Electrical Engineering PhD

Major: Electrical Engineering
Degree Awarded: Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Calendar Type: Quarter
Minimum Required Credits: 90.0 
Co-op Option: None
Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) code: 14.1001
Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) code: 17-2071

About the Program

The program in electrical engineering prepares students for careers in research and development, and aims to endow graduates with the ability to identify, analyze and address new technical and scientific challenges. At present, the department offers graduate coursework in six general areas: (1) computer engineering; (2) control, robotics and intelligent systems; (3) electrophysics; (4) image and signal processing and interpretation; (5) power engineering and energy; and (6) telecommunications and networking.

A student's plan of study must contain a selection of courses from the department's offerings and may include appropriate graduate elective courses from other engineering departments or from physics or mathematics. Further information can be obtained from the department website or from the graduate advisor.

Students are also encouraged to engage in thesis research. The combined thesis and research cannot exceed 9.0 credits.

Additional Information

For more information, please visit the Doctorate in Electrical Engineering program and Electrical and Computer Engineering Department website.

Admission Requirements

Applicants must satisfy general requirements for graduate admission, including a minimum 3.0 GPA (on a 4.0 scale) for the last two years of undergraduate studies, as well as for any subsequent graduate work, and hold a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, computer engineering, or the equivalent from an accredited college or university. A degree in science (physics, mathematics, computer science, etc.) is also acceptable. Applicants with degrees in sciences may be required to take a number of undergraduate engineering courses. An undergraduate degree earned abroad must be deemed equivalent to a US bachelor's.

Applicants for full-time PhD programs must take the GRE general test. Students whose native language is not English and who do not hold a degree from a US institution must take the TOEFL within two years before application.
For additional information on how to apply, visit Drexel's Admissions page for Electrical Engineering.

Degree Requirements

General Requirements

The following general requirements must be satisfied in order to complete the PhD in Electrical Engineering:

• 90.0 credit hours total
• candidacy examination
• research proposal
• dissertation defense

Students entering with a master’s degree in electrical or computer engineering or a related field will be considered a post-masters PhD student and will only be required to complete a total of 45.0 credit hours, in accordance with University policy.

Curriculum

Appropriate coursework is chosen in consultation with the student’s research advisor. A plan of study must be developed by the student to encompass the total number of required credit hours. Both the departmental graduate advisor and the student’s research advisor must approve this plan.

Candidacy Examination

The candidacy examination explores the depth of understanding of the student in his/her specialty area. The student is expected to be familiar with, and be able to use, the contemporary tools and techniques of the field and to demonstrate familiarity with the principal results and key findings.

The student, in consultation with his/her research advisor, will declare a principal technical area for the examination. The examination includes the following three parts:

• A self-study of three papers from the archival literature in the student’s stated technical area, chosen by the committee in consultation with the student.
• A written report (15 pages or less) on the papers, describing their objectives, key questions and hypotheses, methodology, main results and conclusions. Moreover, the student must show in an appendix independent work he/she has done on at least one of the papers – such as providing a full derivation of a result or showing meaningful examples, simulations or applications.
• An oral examination which takes the following format:
  • A short description of the student’s principal area of interest (5 minutes, by student).
  • A review of the self-study papers and report appendix (25-30 minutes, by student).
  • Questions and answers on the report, the appendix and directly related background (40-100 minutes, student and committee).

In most cases, the work produced during the candidacy examination will be a principal reference for the student’s PhD dissertation; however, this is not a requirement.

Research Proposal

After having attained the status of PhD Candidate, each student must present a research proposal to a committee of faculty and industry members, chosen with his/her research advisor, who are knowledgeable in the specific area of research. This proposal should outline the specific intended subject of study, i.e., it should present a problem statement, pertinent background, methods of study to be employed, expected difficulties and uncertainties and the anticipated form, substance and significance of the results.

The purpose of this presentation is to verify suitability of the dissertation topic and the candidate's approach, and to obtain the advice and guidance of oversight of mature, experienced investigators. It is not to be construed as an examination, though approval by the committee is required before extensive work is undertaken. The thesis proposal presentation must be open to all; announcements regarding the proposal presentation must be made in advance.

The thesis advisory committee will have the sole responsibility of making any recommendations regarding the research proposal. It is strongly recommended that the proposal presentation be given as soon as possible after the successful completion of the candidacy examination.

Dissertation Defense

Dissertation Defense procedures are described in the Graduate College of Drexel University policies regarding Doctor of Philosophy Program Requirements. The student must be a PhD candidate for at least one year before he/she can defend his/her doctoral thesis.

