basic electric and magnetic field definitions of Coulomb and Biot-Savart leading to Gauss’s and Ampere’s laws. They form the foundation of electro- and magnetostatics fields. Students will examine capacitive and inductive systems and relate them to lumped element circuit models. By introducing temporal and spatial magnetic flux variations, Faraday’s law is established. The engineering implications of this law are investigated in terms of transformer and motor actions. Incorporation of the displacement current density into Ampere’s law and combining it with Faraday’s law will then culminate in the complete set of Maxwell's field equations. As a result of these equations, students will develop the concept of wave propagation in the time and frequency domain with practical applications such as wireless communication, radar, Global Positioning Systems, and microwave circuits.
This course is the first of a two-course sequence in electronic circuit design. It begins with a substantive treatment of the fundamental behavior of semiconductor materials and moves on to the semiconductor diode, the bipolar transistor, and the field-effect transistor. Laboratory exercises are provided to reinforce the theory of operation of these devices. Numerous circuit applications are considered, including: power supplies, transistor amplifiers, and FET switches. Topics include: the pn junction, diode operation, transducers, rectification, voltage regulation, limiting and clamping circuits, transistor operation, biasing, small-signal and large-signal models, transistors amplifiers, and switching applications.
ECE 2305Introduction to Communications and Networks1/3
This course provides an introduction to the broad area of communications and networking, providing the context and fundamental knowledge appropriate for all electrical and computer engineers, as well as for further study in this area. The course is organized as a systems approach to communications and networking. Topics include key concepts and terminology (delay, loss, throughput, bandwidth, etc.), types of transmission media, addressing, switching, routing, networking principles and architectures, networking protocols, regulatory and applications issues.
ECE 2311Continuous-Time Signal and System Analysis1/3
This course provides an introduction to time and frequency domain analysis of continuous time signals and linear systems. Topics include signal characterization and operations; singularity functions; impulse response and convolution; Fourier series; the Fourier transform and its applications; frequency-domain characterization of linear, time-invariant systems such as filters; and the Laplace transform and its applications.
ECE 2312Discrete-Time Signal and System Analysis1/3
This course provides an introduction to the time and frequency domain analysis of discrete-time signals and linear systems. Topics include sampling and quantization, characterization of discrete-time sequences, the discrete-time Fourier transform, the discrete Fourier transform and its applications, the Z transform and its applications, convolution, characterization of FIR and IIR discrete-time systems, and the analysis and design of discrete-time filters. The course will include a focus on applications such as sampling and quantization, audio processing, navigation systems, and communications. Extensive use will be made of simulation tools, including Matlab.
ECE 2799Electrical and Computer Engineering Design 1/3
ETR 1100 or MKT 3640 MGE MQP (3/3 Units) The MQP must have a focus in the concentration area with an MQP advisor from the Business School. Free Electives (4/3 Units) Program Chart and/or Course Flow Chart 418 WPI 2025-26 Catalog
This course is designed to provide students with the basic principles of radio frequency (RF) circuit design. It concentrates on topics such as designing tuning and matching networks for analog and digital communication, satellite navigation, and radar systems. After reviewing equivalent circuit representations for RF diodes, transistors, FETs, and their input/output impedance behavior, the course examines the difference between lumped and distributed parameter systems. Characteristics impedance, standing waves, reflection coefficients, insertion loss, and group delay of RF circuits will be explained. Within the context of Maxwell’s theory the course will then focus on the graphical display of the reflection coefficient (Smith Chart) and its importance in designing matching circuits. Students will learn the difference between SPICE and monolithic and microwave integrated circuit analysis, and design (MMICAD) modeling. Biasing and matching networks for single and multistage amplifiers in the 900 to 2,000 MHz range are analyzed and optimized in terms of input/output impedance matching, insertion loss, and groups delays.
This course is the second of a two-course sequence in electronic circuit design. More complex circuits are analyzed and the effects of frequency and feedback are considered in detail. The course provides a comprehensive treatment of operational amplifier operation and limitations. The use of Bode plots to describe the amplitude and phase performance of circuits as a function of operating frequency is also presented. In addition, the concepts of analog signal sampling, analog-to-digital conversion and digital-to-analog conversion are presented along with techniques for interfacing analog and digital circuitry. Laboratory exercises are provided to reinforce student facility with the application of these concepts to the design of practical circuits. Topics include: transducers; differential amplifiers, inverting/non-inverting amplifiers, summers, differentiators, integrators, passive and active filers, the Schmitt trigger, monostable and a-stable oscillators, timers, sample-and-hold circuits, A/D converters, and D/A converters.
