Course Schedule and Catalog

Long Title: ELEMENTS OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: What is electrical engineering? In this completely hands-on course, the students will be introduced to the basic fundamentals of three core area of electrical engineering: signals, computing and sensing.

Long Title: INTRODUCTION TO ENGINEERING DESIGN

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Distribution Group: Distribution Group III

Credit Hours: 4

Description: This hands-on course immerse students in an engineering design and problem solving team process that exposes them to the challenges and rewards of practicing engineers. The course targets two groups. First, freshman and sophomores who are considering an engineering major but who want information on the principles of engineering design and the profession. Second, non-engineering majors who want to experience and understand the design process that creates the technology that permeates today's economy, society, and political decisions. Teams of three students design, construct and program a small autonomous robot to engage in a competition at the end of the semester. The course is completely self-contained and assumes no prerequisites.

Long Title: FUNDAMENTALS OF COMPUTER ENGINEERING

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Distribution Group: Distribution Group III

Credit Hours: 4

Description: An overview of computer engineering, starting with fundamental building blocks including transistors, bits, data representation, logic and state machines, progressing to computer organization, instruction sets, interrupts, input/output, assembly language programming, and linkage conventions, and ending with an introduction to architectural performance enhancements and computing services.

Long Title: TECHNOLOGICAL DISASTERS

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Distribution Group: Distribution Group III

Credit Hours: 3

Description: From the Titanic to Betamax, some technologies become by-words for spectacular failure. Engineers use such disasters as object lessons in how to improve design. Laypeople use them to evaluate unfamiliar technologies. This course combines case studies, guest panels, and class projects to see what disasters say about technology's role in society. Cross-list: HIST 234.

Long Title: FUNDAMENTALS OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING I

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 4

Prerequisite(s): MATH 101 AND MATH 102

Description: The creation, manipulation, transmission, and reception of information by electronic means, elementary signal theory; time and frequency-domain analysis; sampling theorem. Digital information theory; digital transmission of analog signals; error-correcting codes. Laboratory demonstrating the principles of information management by electronic means.

Long Title: FUNDAMENTALS OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING II

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 4

Prerequisite(s): ELEC 241

Description: Formulation and solution of equations describing electric circuits and electromechanical systems. Behavior of dynamic systems in the time and frequency domains. Basic electronic devices and circuits, including diodes, transistors, optoelectronics, gates, and amplifiers. Introduction to feedback control and digital systems.

Long Title: ELECTRONIC MEASUREMENT SYSTEMS

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Distribution Group: Distribution Group III

Credit Hours: 4

Prerequisite(s): MATH 101 AND MATH 102 AND PHYS 102

Description: The course will give students the skills to design, construct, and assess electronic systems to measure, monitor, and control physical properties and events; spans the areas of circuits, signals, systems, and digital processing. Intended for non-ECE majors.

Long Title: ELECTRONIC MATERIALS AND QUANTUM DEVICES

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisite(s): MATH 101 AND MATH 102 AND (PHYS 101 OR PHYS 111) AND (PHYS 102 OR PHYS 112) AND (CHEM 121 OR CHEM 151)

Description: An overview of fundamental topics in physical electronics including a semiclassical approach to the electrical, magnetic, and optical properties of materials as well as an introduction to quantum mechanics, atomic physics, crystal lattices, and electronic band structure.

Long Title: INTRODUCTION TO WAVES AND PHOTONICS

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisite(s): (PHYS 101 OR PHYS 111 OR PHYS 125 OR PHYS 141) AND (PHYS 102 OR PHYS 112 OR PHYS 126 OR PHYS 142)

Description: Introduction to the concepts of waves and oscillatory motion with a particular focus on electromagnetic waves and their interaction with dielectric materials, and on the use of these ideas in the fields of optical fiber communications, laser design, non-linear optics, and Fourier optics.

Long Title: HISTORY OF NUMBERS AND GAMES OF CHANCE

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture/Laboratory

Credit Hours: 3

Description: Starting with the colorful history of numbers, we discover their use to characterize chance or luck through probability; students will participate in one major project and submit a report-application areas include physics, computer science, sports, finance, etc. The course is accessible to sophomores and juniors in science, engineering or business. Cross-list: COMP 281, STAT 281.

