I. The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering offers graduate programs leading to the Master of Science degree with a major in Electrical and Computer Engineering (concentrations in Computer Engineering and Electrical Engineering) and a PhD degree with a major in Engineering (concentrations in Computer Engineering and Electrical Engineering).

Program objectives are: (1) ability to apply advanced knowledge of mathematics, physical sciences, and engineering principles to the solution of practical engineering problems; (2) meet or exceed the needs and expectations of public and private sector employers for M.S. graduates; and (3) preparation to pursue additional advanced studies if so desired.

II. MS Degree Program

A. Admission Requirements

The department uses the college admission criteria with selected terms defined below.

1. Appropriate bachelor’s degree. An official transcript showing a bachelor’s degree awarded by an accredited college or university with an acceptable grade point average will be used by the department to determine an appropriate bachelor’s degree. An applicant who lacks an appropriate bachelor’s degree may be required to complete undergraduate deficiency courses. If the number of deficiency courses is large, the applicant may be required to complete an undergraduate degree in Electrical or Computer Engineering before seeking admission to the graduate program. Appropriate bachelor’s degree is defined as an ABET accredited degree in Electrical or Computer Engineering. Material equivalent to the intersection of the undergraduate programs in electrical or computer engineering will be required of applicants without the appropriate bachelor’s degree.


2. Deficiency courses may be appealed by the following steps:
1. The student contacts his or her academic advisor requesting that specific deficiency courses not be required.
2. If in agreement, the student’s academic advisor forms an appeals committee composed of at least three members of the graduate faculty.
3. The appeals committee meets, considers the request, and forwards a recommendation in writing to the graduate coordinator.
4. If the graduate coordinator disagrees with the recommendation, the student is referred to the department chair for disposition of the matter.

B. Program Requirements

1. Students pursuing the Master of Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering must take EECE 7100 or EECE 7251, and elect to pursue either a computer engineering or an electrical engineering concentration (multiple concentrations are not permitted).
1. Computer Engineering Concentration: 9 hours selected from the following courses: EECE 7012, EECE 7214, EECE 7216, EECE 7217, EECE 7252, EECE 7261, EECE 7262, EECE 7266, EECE 7267, EECE 7268, EECE 7273, EECE 7720, EECE 7740, or approved computer engineering special topics courses.
2. Electrical Engineering Concentration: must take 9 hours selected from the following courses: EECE 7211, EECE 7215, EECE 7230, EECE 7231, EECE 7232, EECE 7233, EECE 7243, EECE 7245, EECE 7253, EECE 7254, EECE 7255, EECE 7521, EECE 7522, EECE 7523, EECE 7524, or approved electrical engineering special topics courses.
2. Thesis option: 30 semester hours, including a thesis (6 semester hours). An average grade of 3.00 must be maintained in all Electrical and Computer Engineering graduate coursework. NOTE: Students electing to write a thesis should familiarize themselves with the Thesis/Dissertation Preparation Guide before starting to write.
1. No more than 9 semester hours may be taken outside the department. Advisor’s approval is required.
2. At least 21 hours at the 7000 level are required, of which at least 18 hours must be in Electrical and Computer Engineering.
3. Non-thesis option: 33 semester hours. An average grade of 3.00 must be maintained in all Electrical and Computer Engineering graduate coursework.
1. No more than 9 semester hours may be taken outside the department. Advisor’s approval is required.
2. Each student will be required to complete EECE 7991 or EECE 7992 for a total of at least 3 hours.
3. At least 23 semester hours at the 7000 level required, of which at least 18 hours must be in Electrical and Computer Engineering.
4. All students are required to pass a comprehensive exam during their last semester.

C. Retention Requirements

All students enrolled in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering are expected to attain high academic achievement in all courses taken. The criteria listed below will be used to determine retention status of students enrolled in the program leading to a Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering.

1. Students who maintain a cumulative grade point average of 3.00 or higher will be considered to be in good standing if no more than two (2) grades of 2.00 or lower have been earned. (See item 3 below).
2. Students must maintain a cumulative grade point average of 3.00 at the end of each semester of enrollment in all course work at The University of Memphis, including all Electrical and Computer Engineering course work and all 7000 level course work. Any student not meeting these conditions will be placed on probation by the department.
3. A student will be permitted two (2) grades of 2.00 or lower in graduate courses taken at The University of Memphis. A student will be dismissed at the end of the semester in which a third grade of 2.00 or lower is earned.
4. A student who has been dropped from the graduate program in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering will be denied permission to enroll in Electrical and Computer Engineering courses in semesters subsequent to dismissal from the department.
5. Courses applied to the MS degree program requirements must have the advisor’s approval.