Program Requirements

Post-Bachelor's PhD Student

*

Approved graduate coursework (500+ level) from Any College of Engineering, any College of Computing and Informatics, MATH, PHYS, COOP, ISTM, MTED, OPR, BMES, BIO, CHEM, ENVS, ENVP, LING, SCTS, DIGM, BST, EPI, or CIE course.

Additional courses may be considered upon approval from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Post-Master's PhD Student

*

Approved graduate coursework (500+ level) from Any College of Engineering, any College of Computing and Informatics, MATH, PHYS, COOP, ISTM, MTED, OPR, BMES, BIO, CHEM, ENVS, ENVP, LING, SCTS, DIGM, BST, EPI, or CIE course.

Additional courses may be considered upon approval from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Sample Plan of Study

Post-Bachelor's PhD Student

Post-Master's PhD Student

Facilities

Drexel University and the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department are nationally recognized for a strong history of developing innovative research. Research programs in the ECE Department prepare students for careers in research and development, and aim to endow graduates with the ability to identify, analyze, and address new technical and scientific challenges. The ECE Department is well equipped with state-of-the-art facilities in each of the following ECE Research laboratories:  

Research Laboratories at the ECE Department

Adaptive Signal Processing and Information Theory Research Group

The Adaptive Signal Processing and Information Theory Research Group conducts research in the area of signal processing and information theory. Our main interests are belief/expectation propagation, turbo decoding and composite adaptive system theory. We are currently doing projects on the following topics:

• Delay mitigating codes for network coded systems
• Distributed estimation in sensor networks via expectation propagation
• Turbo speaker identification
• Performance and convergence of expectation propagation
• Investigating bounds for SINR performance of autocorrelation based channel shorteners
   

Applied Networking Research Lab

Applied Networking Research Lab (ANRL) projects focus on modeling and simulation as well as experimentation in wired, wireless and sensor networks. ANRL is the home of MuTANT, a Multi-Protocol Label Switched Traffic Engineering and Analysis Testbed composed of 10 high-end Cisco routers and several PC-routers, also used to study other protocols in data networks as well as automated network configuration and management. The lab also houses a sensor network testbed.

Bioimage Laboratory

Uses computer gaming hardware for enhanced and affordable 3-D visualization, along with techniques from information theory and machine learning to combine the exquisite capabilities of the human visual system with computational sensing techniques for analyzing vast quantities of image sequence data.

Data Fusion Laboratory

The Data Fusion Laboratory investigates problems in multisensory detection and estimation, with applications in robotics, digital communications, radar, and target tracking. Among the projects in progress: computationally efficient parallel distributed detection architectures, data fusion for robot navigation, modulation recognition and RF scene analysis in time-varying environments, pattern recognition in biological data sequences and large arrays, and hardware realizations of data fusion architectures for target detection and target tracking.

Drexel Network Modeling Laboratory

The Drexel Network Modeling Laboratory investigates problems in the mathematical modeling of communication networks, with specific focus on wireless ad hoc networks, wireless sensor networks, and supporting guaranteed delivery service models on best effort and multipath routed networks. Typical methodologies employed in our research include mathematical modeling, computer simulation, and performance optimization, often with the end goal of obtaining meaningful insights into network design principles and fundamental performance tradeoffs.

Drexel Power-Aware Computing Laboratory

The Power-Aware Computing Lab investigates methods to increase energy efficiency across the boundaries of circuits, architecture, and systems. Our recent accomplishments include the Sigil profiling tool, scalable modeling infrastructure for accelerator implementations, microarchitecture-aware VDD gating algorithms, an accelerator architecture for ultrasound imaging, evaluation of hardware reference counting, hardware and operating system support for power-agile computing, and memory systems for accelerator-based architectures.

Drexel University Nuclear Engineering Education Laboratory

The field of nuclear engineering encompasses a wide spectrum of occupations, including nuclear reactor design, medical imaging, homeland security, and oil exploration. The Drexel University Nuclear Engineering Education Laboratory (DUNEEL) provides fundamental hands on understanding for power plant design and radiation detection and analysis. Software based study for power plant design, as well as physical laboratory equipment for radiation detection, strengthen the underlying concepts used in nuclear engineering such that the student will comprehend and appreciate the basic concepts and terminology used in various nuclear engineering professions. Additionally, students use the laboratory to develop methods for delivering remote, live time radiation detection and analysis. The goal of DUNEEL is to prepare students for potential employment in the nuclear engineering arena.