Long Title: SIGNALS AND SYSTEMS

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisite(s): ELEC 241

Description: Analytical framework for analyzing signals and systems. Time and frequency domain analysis of continuous and discrete time signals and systems, convolution, and the Laplace and Z transforms. Introduction to algorithms for machine learning on signals, including clustering, regression, and classification. Instructor Permission Required. Recommended Prerequisite(s): CAAM 335 or MATH 355

Long Title: INTRODUCTION TO SYSTEMS

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisite(s): ELEC 301 OR MATH 355 OR CAAM 335 or permission of instructor

Description: In many applications one is faced with the task of simulating or controlling complex dynamical systems. Such applications include for instance, weather prediction, air quality management, VLSI chip design, molecular dynamics, active noise reduction, chemical reactors, etc. In all these cases complexity manifests itself as the number of first order differential equations which arise. For the above examples, depending on the level of modeling detail required, complexity may range anywhere from a few thousand to a few million first order equations, and above. Simulating (controlling) systems of such complexity becomes a challenging problem, irrespective of the computational resources available. In this course we will set the foundations for model of linear systems. For this, state space representation will be introduced and analyzed. One of the main conclusions will be that certain appropriately defined singular values will provide the trade-off between accuracy and complexity of these dynamical systems.

Long Title: RANDOM SIGNALS IN ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING SYSTEMS

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisite(s): ELEC 301

Description: An introduction to probability theory and statistics with applications to electrical engineering problems in signal processing, communications and control; probability spaces, conditional probability, independence, random variables, distribution and density functions, random vectors, signal detection and parameter estimation.ELEC 301 may be taken concurrenlty with ELEC 303.

Long Title: INTRODUCTION TO PHYSICAL ELECTRONICS

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture/Laboratory

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisite(s): ELEC 261

Description: Survey of devices and physical principles that are used in modern electronic systems such as cellphones: diodes, transistors, integrated circuits; scaling; transmission lines; signal integrity; antennas.

Long Title: APPLIED ELECTROMAGNETICS

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisite(s): ELEC 241 AND MATH 212 AND PHYS 102

Description: An introduction to the theory of static and dynamic electromagnetic fields with a focus on engineering applications. Principles will be illustrated with applications in various areas. Topics include computational electromagnetics, transmission lines, antennas, electromagnetic interference, and signal propagation in high speed circuits.

Long Title: APPLIED ALGORITHMS AND DATA STRUCTURES

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 4

Prerequisite(s): COMP 211 AND COMP 280

Description: Design analysis of computer algorithms and data structures useful for applied problems. Laboratory assignments will use these techniques in conjunction with advanced programming methods. Cross-list: COMP 314. Recommended Prerequisite(s): COMP 280 or may be taken the same semester.

Long Title: PRINCIPLES OF PARALLEL PROGRAMMING

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture/Laboratory

Credit Hours: 4

Prerequisite(s): COMP 211 OR COMP 215

Description: Fundamentals of parallel programming: abstract models of parallel computers, parallel algorithms and data structures, and common parallel programming patterns including task parallelism, undirected and directed synchronization, data parallelism, divide-and-conquer parallelism, and map-reduce. Laboratory assignments will explore these topics through the use of parallel extensions to the Java language. Cross-list: COMP 322. Recommended Prerequisite(s): COMP 221.

Long Title: DIGITAL LOGIC DESIGN

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture/Laboratory

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisite(s): ELEC 220

Description: Study of gates, flip-flops, combinational and sequential switching circuits, registers, logical and arithmetic operations, introduction to the Verilog hardware description language. Cross-list: COMP 326.

Long Title: IMPLEMENTATION OF DIGITAL SYSTEMS

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisite(s): ELEC 326

Description: This course concerns the implementation of digital systems using the Verilog hardware description language. Lecture topics include Verilog test benches and timing simulations and techniques for implementing control units, data-flow units, pipelining and interrupts. The course also requires the completion of a significant project involving the implementation of a modern instruction set architecture. Recommended: ELEC 301.

Long Title: APPLIED PROBABILITY

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Distribution Group: Distribution Group III

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisite(s): MATH 211 AND MATH 212

Description: Applied probability with applications from reliability, operations research, and population biology. Topics include: axioms of probability; conditional probability; in dependence; random variables; probability distribution functions; parametric families of distributions; expectation and conditional expectation; generation functions; law of large numbers; central limit theorem; discrete-time Markov chains; branching and Poisson processes. Cross-list: STAT 331.