See the beginning of the College section for admission, retention, program objectives and graduation requirements.

A. Program Requirements

Students entering the PhD program at the master’s level must take the PhD Qualifying Examination prior to registering for their third semester in the PhD program. Failure to do so may prevent the student from registering for the third semester.

6202. Electrical Power Systems. (3). Investigation of problems associated with the transmission of electrical energy; load-flow studies, and fault analysis by use of symmetrical components.

6204. Power Distribution Systems. (3). Distribution of power from transmission systems to users: primary and secondary feeders; voltage regulation; underground, overhead and network design; lightning and protective device coordination.

6213. Antenna Theory and Design (3). Theory of operation and design of antennas; determination of antenna radiation characteristics; introduction to antenna array theory. PREREQUISITE: Permission of instructor.

6214. EM Fields Laboratory. (1). Laboratory techniques associated with frequencies above 100 MHz. COREQUISITE: EECE 6215 or permission of instructor.

6215. EM Fields Applied to Telecommunications. (3). Steady state and transient solutions of transmission line equations; plane waves; antennas in telecommunications. PREREQUISITE: Permission of instructor.

6221. Electronics III. (4). Applications of analog and digital electronic circuits; special purpose circuits and devices. Three lecture, three laboratory hours per week.

6222. Digital Logic and Computer Design. (3). Applications of digital system design using MSI, LSI, and VLSI circuits; design of arithmetic logic units, multiple input controllers, and practical interfacing techniques.

6230. Data Communications Systems. (3). Data communications in information and computing systems; analog and digital means of transmitting and controlling information; organization and requirements of data communication systems, including modulation and demodulation, multiplexing, switching, error detection and correction.

6231. Communication Theory. (3). Frequency and time domain; modulation, random signal theory; autocorrelation; noise, communication systems. PREREQUISITES: EECE 3202 and MATH 4635.

6232. Discrete Signal Processing. (3). Introduction to discrete-time signal analysis; discrete system concepts, discrete-time Fourier analysis, sampling of continuous-time signals, z-transform, and transform analysis of discrete systems; structures for discrete-time systems and discrete filter design techniques. PREREQUISITES: EECE 3202 and MATH 4635.

6235. Probabilistic System Analysis. (3). Analysis of discrete signals and analog signals with random components; autocorrelation, cross-correlation, and power spectra applied to various signals; effects of filters are determined; measuring, modeling, and predicting performance of computer systems; entropy and optimum algorithm development; Markovian queuing systems and networks.

6241. Solid State Physical Electronics. (3). Quantum concepts; statistics; crystal structure; conduction processes in solids; p-n junctions and devices; field effect devices; charge transfer devices. PREREQUISITE: EECE 3211.

6242. Electro-Optics. (3). Classical optics including Gaussian optics, Newtonian optics, and vergence theory; optical design with aberration concepts, F-numbers, pupils and stops; radiometry with respect to flux transfer calculations; light sources and detectors.

6243. Linear Optical Systems. (3). Review of Fourier techniques for analysis and design of linear systems, extension to 2-d methods; 2-d transforms applied to linear optical systems and data processing.

6251. Control System Engineering. (3). General equations of physical linear systems and their transfer functions; transient analysis and stability of control systems; Bode plots, Nichols plot, Routh-Hurwitz criterion, root locus method, introduction to compensation techniques and systems in state space.

6252. Digital Control Systems. (3). Problems involved with and analysis techniques applicable to digital control systems. Requires a prior knowledge of Laplace transforms. Basic knowledge of feedback control theory desirable.

6253. Control Systems Laboratory. (1). Investigation of fundamental properties associated with analysis of control systems, compensating networks, analog and digital computer simulations. COREQUISITE: EECE 6251 or 6252.

6254. Digital Control Systems Laboratory. (1). Fundamental properties associated with digital control systems engineering; laboratory procedures in analysis of digital control systems, compensating networks, digital computer simulations and PLCs. CORREQUISITES: EECE 6252.

6272. Engineering Software. (3). Procedural and object-oriented programming techniques using C and C++. Introduction to Unix. PREREQUISITE: Permission of instructor.

6273. Database Engineering. (3). Logical database design emphasizing entity-relationship, relational, object-oriented, and logic data models; design theory for relational databases, relational query languages, and introduction to integration of database and knowledge-base systems for engineering applications; emerging trends in database machine design and implementation. PREREQUISITES: COMP 3160 or permission of instructor.

6275. Network Programming. (3). Introduction to engineering of computer networks, network hardware, and network software; design of software systems for network applications. PREREQUISITES: EECE 1207 and EECE 3221.