Drexel VLSI Laboratory

The Drexel VLSI Laboratory investigates problems in the design, analysis, optimization and manufacturing of high performance (low power, high throughput) integrated circuits in contemporary CMOS and emerging technologies. Suited with industrial design tools for integrated circuits, simulation tools and measurement beds, the VLSI group is involved with digital and mixed-signal circuit design to verify the functionality of the discovered novel circuit and physical design principles. The Drexel VLSI laboratory develops design methodologies and automation tools in these areas, particularly in novel clocking techniques, featuring resonant clocking, and interconnects, featuring wireless interconnects.

Drexel Wireless Systems Laboratory

The Drexel Wireless Systems Laboratory (DWSL) contains an extensive suite of equipment for constructing, debugging, and testing prototype wireless communications systems. Major equipment within DWSL includes:

• software defined radio network testbeds for rapidly prototyping new communications and network systems,
• electromagnetic anechoic chamber and reverberation chambers for testing new wireless technologies,
• experimental cell tower for field testing new wireless technologies.

The lab is also equipped with network analyzers, high speed signal generators, oscilloscopes, and spectrum analyzers as well as several Zigbee development platforms for rapidly prototyping sensor networks.  The lab offers laboratory coursework in wireless network security, collaborative intelligent radio networks, and fundamental analog and digital communication systems.

Ecological and Evolutionary Signal-processing and Informatics Laboratory

The Ecological and Evolutionary Signal-processing and Informatics Laboratory (EESI) seeks to solve problems in high-throughput genomics and engineer better solutions for biochemical applications. The lab's primary thrust is to enhance the use of high-throughput DNA sequencing technologies with pattern recognition and signal processing techniques. Applications include assessing the organism content of an environmental sample, recognizing/classifying potential and functional genes, inferring environmental factors and inter-species relationships, and inferring microbial evolutionary relationships from short-read DNA/RNA fragments. The lab also investigates higher-level biological systems such as modeling and controlling chemotaxis, the movement of cells.

Electric Power Engineering Center

This newly established facility makes possible state-of-the-art research in a wide variety of areas, ranging from detailed theoretical model study to experimental investigation in its high voltage laboratories. The mission is to advance and apply scientific and engineering knowledge associated with the generation, transmission, distribution, use, and conservation of electric power. In pursuing these goals, this center works with electric utilities, state and federal agencies, private industries, nonprofit organizations and other universities on a wide spectrum of projects. Research efforts, both theoretical and experimental, focus on the solution of those problems currently faced by the electric power industry. Advanced concepts for electric power generation are also under investigation to ensure that electric power needs will be met at the present and in the future.

Electronic Design Automation Facility

Industrial-grade electronic design automation software suite and intergrated design environment for digital, analog and mixed-signal systems development. Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) development hardware. Most up-to-date FPGA/embedded system development hardware kits. Printed circuit board production facility. Also see Drexel VLSI Laboratory.

Microwave-Photonics Device Laboratories

The laboratory is equipped with test and measurement equipment for high-speed analog and digital electronics and fiber optic systems. The test equipment includes network analyzers from Agilent (100kHz- 1.3 GHz and 45 Mhz-40 GHz), and Anritsu (45 MHz-6 GHz); spectrum analyzers from Tektronix, HP, and Agilent with measurement capability of DC to 40 GHz and up to 90 GHz using external mixers; signal generators and communication channel modulators from HP, Rhode-Schwartz, Systron Donner, and Agilent; microwave power meter and sensor heads, assortment of passive and active microwave components up to 40 GHz ; data pattern generator and BER tester up to 3Gb/s; optical spectrum analyzer from Anritsu and power meters from HP; single and multimode fiber optic based optical transmitter and receiver boards covering ITU channels at data rates up to 10Gb/s; passive optical components such as isolator, filter, couplers, optical connectors and fusion splicer; LPKF milling machine for fabrication of printed circuit boards; wire-bonding and Cascade probe stations; Intercontinental test fixtures for testing of MMIC circuits and solid-state transistors; state-of-the-art microwave and electromagnetic CAD packages such as Agilent ADS, ANSYS HFSS, and COMSOL multi-physics module.

Multimedia & Information Security Lab [MISL]

The Multimedia and Information Security Lab (MISL) develops algorithms to detect fake images and videos, along with algorithms to determine the true source an image or video. This research is particularly important because widely available editing software enables multimedia forgers to create perceptually realistic forgeries. Our goal at MISL, is to conduct research that provides information verification and security in scenarios when an information source cannot be trusted.  

The research conducted at MISL is part of a new area, known as multimedia forensics, which lies at the intersection of many areas in machine learning and artificial intelligence, signal processing, image and video processing, game theory, etc. Our algorithms work by identifying or learning visually imperceptible traces left in images and videos by processing operations. We use these traces to detect editing or forgery as well as to link an image or video back to the camera that captured it. We also perform research on anti-forensic operations designed to fool forensic techniques. By studying anti-forensics, researchers can identify and address weaknesses in existing forensic techniques as well as develop techniques capable of identifying the use of anti-forensics.