Long Title: ELECTRONIC SYSTEMS PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture/Laboratory

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisite(s): ELEC 242

Description: This course covers the theory and techniques necessary to realize modern, high performance electronic systems. Design considerations for systems utilizing high speed, high frequency analog and digital integrated circuits will be covered. Topics will include measurement techniques, signal integrity, printed circuit layout, mixed signal systems, rf circuits, and EMI/EMC considerations. Topics will be illustrated by a series of laboratory exercises. Satisfies Junior Design Laboratory requirement.

Long Title: ANALOG ELECTRONIC CIRCUITS LABORATORY

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture/Laboratory

Credit Hours: 4

Prerequisite(s): ELEC 242 OR ELEC 243

Description: Circuit models of diodes and bipolar and field-effect transistors. Biasing methods, distortion analysis, single- and multi-stage amplifiers, feedback, stability, analog power amplifiers. Lab culminates in design and construction of a low-distortion audio power amplifier.

Long Title: QUANTUM MECHANICS FOR ENGINEERS

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisite(s): ELEC 261

Description: This course provides the background in quantum mechanics and solid state physics for the study of semiconductor devices and quantum electronics.

Long Title: PHOTONICS MEASUREMENTS: PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisite(s): ELEC 262 OR PHYS 201

Description: After completing this course, students will have the knowledge and experimental skills to design and apply a photonic measurement system to monitor an environment, process, device, or system. The course will combine predefined labs to develop skills with application projects.

Long Title: FUNDAMENTALS OF NERVE AND MUSCLE ELECTROPHYSIOLOGY

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: An introduction to cellular electrophysiology. Includes development of whole-cell models for neurons and muscle (cardiac and skeletal muscle) cells, based on ion channel currents obtained from whole-cell voltage-clamp experiments. Material balance equations are developed for various ions and chemical signaling agents (e.g., second messengers). Numerical methods are introduced for solving the ordinary and partial differential equations associated with these models. Several types of cell models are discussed ranging from neurons and muscle cells to sensory cells of mechanoreceptors, auditory hair cells and photoreceptor cells. Volume conductor boundary-value problems frequently encountered in electrophysiology are posed. Course provides a cellular basis for the interpretation of macroscopic bioelectric signals such as the electrocardiogram (ECG), electromyogram (EMG), electroretinogram (ERG) and electroencephalogram. Recommended:Knowledge of ordinary differential equations, electrical circuits and electromagnetic field theory at the level of elementary physics. Cross-list: BIOE 381. Recommended Prerequisites: Knowledge of ordinary differential equations, electrical circuits and electromatgnetic field theory at the level of elementary physics.

Long Title: PROJECT MANAGEMENT FOR ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 1

Description: Aspects of project management: resource allocation and scheduling: documentation; delivering effective presentations; and working in multi-disciplinary teams. Course will meet for one hour per week concurrently with the project management sessions of ELEC 394. This course is intended only for students who completed the former ELEC 391 course on professional issues. This course is not intended for current students who should take the two hour ELEC 392 instead. Instructor Permission Required.

Long Title: PROFESSIONAL ISSUES AND PROJECT MANAGEMENT FOR ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 2

Description: Aspects of professional electrical engineering outside the hedges: intellectual property; ethics; career choices; graduate degrees; entrepreneurship; resource allocation and scheduling; documentation; delivering effective presentations; and working in multi-disciplinary teams. Course will meet for two hours per week and will involve presentations by speakers from Rice and the wider professional community. Instructor Permission Required.

Long Title: TRANSFER CREDIT - JUNIOR

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Transfer

Credit Hours: 1 TO 4

Description: This course is intended for transfer credit for courses not offered at Rice. Permission of ECE Undergraduate Committee and review by faculty in related specialization area is required. ELEC 395 is for Junior level ECE Specialization course credit. Department Permission Required. Repeatable for Credit.