6276. Advanced Network Programming. (3). Advanced methods for engineering software systems for network applications; topics include implementations of distributed object models, remote database connectivity, and reusable software components. PREREQUISITES: EECE 4275 or permission of instructor.

6277. DSP Microprocessors. (4). Architecture and instruction set of fixed-point and floating-point devices; hardware interfacing, host communications, real-time signal generation, filtering, and code development using assembly language and C. PREREQUISITES: EECE 2222 and EECE 3202.

6278. Computer Organization. (3). Organization and structure of CPU, memory, operating system, I/O system organization and implementation issues; hardware and software integration and co-design. PREREQUISITES: EECE 2222 and either COMP 2150 or EECE 4272.

6710. Computer Architecture. (3). Architecture and design of computers, performance measure, instruction sets, datapaths, I/O systems, and memory hierarchies. PREREQUISITE: EECE 6278.

6711. Fault-Tolerant Computer Design. (3). Evaluation of computer system design and reliability using reliability block diagrams, fault trees, reliability graphics, queuing networks, error detecting and correcting codes, and Markov models; principles of fault-tolerant hardware and software design. PREREQUISITES: MATH 6635 and EECE 6278.

6731. Introduction to Data Visualization. (3). (Same as COMP 6731). Terminology, methodology, and applications of data visualization; methods for visualizing data from a variety of engineering and scientific fields including both static and time varying data and methods for generating both surface and volume visualizations. PREREQUISITES: Permission of instructor.

6720. Introduction to Artificial Intelligence. (3). (Same as COMP 6720.) Fundamentals of programming in LISP; central ideas of artificial intelligence, including heuristic search, problem solving, slot-and-filler structures, and knowledge representation.

6730. Expert Systems. (3). (Same as COMP 6730.). Fundamentals of programming in PROLOG, central ideas of expert system development, including knowledge representation, control structures, tools, knowledge acquisition, and knowledge engineering.

6900-09. Special Topics in Electrical and Computer Engineering. (1-3). Topics are varied and announced in online class listings.

7001-8001. Professional Development. (3). Weekly presentations of electrical and computer engineering research and development issues by visiting faculty and invited speakers; weekly presentations by graduate students and discussions of graduate student research. May be repeated by permission. NOTE: Electrical engineering majors may not use this course to fulfill degree requirements.

7100-8100. Linear Systems Analysis. (3). Systems concepts and mathematical tools including Z-transforms; analysis of systems, both continuous and discrete, in the time domain and frequency domain.

7211-8211. Advanced Electromagnetic Field Theory. (3). Advanced studies in electromagnetic fields, radiation, and propagation of energy.

7012-8012. Foundations in Software Engineering. (3). (Same as COMP 7012-8012). Project management; Unified Process; software disciplines (requirements, analysis, design, implementation, testing); Unified Modeling Language; design patterns; mapping designs to code. Students work in teams to develop a significant software system. PREREQUISITE: COMP 3160 or permission of instructor.

7214-8214. Image Processing. (3). Theory and applications of digital image processing, sampling, quantization, enhancement and restoration of images; use of segmentation, descriptors, and pattern recognition; architectures for image processing.

7215-8215. Digital Signal Processing. (3). Application of discrete transform theory to spectral analysis, digital filters, random signal analysis. PREREQUISITE: Permission of instructor.

7216-8216. Computer Vision. (3). Principles and applications of computer vision, advanced image processing techniques as applied to computer vision, shape analysis, and object recognition.

7217-8217. Multimedia Information Processing. (3). Multimedia information retrieval models, advanced processing techniques, multimedia content analysis, pattern mining for information retrieval, query formation, intelligent query processing, and high dimensional data visualization. PREREQUISITE: Permission of instructor.

7230-8230. Solid State Devices. (3). Internal function, limitations, and applications of unique components found in modern telecommunication designs; electro-optic devices, detectors, resonators, antenna, and negative resistance components. PREREQUISITE: EECE 7231.

7231-8231. Communication Electronics. (3). Analysis and design of small and large signal amplifiers; multistage amplifiers; analysis and design of oscillators; feedback and stability in amplifier design.

7232-8232. Analog Communication Circuit Design. (3). Design and applications of analog communication systems; transmitter and receiver technologies. PREREQUISITE: EECE 7231 or permission.

7233-8233. Power Electronics. (3). Power semiconductor switches, rectifiers, phase-controlled rectifiers, and other power control devices; power control applications.

7243-8243. Fourier Optics. (3). Analysis of two-dimensional linear systems, scalar diffraction theory, Fresnel and Fraunhofer diffraction; Fourier transforming properties of lenses, spatial frequency analysis of optical systems, optical information processing and holography.