Music and Entertainment Technology Laboratory

The Music and Entertainment Technology Laboratory (MET-lab) is devoted to research in digital media technologies that will shape the future of entertainment, especially in the areas of sound and music. We employ digital signal processing and machine learning to pursue novel applications in music information retrieval, music production and processing technology, and new music interfaces. The MET-lab is also heavily involved in outreach programs for K-12 students and hosts the Summer Music Technology program, a one-week learning experience for high school students. Lab facilities include a sound isolation booth for audio and music recording, a digital audio workstation running ProTools, two large multi-touch display interfaces of our own design, and a small computing cluster for distributed processing.

NanoPhotonics+ Lab

Our research is primarily in the area of nanophotonics with a focus on the nanoscale interaction of light with matter. Interests include: liquid crystal/polymer composites for gratings, lenses and HOEs; liquid crystal interactions with surfaces and in confined nanospaces; alternative energy generation through novel photon interactions; ink-jet printed conducting materials for RF and photonic applications; and the creation and development of smart textiles technologies including soft interconnects, sensors, and wireless implementations.

Opto-Electro-Mechanical Laboratory

This lab concentrates on the system integration on optics, electronics, and mechanical components and systems, for applications in imaging, communication, and biomedical research. Research areas include: Programmable Imaging with Optical Micro-electrical-mechanical systems (MEMS), in which microscopic mirrors are used to image light into a single photodetector; Pre-Cancerous Detection using White Light Spectroscopy, which performs a cellular size analysis of nuclei in tissue; Free-space Optical Communication using Space Time Coding, which consists of diffused light for computer-to-computer communications, and also tiny lasers and detectors for chip-to-chip communication; Magnetic Particle Locomotion, which showed that particles could swim in a uniform field; and Transparent Antennas using Polymer, which enables antennas to be printed through an ink-jet printer.

Plasma and Magnetics Laboratory

Research is focused on applications of electrical and magnetic technologies to biology and medicine. This includes the subjects of non-thermal atmospheric pressure plasma for medicine, magnetic manipulation of particles for drug delivery and bio-separation, development of miniature NMR sensors for cellular imaging and carbon nanotube cellular probes.

Power Electronics Research Laboratory

The Power Electronics Research Laboratory (PERL) is involved in circuit and design simulation, device modeling and simulation, and experimental testing and fabrication of power electronic circuits. The research and development activities include electrical terminations, power quality, solar photovoltaic systems, GTO modeling, protection and relay coordination, and solid-state circuit breakers. The analysis tools include EMPT, SPICE, and others, which have been modified to incorporate models of such controllable solid-state switches as SCRs, GTOs, and MOSFETs. These programs have a wide variety and range of modeling capabilities used to model electromagnetics and electromechanical transients ranging from microseconds to seconds in duration. The PERL is a fully equipped laboratory with 42 kVA AC and 70 kVA DC power sources and data acquisition systems, which have the ability to display and store data for detailed analysis. Some of the equipment available is a distribution and HV transformer and three phase rectifiers for power sources and digital oscilloscopes for data measuring and experimental analysis. Some of the recent studies performed by the PERL include static VAR compensators, power quality of motor controllers, solid-state circuit breakers, and power device modeling which have been supported by PECO, GE, Gould, and EPRI.

RE Touch Lab

The RE Touch Lab is investigating the perceptual and mechanical basis of active touch perception, or haptics, and the development of new technologies for stimulating the sense of touch, allowing people to touch, feel, and interact with digital content as seamlessly as we do with objects in the real world.  We study the scientific foundations of haptic perception and action, and the neuroscientific and biomechanical basis of touch, with a long-term goal of uncovering the fundamental perceptual and mechanical computations that enable haptic interaction. We also create new technologies for rendering artificial touch sensations that simulate those that are experienced when interacting with real objects, inspired by new findings on haptic perception. 

Testbed for Power-Performance Management of Enterprise Computing Systems

This computing testbed is used to validate techniques and algorithms aimed at managing the performance and power consumption of enterprise computing systems. The testbed comprises a rack of Dell 2950 and Dell 1950 PowerEdge servers, as well as assorted desktop machines, networked via a gigabit switch. Virtualization of this cluster is enabled by VMWare's ESX Server running the Linux RedHat kernel. It also comprises of a rack of ten Apple Xserve machines networked via a gigabit switch. These servers run the OS X Leopard operating systems and have access to a RAID with TBs of total disk capacity.

Electrical Engineering Faculty

Emeritus Faculty