Long Title: DESIGN AND ANALYSIS OF ALGORITHMS

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisite(s): (COMP 280 OR COMP 182) AND (STAT 310 OR ECON 307 OR STAT 331 OR ELEC 331 OR ELEC 303)

Description: Methods for designing and analyzing computer algorithms and data structures. The focus of this course will be on the theoretical and mathematical aspects of algorithms and data structures. Cross-list: COMP 482.

Long Title: OPERATING SYSTEMS AND CONCURRENT PROGRAMMING

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture/Laboratory

Credit Hours: 4

Prerequisite(s): (COMP 211 OR COMP 215) AND COMP 221

Description: Introduction to the design, construction, and analysis of concurrent programs with an emphasis on operating systems, including filing systems, schedulers, and memory allocators. Specific attention is devoted to process synchronization and communication within concurrent programs. Cross-list: COMP 421.

Long Title: VLSI SYSTEMS DESIGN

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 4

Prerequisite(s): ELEC 326

Description: A study of VLSI technology and design. MOS devices, characteristics and fabrication. Logic design and implementation. VLSI design methodology, circuit simulation and verification.

Long Title: MOBILE AND EMBEDDED SYSTEM DESIGN AND APPLICATION

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture/Laboratory

Credit Hours: 4

Prerequisite(s): ELEC 326

Description: ELEC 424 introduces mobile and embedded system design and applications to undergraduate students and provides them hands-on design experience. It consists of three interlearning parts: lectures, student project, and student presentations. Cross-list: COMP 424.

Long Title: COMPUTER SYSTEMS ARCHITECTURE

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture/Laboratory

Credit Hours: 4

Prerequisite(s): ELEC 326

Description: Advanced uniprocessor system architecture. Advanced pipelining; dynamic scheduling, precise interrupt handling. Advanced techniques for exploiting instruction level parallelism; superscalar and VLIW architectures. Case studies of recent high-performance microprocessors. Vector and DSP processors. Memory system improvement-cache, virtual memory, and main memory enhancements. I/O performance enhancements. Introduction to parallel architectures. Cross-list: COMP 425.

Long Title: INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTER NETWORKS

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 4

Prerequisite(s): COMP 221

Description: Network architectures, algorithms, and protocols. Local- and Wide-area networking. Intra- and inter-domain routing. Transmission reliability. Flow and congestion control. TCP/IP. Multicast. Quality of Service. Network Security - Networked applications. Cross-list: COMP 429.

Long Title: DIGITAL COMMUNICATION

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisite(s): ELEC 301 AND ELEC 303

Description: Course in digital communications, designed to prepare students for engineering work in high-tech industries and for graduate work in communications, signal processing, and computer systems. Covers basic concepts and useful tools for design and performance analysis of transmitters and receivers in the physical layer of a communication system.

Long Title: DIGITAL SIGNAL PROCESSING

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisite(s): ELEC 301

Description: Analysis of deterministic discrete-time signals and systems. Covers digital filter analysis and design, DSP algorithms such as the FFT and fast convolution, and wavelet based signal processing.

Long Title: ARCHITECTURE FOR WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture/Laboratory

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisite(s): (ELEC 301 AND ELEC 326)

Description: This is an FPGA laboratory course in which students will embark upon a detailed study and implementation of digital communications systems. Major functional blocks of end-to-end wireless communication systems will be discussed, built, tested in hardware. Students will work in groups on weekly lab assignments and a major semester project.

Long Title: DIGITAL SIGNAL PROCESSING LAB

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Laboratory

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisite(s): ELEC 301

Description: Understand the architecture and software tools for code development and optimization of the Texas Instruments TMS320C6x digital signal processor family. Includes laboratory exercises such as digital filtering to demonstrate both fixed-point and floating-point DSPs. Use will also be made DSP Starter Kits (DSK-6416 and/or DSK-6713). Requires DSP term project of the student's choice.

Long Title: ELECTROMECHANICAL DEVICES AND SYSTEMS

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisite(s): ELEC 242 OR ELEC 243

Description: Introduction to the physical and engineering aspects of electromechanical sensors and actuators, including underlying physical phenomena, practical devices, electrical and mechanical interfacing, and control of electromechanical systems. Cross-list: MECH 435.

Long Title: FUNDAMENTALS OF CONTROL SYSTEMS

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: See MECH 420. Cross-list: MECH 420.