This course provides an introduction to analog and digital communications systems. The bandpass transmission of analog data is motivated and typical systems are analyzed with respect to bandwidth considerations and implementation techniques. Baseband and passband digital transmission systems are introduced and investigated. Pulse shaping and intersymbol interference criteria are developed in relation to the pulse rate transmission limits of bandlimited channels. Finally, digital carrier systems and line coding are introduced in conjunction with applications to modern modem transmission schemes.
ECE 3405Foundations and Trends in Machine Learning for Engineering1/3
Machine learning has achieved huge success in many engineering applications such as computer vision, gene discovery, financial forecasting, credit card fraud detection, autonomous vehicle navigation, biomedical signal modeling, wireless/radar/aerospace systems and others. The course will briefly review discrete-time signals and systems, including convolution and Fourier transforms. This course will introduce the fundamental concepts, algorithms, and theories in machine learning, including linear models, projection/nonlinear embedding methods, neural networks/deep learning, parametric/non-parametric methods, kernel machines, mixture models, and pattern recognition/classification. Also, the lectures will briefly summarize recent trends in the field to provide students with cutting-edge knowledge for engineering. The course will give the student the basic ideas and intuition behind these methods, as well as a more formal understanding of how and why they work. Students will have an opportunity to experiment with machine learning techniques and apply them in one or more application-based projects.
ECE 3500Electric Power and Renewable Energy Systems1/3
Concepts integral to the generation, transmission, storage, and use of electrical power are introduced with particular emphasis on economic, environmental, and regulatory influences that have shaped the structure of our power grid for over 100 years. Power generators, including those powered by traditional fossil fuels and renewable sources, are covered, providing a background of technology evolution that leads to distributed energy resources (DERs), energy storage systems, and smart grid solutions. Three-phase lines, loads, and generators are discussed together with the need for power factor calculation and correction. Construction and performance of high voltage transmission lines is introduced. Power flow analysis across a power network from generation to transmission to consumption is provided and modeled, including consideration of basic faults at various points in the network. Methods of energy storage are considered together with basic power grid protection techniques. These technologies converge toward the construction of robust smart grids that employ advanced data analytics and communications for real-time fault identification, load balancing, and correction.
The duality of electromechanical systems, which may be used to either generate or consume electrical power, is studied through examination of methods and machines that enable energy conversion to occur. The analysis and design of systems that employ coupled magnetic fields to convert electrical to mechanical energy and vice versa is explored using fundamental electromagnetic concepts, AC/DC systems analysis, and numerical simulation. Generator and motor machine components are modeled using magnetic circuits to demonstrate energy flow. Electric transformers are carefully considered to understand voltage and current conversion with corresponding device power losses. The principles of rotating single and polyphase systems are covered with application examples ranging from micro to industrial scale. AC/DC motors and generators are explored through a review of their physical construction, equivalent circuits, and performance characteristics. Power factor and power factor correction are examined to enable greater system efficiency. Special emphasis is given to synchronous machines, which comprise most of modern power generation, and induction machines, which are used in a myriad of everyday applications. This course includes simulations of motors and generators with some circuit analysis using circuit simulators, project work, and selected power system demonstrations.
ECE 3829Advanced Digital System Design with FPGAs1/3
This course covers the systematic design of advanced digital systems using FPGAs. The emphasis is on top-down design starting with high level models using a hardware description language (such as VHDL or Verilog) as a tool for the design, synthesis, modeling, test bench development, and testing and verification of complete digital systems. These types of systems include the use of embedded soft core processors as well as lower level modules created from custom logic or imported IP blocks. Interfaces will be developed to access devices external to the FPGA such as memory or peripheral communication devices. The integration of tools and design methodologies will be addressed through a discussion of system on a chip (SOC) integration, methodologies, design for performance, and design for test. Topics: Hardware description languages, system modeling, synthesis, simulation and testing of digital circuits; Design integration to achieve specific system design goals including architecture, planning and integration, and testing; Use of soft core and IP modules to meet specific architecture and design goals. Laboratory exercises: Students will design and implement a complete sophisticated embedded digital system on an FPGA. HDL design of digital systems including lower level components and integration of higher level IP cores, simulating the design with test benches, and synthesizing and implementing these designs with FPGA development boards including interfacing to external devices. Students who have received credit for ECE 3810 may not receive credit for ECE 3829.