7245-8245. Statistical Optics. (3). Techniques for describing random processes applied to generation, propagation, imaging, and detection of light; statistical properties of light, coherence, imaging with inhomogeneous media, statistics of photoelectric detection of light.

7251-8251. Random Signals and Noise. (3). Statistical methods for describing and analyzing random signals and noise; auto-correlation, cross-correlation, and spectral density functions; optimal linear filter theory.

7252-8252. Information Theory. (3). Introduction to entropy and channel capacity, group codes, block codes, cyclic codes; application of coding techniques to improve system reliability; error correcting codes. PREREQUISITE: EECE 7251 or permission of instructor.

7253-8253. Wireless Telecommunications. (3). Principles of wireless telecommunication systems with emphasis on cellular telephony and on wireless data communication; requirements and standards along with physical layer properties and multiple access techniques including spread spectrum techniques (CDMA).

7254-8254. Modern Telecommunications. (3). Implementation and standards for communications systems; cellular telephony standards and/or wireless data standards utilizing CDMA techniques.

7255-8255. Digital Communications. (3). Source coding, signal representations, optimum receivers for A WGN channels, channel capacity issues, block codes, and convolution codes.

7261-8261. Architecture and Design of Digital Computers. (3). Advanced logical design of hardware and organization structure of digital computers; architectural properties and control strategies; processor and memory organizations, addressing and interrupt structures, and I/O controllers; hardware and software trade-offs, and speed considerations.

7262-8262. Logical Foundations of Artificial Intelligence. (3).(Same as COMP 7750-8750). Logical foundations of artificial intelligence, predicate calculus, declarative knowledge, inference, resolution strategies, non-monotonic reasoning, induction, probabilistic logic, belief, state and change, and intelligent-agent architecture. PREREQUISITE: Permission of instructor.

7266-8266. PROLOG Processing for Intelligent Systems. (3). The engineering of intelligent systems using the PROLOG language for implementation; advanced PROLOG processing, hardware, and software architecture for PROLOG-based machines. PREREQUISITE: EECE 6720 or 6730 or permission of instructor.

7267-8267. LISP Processing for AI Applications. (3). Fundamentals of LISP programming, symbolic processing, searching, goal reduction, matching, problems and problem spaces, problem solving methods, and AI applications.

7268-8268. Object-Oriented Data Engineering. (3). Design of hardware and software from a perspective of interacting objects that combine data and behavior; engineering data models, analysis and design processes, implementation, large engineering system issues, and reverse engineering; object-oriented database design for CASE, CAD/CAM, and related engineering database environments.

7273-8273. Modern Microprocessors. (3). Introduction to capabilities of state-of-the-art microprocessors and their supporting components.

7521-8521. Advanced Control System Engineering.(3). Cascade and feedback compensation; analysis and control of nonlinear systems; introduction to optimal techniques. PREREQUISITE: EECE 6251 or permission.

7522-8522. Stochastic and Adaptive Controls Theory. (3). Principles and applications of deterministic and statistical design; random processes in automatic control.

7523-8523. Theory of Optimal Control Systems. (3). State variable description of systems, maximum principle of Pontryagin, optimization of linear systems with quadratic performance measures, time and field optimal systems.

7524-8524. Parameter Estimation and Controls. (3). Principles of parameter estimation and application to systems engineering.

7720-8720. Artificial Intelligence. (3). (Same as COMP 7720-8720). Central issues of artificial intelligence, including game playing, planning, machine learning, common-sense reasoning, perception and action; implementations in LISP. PREREQUISITE: EECE 6720.

7740-8740. Neural Networks. (3). (Same as COMP 7740-8740). Learning algorithms for multilayer perceptrons, least-mean squares, back-propagation and its variants, cascade-correlation, other supervised learning algorithms; unsupervised methods, including Hebbian, competitive and reinforcement learning; applications to associative memories, combinatorial optimization, component analysis, function approximation, pattern classification; theory of neurodynamics, including equilibrium, stability, and computational power.

7900-10–8900-10. Special Topics in Electrical Engineering. (1-3). Topics are varied and announced in online class listings.

‡7991-8991. Projects I. (1-3). Independent investigation of a problem selected in consultation with instructor; report required. Repeatable by permission.

‡7992-8992. Projects II. (1-3). Independent investigation of a problem selected in consultation with instructor; report required. Repeatable by permission.

†7996. Thesis. (1-12). Master’s thesis. Only six hours are applicable to the degree.

8990. Research Practicum. (6). Problem-solving research activities in engineering. Student assigned a project that is either being conducted currently by faculty member or one developed under supervision of faculty member. Whenever possible, project will be within student’s major field of study.

†9000. Dissertation. (1-12).

† Grades of S, U, or IP will be given.
‡Grades of A-F, or IP will be given.