Long Title: INTRODUCTION TO COMMUNICATION NETWORKS

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisite(s): ELEC 303

Description: Introduction to design and analysis of communication networks. Topics include wireless networks, media access, routing traffic modeling, congestion control, and scheduling.

Long Title: WIRELESS NETWORKING FOR UNDER-RESOURCED URBAN COMMUNITIES

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: The Rice Networks Group and the non-profit organization Technology For All have recently deployed a state-of-the art multi-hop wireless network in one of Houston's most economically disadvantaged neighborhoods. The objective of this network is to empower under-resourced communities with access to technology and educational and work-at-home tools. In this course project teams will perform measurement studies both in the Rice Networks Lab and in the East End neighborhood to characterize the system capacity; optimize placement of wireless nodes; study the effects of traffic and channel characteristics on system-wide performance; and plan deployment of additional nodes to extend the coverage area.

Long Title: DIGITAL IMAGE PROCESSING

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisite(s): ELEC 431 or permission of instructor

Description: Modern techniques for image analysis, processing, and enhancement: two dimensional system and transform theory; sampling; linear and non-linear filtering; feature extraction; compression and coding; imaging systems.

Long Title: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 4

Prerequisite(s): (COMP 280 AND COMP 314)

Description: This is a foundational course in artificial intelligence, the discipline of designing intelligent agents. That course will cover the design and analysis of agents that do the right thing in the face of limited information and computational resources. The course revolves around two main questions: how agents decide what to do, and how they learn from experience. Tools from computer science, probability theory, and game theory will be used. Interesting examples of intelligent agents will be covered, including poker playing programs, bots for various games (e.g. WoW), DS1 -- the spacecraft that performed an autonomous flyby of Comet Borrely in 2001, Stanley -- the Stanford robot car that won the Darpa Grand Challenge, Google Maps and how it calculates driving directions, face and handwriting recognizers, Fedex package delivery planners, airline fare prediction sites, and fraud detectors in financial transactions. Instructor Permission Required.Cross-list: COMP 440.

Long Title: MOBILE DEVICE APPLICATIONS PROJECT

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: As connected smartphones and tablets such as the iPhone, iPad and devices based on Android and WP7 become more popular, updated programming models and design concepts are required to take advantage of their capabilities. COMP/ELEC 446 will consider programming models including natively running applications, web services and mobile tailored web pages. We will explore applications on the Apple iPhone, iPod and iPad, Google Android and Microsoft Windows Phone 7. The course culminated with large individual or group project taking up omost of the second half of the semester. Curriiculum centers around and teaches iOS and Xcode (iPhone/iPad); however final projects may also be completed in any major mobile system if the student has a foundation in Eclipse (Android) or Visual Studio (WP7). Cross-list: COMP 446. Recommended Prerequisite(s): Basic understanding of an Object Oriented Language highly desired. Repeatable for Credit.

Long Title: ALGORITHMIC ROBOTICS

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 4

Prerequisite(s): COMP 211

Description: Robots have fascinated people for generations. Today, robots are built for applications as diverse as exploring remote planets, de-mining war zones, cleaning toxic waste, assembling cars, inspecting pipes in industrial plants, and mowing lawns. Robots are also interacting with humans in a variety of ways: robots are museum guides, robot pets entertain, and robots assist surgeons in life threatening operations. The field of robotics studies not only the design of new mechanisms but also the development of algorithms, and frameworks to make these mechanisms useful in the physical world, integrating science, engineering, mathematics and more recently biology and sociology, in a unique way. This class will take both a conventional and an unconventional view of robotics in an effort to show the breath of this field. It will present spectacular recent successes achieved with devices that one would readily recognize as robots, such as automated vehicles and the Mars rovers. Cross-list: COMP 450, MECH 450. Recommended Prerequisite(s): (COMP 182 or COMP 280) and (COMP 280 and COMP 314). Repeatable for Credit.

Long Title: OPTOELECTRONIC DEVICES

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture/Laboratory

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisite(s): ELEC 305

Description: This course covers the fundamental physical principles of semiconductor optoelectronic devices including detectors, modulators, frequency converters, light emitting diodes, and lasers.

Long Title: LASER AND PHOTONICS

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisite(s): (PHYS 201 OR ELEC 261)

Description: Introduction to the physics and technology of lasers and related devices. The course consists of lectures, homework, and student presentations on particular topics.

