Program Brochures
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Program Website: http://www.ece.clemson.edu
Introduction

The Holcombe Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at Clemson University offers the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in computer engineering. Among the ECE-faculty are seven IEEE Fellows, two endowed chairs and six named professorships. In addition, several of the department’s young faculty members have recently won prestigious national and international awards and grants. The department offers a rich curriculum which includes more than 70 graduate courses. The ratio of students to faculty is low, and the department prides itself on observing the Clemson tradition of close interaction among faculty and students.

Programs of Study

Computer engineering students can focus in communications systems and networks, digital signal processing, intelligent systems or computer systems architecture.

M.S. The M.S. program includes an all-coursework option and a thesis option. In the former, a student’s plan of study must include a minimum of 33 credit hours, at least 18 of which must be at the 800 level. In the latter, the student must write a thesis that is approved by the advisory committee and the Graduate School. The thesis-option student must take a minimum of 30 credit hours, including exactly six hours of ECE 891 (Master’s Thesis Research). At least 12 of the credit hours, excluding the six ECE 891 credits, must be at the 800 level. Students supported as research assistants are almost always required by their advisers to choose the thesis option. Those students anticipating continued studies toward the Ph.D. should strongly consider the thesis option.

Independent of which option they choose, students must take a fi nal examination (oral and/or written) administered by their advisory committee. A thesis-option student must pass an exam consisting of an oral defense of the student’s thesis or report. The nonthesis candidate’s examination consists of an oral review and a written summary of a published paper that has been approved by the student’s advisory committee. Each master’s candidate may include a minor area in the degree program, which requires two courses (six hours) in some area outside of the major, such as math, physics, computer science or industrial engineering, as approved by the advisory committee.

Ph.D. Ph.D. students must pass the Ph.D. qualifying and comprehensive exams, complete a minimum of 24 hours of graduate course work and 18 hours of research beyond the master’s degree, and write and publicly defend a dissertation.

Ph.D. students select a major adviser, who, in consultation with the student, chooses additional advisory committee members. The student’s advisory committee must include at least four tenure-track faculty members. Three of the members must be from within the ECE department and one from outside the department.

Research

The research activities of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering are clustered into four major areas:

Communications

The communications research focus area includes the wireless communications program, applied electromagnetics, computer networks and digital signal processing (communications signal processing, speech signal processing and image processing).

Computer Systems Architecture

Computer systems architecture represents the primary research interests of the computer engineering faculty and includes computer architecture, sensor fusion, computer vision, high performance computing, computer security and sensor networks.

Electronics

The electronics group has active research projects in the areas of semiconductor devices and materials, metal organic chemical vapor deposition of electronic materials, power electronics and integrated circuit design. Research in this area also involves metalization, dielectrics, organic semiconductors and the development of computer-aided design tools which aid design engineers in designing VLSI integrated circuits.

Systems (mechatronics, power and artifi cial intelligence)

Our faculty in these areas are excited about this new organization and are currently involved in collaborative work involving the integration of vision with robotics. In addition, they continue to explore other possibilities for joint activities. Since mechatronics includes controls and robotics, many obvious linkages to power and artifi cial intelligence exist. Another factor that glues these technologies together is the trend for applying neural network, genetic and fuzzy systems-based solutions to problems in these subareas.

Centers, Institutes and Facilities

Among the many top-notch research facilities available to students in the program are:

  • Center for Research in Wireless Communications

  • Rockwell Automation Laboratory

  • Computational Electromagnetics Laboratory

  • CU Electrical Power Research Association (CUEPRA)

  • Image Processing and Artifi cial Intelligence Research Laboratory

  • Microelectronics Research Laboratory

  • Parallel Architecture Research Laboratory

  • Power Quality and Industrial Applications Laboratory

  • Robotics and Mechatronics Laboratory

  • Georgia Power Laboratory

  • Speech Processing Laboratory

  • Wireless Communications and Networks Facilities

  • Barnes Telecommunications Laboratory

  • Microstructures Laboratory (Clean Room)

Financial Aid

The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering uses two different mechanisms for funding graduate students. One is the department assistantship that is normally offered at the beginning of a student’s enrollment at Clemson. The offer for this assistantship comes from the ECE Department Chair and typically covers four semesters for M.S. students and six semesters for Ph.D. students, contingent upon the student’s satisfactory performance and progress toward the degree. The other type of assistantship is a research assistantship offered directly by a faculty member.