This course continues the embedded systems sequence by expanding on the topics of real-time software and embedded microprocessor system architecture. The software portion of this course focuses on solving real-world problems that require an embedded system to meet strict real-time constraints with limited resources. On the hardware side, this course reviews and expands upon all the major components of an embedded microprocessor system, including the CPU, buses, memory devices and peripheral interfaces. New IO standards and devices are introduced and emphasized as needed to meet system design, IO and performance goals in both the lecture and laboratory portion of the course. Topics: Cross-compiled software development, embedded system debugging, multitasking, real-time scheduling, inter-task communication, software design for deterministic execution time, software performance analysis and optimization, device drivers, CPU architecture and organization, bus interface, memory management unit, memory devices, memory controllers, peripheral interfaces, interrupts and interrupt controllers, direct memory access. Laboratory exercises: Programming real-time applications on an embedded platform running a real-time operating system (RTOS), configuring hardware interfaces to memory and peripherals, bus timing analysis, device drivers.
The availability of electric power in a variety of forms is integral to modern society. Very often, electric power must be converted from one form to another to meet a specific application need – this conversion process is accomplished through the use and efficient management of power electronics. Design of power electronics is introduced first by examining the performance characteristics of basic switching devices, which enable critical management functions that include pulse width modulation (PWM) and output power regulation. Half and full-wave AC source rectification and techniques for improving the resulting DC power characteristics are covered, including polyphase AC sources. AC voltage control with applications for induction motors is studied. DC-DC power conversion is examined, covering a variety of circuit architectures, with applications in feedback control. DC to AC power inversion and resulting power quality considerations are explored. The impacts of design decisions on power electronics systems, from micro- to megawatts, are demonstrated through numerical simulation. This course includes guest lectures, project work including case-studies and selected power system demonstrations.
This course introduces the foundational concepts and practical considerations of hardware security, a rapidly evolving field at the intersection of electrical engineering, computer architecture, and cybersecurity. The course focuses on how computing systems can be compromised or protected at the hardware level. The threats across the hardware/software boundary are covered, highlighting the importance of abstraction layers in both exposing and mitigating security flaws. Particular attention will be given to vulnerabilities that arise in hardware/software co-design processes, such as insecure IP integration, misconfigured logic, and timing-related side effects that propagate across system layers. Further topics include risks in the electronics supply chain. Special attention is given to emerging threats in AI accelerators and reconfigurable platforms. The course combines lectures with hands-on lab exercises using hardware platforms to reinforce practical skills.
This course provides an introduction to the principles of real-time digital signal processing (DSP). The focus of this course is hands-on development of real-time signal processing algorithms using audio-based DSP kits in a laboratory environment. Basic concepts of DSP systems including sampling and quantization of continuous time signals are discussed. Tradeoffs between fixed-point and floating-point processing are exposed. Real-time considerations are discussed and efficient programming techniques leveraging the pipelined and parallel processing architecture of modern DSPs are developed. Using the audio-based DSP kits, students will implement real-time algorithms for various filtering structures and compare experimental results to theoretical predictions.
This course focuses on the computer organization and architectural design of standalone embedded and high-performance microprocessor systems. This course covers performance metrics, machine level representation of information, the assembly level interface, memory system organization and architecture, computer input/output, instruction set architecture (ISA) design, single cycle and multicycle CPU datapath and controlpath design as well as more advanced level topics such as pipelining, interrupts, cache and memory system design. Special attention will be paid into measuring architectural performance and into improving computer architectures at various levels of the design hierarchy to reach optimal performance. The course will include several hands-on projects and laboratory components where students will be required to perform simulations of CPU designs using architectural simulation tools such as MIPS Simulators and SimpleScalar.
This course introduces fundamental concepts on CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) analog and digital circuit design, emphasizing the physical implementation of integrated circuits. To develop a fundamental understanding of CMOS integrated circuit design and layout, the course begins with a description of integrated circuit fabrication technology and crucial process layers to fabricate devices in CMOS technology. With this foundation, we discuss resistors and capacitors in integrated circuit technology, followed by MOSFET capacitors and MOSFET transistors, emphasizing concepts in nanoCMOS devices such as velocity saturation and drain-induced barrier lowering. Building on earlier concepts in this course, we develop models for analog and digital integrated circuit design using MOSFET. Next, the students will learn the concept of basic digital building blocks in CMOS technology and associated timing and loading constraints. Finally, the course explores matching and sensitivity concepts through a simple circuit example, a current mirror.
This course introduces students to the design and analysis of analog integrated circuits such as operational amplifiers, phase-locked loops, and analog multipliers. Topics: integrated circuit building blocks: current mirrors and sources, differential amplifiers, voltage references and multipliers, output circuits. Computer-aided simulation of circuits. Layout of integrated circuits. Design and analysis of such circuits as operational amplifiers, phase-locked loops, FM detectors, and analog multipliers. Laboratory exercises. This course will be offered in academic years ending in even numbers.
