Program Overview

Program Overview

The Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical Engineering is a 75 semester credit hour program beyond the baccalaureate degree. The program is designed to acknowledge the student's success in an original research project, which is a significant contribution to the literature of the discipline.

Faculty

The program is led by a team of experienced faculty members, including:

• Professors: Naofal Al-Dhahir, Poras T. Balsara, Dinesh Bhatia, Yun Chiu, Babak Fahimi, John P. Fonseka, William R. Frensley, Andrea Fumagalli, John H. L. Hansen, C. Robert Helms, Wenchuang (Walter) Hu, Nasser Kehtarnavaz, Kamran Kiasaleh, Gil S. Lee, Hoi Lee, Jeong-Bong Lee, Jin Liu, Dongsheng (Brian) Ma, Giorgos (Yiorgos) Makris, Hlaing Minn, Won Namgoong, Aria Nosratinia, Mehrdad Nourani, Kenneth K. O, Lawrence J. Overzet, Issa M. S. Panahi, Siavash Pourkamali, Mohammad Saquib, Carl Sechen, Mark W. Spong, Lakshman Tamil, Murat Torlak, Dian Zhou
• Associate Professors: Bilal Akin, Carlos A. Busso-Recabarren, Rashaunda Henderson, Chin-Tuan Tan, Chadwin D. Young
• Assistant Professors: Benjamin Carrion Schafer, Joseph Friedman, Ghanshyamsinh Gohil, Qing Gu, Yang Hu, Jae Mo Park
• Research Professors: Andrew Marshall, Hisashi (Sam) Shichijo
• Senior Lecturers: Md Ali, Peter A. Blakey, Diana Cogan, Paul Deignan, James Florence, Matthew Heins, Jung Lee, Randall E. Lehmann, Rabah Mezenner, Miguel Razo-Razo, Ricardo E. Saad, Neal Skinner, William (Bill) Swartz, Marco Tacca
• Professors Emeritus: Andrew J. Blanchard, Louis R. Hunt, Duncan L. MacFarlane, William J. Pervin, Don Shaw
• Associate Professor Emeritus: Gerald O. Burnham

Admission Requirements

The University's general admission requirements are discussed on the Graduate Admission page. The PhD in Electrical Engineering is awarded primarily to acknowledge the student's success in an original research project. Applicants for the doctoral program are selected by the Electrical Engineering Program Graduate Committee on the basis of research aptitude, as well as academic record. The following are guidelines for admission to the PhD program in Electrical Engineering:

• A master's degree in electrical engineering or a closely associated discipline from an institution of higher education in the U.S. or from an acceptable foreign university.
• Consideration will be given to highly qualified students wishing to pursue the doctorate without satisfying all of the requirements for a master's degree.
• A grade point average (GPA) in graduate coursework of 3.5 or better on a 4.0 point scale.
• GRE revised scores of 154, 156, and 4 for the verbal, quantitative, and analytical writing components, respectively, are advisable based on our experience with student success in the program.
• Applicants must submit three letters of recommendation on official school or business letterhead or the UT Dallas Letter of Recommendation Form from individuals who are familiar with the student's record and able to judge the candidate's probability of success in pursuing doctoral study in electrical engineering.
• Applicants must also submit a narrative describing their motivation for doctoral study and how it relates to their professional goals.

Degree Requirements

The University's general degree requirements are discussed on the Graduate Policies and Procedures page. Each program for doctoral study is individually tailored to the student's background and research objectives by the student's supervisory committee. The program will require a minimum of 75 semester credit hours beyond the baccalaureate degree. These credits must include at least 30 semester credit hours of graduate level courses beyond the baccalaureate level in the major concentration. All PhD students must demonstrate competence in the master's level core courses in their research area. All students must have an academic advisor and an approved plan of study. Also required are:

• A qualifying examination (QE), as approved by the EE graduate committee, demonstrating competence in the PhD candidate's research area.
• A student entering the PhD program with a MS degree must pass this exam within three (3) long semesters, and a student entering without a BS degree must pass this exam within four (4) long semesters.
• A student has, at most, two attempts at this qualifying exam.
• A comprehensive exam consists of a written dissertation proposal, a public seminar, and a private oral examination conducted by the PhD candidate's supervising committee.

Areas of Research

The principal concentration areas for the MSEE program are:

• Circuits and Systems
• Communications
• Control Systems
• Digital Systems
• Photonic Devices and Systems
• Power Electronics and Energy Systems
• RF and Microwave Engineering
• Signal Processing
• Solid State Devices and Micro Systems Fabrication Besides courses required for each concentration, a comprehensive set of electives is available in each area. Doctoral level research opportunities include:
  • VLSI design and test
  • Analog and mixed-signal circuits and systems
  • RF and microwave engineering
  • Biomedical applications of electrical engineering
  • Power electronics
  • Renewable energy
  • Motors and drives
  • Vehicular technology
  • Computer architecture
  • Embedded systems
  • Computer aided design (CAD)
  • ASIC design methodologies
  • High speed system-on chip design and test
  • Reconfigurable computing
  • Network processor design
  • Interconnection networks
  • Nonlinear signal-processing
  • Smart antennas and array processing
  • Statistical and adaptive signal processing
  • Multimedia signal processing
  • Image processing
  • Real-time imaging
  • Medical image analysis
  • Pattern recognition
  • Speech processing and recognition
  • Control theory
  • Robotics
  • Digital communications
  • Modulation and coding
  • Electromagnetic-wave propagation
  • Diffractive structures
  • Fiber and integrated photonics
  • Nonlinear optics
  • Optical transmission systems
  • All-optical networks
  • Optical investigation of material properties (reflectometry and ellipsometry)
  • Optical instrumentation
  • Lasers
  • Quantum-well optical devices
  • Theory and experiments in semiconductor-heterostructure devices
  • Plasma deposition and etching
  • Nanoelectronics
  • Wireless communication
  • Network protocols and evaluation
  • Mobile computing and networking
  • Optical networking

Interdisciplinary Opportunities

In keeping with the established tradition of research at UT Dallas, the Electrical Engineering Program encourages students to interact with researchers in the strong basic sciences and mathematics. Cross disciplinary collaborations have been established with faculty across various departments (e.g. Computer Science, Bioengineering, Mechanical Engineering) and schools (e.g. Management; Natural Sciences and Mathematics; and Brain and Behavioral Sciences).