In many cases, an entering student is offered an assistantship both by the department and by a faculty researcher. In this case, if the student elects to accept the research assistantship and the research funding ends, the department’s offer is still available if the time limit of the original offer has not expired. Some students have a joint assistantship consisting of both a part-time teaching assistant position and a part-time research assistant appointment. In addition, there are also various fellowships available from the ECE department, the College of Engineering and Science, the University, industry, philanthropic organizations, and from several U.S. government agencies. Many of these fellowships are restricted to

U.S. citizens.

Faculty Listing
  • Carl W. Baum, Associate Professor; Ph.D., Illinois, 1992. Electrical Engineering.

  • Stanley T. Birchfi eld, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Stanford, 1999. Electrical Engineering.

  • Michael A. Bridgwood, Associate Professor; Ph.D., Portsmouth Polytechnic, 1979. Electrical Engineering.

  • Richard R. Brooks, Associate Professor; Ph.D., LSU, 1996. Computer Science.

  • Timothy C. Burg, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Clemson, 1996. Electrical Engineering.

  • Chalmers M. Butler, Alumni Professor and Owen Professor; Ph.D., Wisconsin, 1962. Electrical Engineering.

  • Edward R. Collins Jr., Associate Professor; Ph.D., Georgia Tech, 1989. Electrical Engineering.

  • Darren M. Dawson, Quattlebaum Professor; Ph.D., Georgia Tech, 1990. Electrical Engineering.

  • Adly A. Girgis, Duke Professor; Ph.D., Iowa State, 1981. Electrical Engineering.

  • John N. Gowdy, Professor and Department Chair; Ph.D., Missouri, 1971. Electrical Engineering.

  • Richard Groff, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Michigan, 2003. Electrical Engineering.

  • William R. Harrell, Associate Professor; Ph.D., Maryland, 1994. Electrical Engineering.

  • Adam W. Hoover, Associate Professor; Ph.D., South Florida, 1996. Computer Science and Engineering.

  • Todd H. Hubing, Michelin Chair of Vehicular Electronics; Ph.D., North Carolina State, 1988. Electrical Engineering.

  • John J. Komo, Professor; Ph.D., Missouri, 1966. Electrical Engineering.

  • Walter B. Ligon, Associate Professor; Ph.D., Georgia Tech, 1992. Computer Science.

  • Elham B. Makram, Georgia Power Professor; Ph.D., Iowa State, 1981. Electrical Engineering.

  • Anthony Q. Martin, Associate Professor; Ph.D., Clemson, 1989. Electrical Engineering.

  • Daniel L. Noneaker, Associate Professor; Ph.D., Illinois, 1993. Electrical Engineering.

  • L. Wilson Pearson, Rhodes Professor; Ph.D., Illinois, 1976. Electrical Engineering.

  • Kelvin F. Poole, Professor; Ph.D., Manchester (England), 1969. Electrical Engineering.

  • Michael B. Pursley, Holcombe Professor; Ph.D., USC, 1974. Electrical Engineering.

  • Harlan B. Russell, Associate Professor; Ph.D., Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1993. Electrical Engineering.

  • Samuel T. Sander, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Georgia Tech, 2002. Electrical and Computer Engineering.

  • Robert J. Schalkoff, Professor; Ph.D., Virginia, 1979. Electrical Engineering.

  • Rajendra Singh, Banks Professor; Ph.D., McMaster, 1979. Physics.

  • Melissa C. Smith, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Tennessee, 2003. Electrical Engineering.

  • Tarek M. Taha, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Georgia Tech, 2002. Electrical and Computer Engineering.

  • Ian D. Walker, Professor; Ph.D., Texas at Austin, 1989. Electrical Engineering.

  • Kuang-Ching Wang, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Wisconsin-Madison, 2003. Electrical and Computer Engineering.

  • Pingshan Wang, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Cornell, 2004. Electrical Engineering.

  • Xiao-bang Xu, Professor; Ph.D., Mississippi, 1985. Electrical Engineering.

Student Group

There are approximately 35 students in the M.S. program and approximately fi ve Ph.D. students. Of all the Computer Engineering students, nearly six percent are women and approximately 43 percent are international students.

Applying

Admission is based on academic performance, standardized scores and reference letters. An applicant’s statement of purpose provides insight into his or her goals and mutual interests. Relevant work experience should be highlighted in the application. Interested students may apply on the Web at http://www.grad.clemson.edu/Admission.php.

For More Information

A. Lane Swanson
Graduate Student Services Coordinator
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
102-A Riggs Hall
Clemson University
Clemson, South Carolina 29634
Telephone: 864-656-5902
E-mail: aswanso@clemson.edu