Long Title: PHYSICAL ELECTRONICS PRACTICUM

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Laboratory

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisite(s): (PHYS 201 OR ELEC 261)

Description: A laboratory course, with lecture, to introduce students to a variety of experimental techniques, methods, and instruments of current interest. The content will generally correspond to the ideas and concepts introduced in the Physical Electronics courses, ELEC 305, 306, 461, and 463, including: general optics; lasers and fiber optics; spectroscopy.

Long Title: FUNDAMENTALS OF NERVE AND MUSCLE ELECTROPHYSIOLOGY

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: Introduction to anatomy and physiology and of the brain, basic electrophysiology, development of models of neurons and natural neural networks. Includes descriptions of neuromorphic circuits, which can represent neuron and network behavior in silicon. Course serves as an introduction to Neural Engineering. Cross-list: BIOE 481, NEUR 481. Recommended Prerequisite(s): Knowledge of basic electrical and operational amplifier circuits; and ordinary differential equations.

Long Title: PHYSIOLOGICAL CONTROL SYSTEMS

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture/Laboratory

Credit Hours: 3

Description: A study of the somatic and autononmic nervous system control of biological systems. Simulation methods, as well as, techniques common to linear and nonlinear control theory are used. Also included is an introduction to sensors and instrumentation techniques. Examples are taken from the cardiovascular, respiratory, and visual systems. Requirements: Knowledge of basic electrical and operational amplifier circuits; and ordinary differential equations. Cross-list: BIOE 482. Recommended Prerequisite(s): Knowledge of basic electrical and operational amplifier circuits: and ordinary differential equations.

Long Title: FUNDAMENTALS OF MEDICAL IMAGING I

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: This course will introduce basic principles of image acquisition, formation and processing of several medical imaging modalities such as X-Ray, CT, MRI, and US that are used to evaluate the human anatomy. The course also includes visits to a clinical site to gain experience with the various imaging modalities covered in class. Cross-list: BIOE 485, COMP 485. Recommended Prerequisite(s): MATH 211 and MATH 212.

Long Title: FUNDAMENTALS OF MEDICAL IMAGING II

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisite(s): ELEC 485 OR BIOE 485 OR COMP 485

Description: This course focuses on functional imaging modalities used specifically in nuclear medicine such as Gamma cameras, SPECT, and PET imaging. The course will introduce the basic principles of image acquisition, formation, processing and the clinical applications of these imaging modalities and lays the foundations for understanding the principles of radiotracer kinetic modeling. A trip to a clinical site in also planned to gain experience with nuclear medicine imaging. Cross-list: BIOE 486, COMP 486.

Long Title: ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING RESEARCH PROJECTS

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Research

Credit Hours: 1 TO 6

Description: Theoretical and experimental investigations under staff direction. May be repeated for a total of 6 credit hours. Repeatable for Credit.

Long Title: SENIOR DESIGN II

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Laboratory

Credit Hours: 2

Prerequisite(s): ELEC 391 OR ELEC 394

Description: Senior Design is a year-long course required of all BSEE-degree students. Students should register for ELEC 494 for both semesters. Teams of students will design, construct, and document a prototype system to meet specifications determined by the team and the instructor. Senior design projects are the culmination of the Rice engineering experience. Cross-departmental projects are allowed and encouraged, and extensive use will be made of the Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen. Many projects will involve advisors from industrial affiliates. Throughout the year there will be several opportunities for presentations on the project. Top projects will be eligible for several awards from within Rice and outside the university, including some nation-wide competitions. Instructor Permission Required. Repeatable for Credit.

Long Title: TRANSFER CREDIT - SENIOR

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Transfer

Credit Hours: 1 TO 4

Description: This course is intended for transfer credit for courses not offered at Rice. Permission of ECE Undergraduate Committee and review by faculty in related specialization area is required. ELEC 495 is for Senior level ECE Specialization course credit. Department Permission Required. Repeatable for Credit.

Long Title: INTRODUCTION TO ROBOTICS

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture/Laboratory

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisite(s): MATH 354 OR MATH 355 OR CAAM 335

Long Title: APPROXIMATION OF DYNAMICAL SYSTEMS

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: This course describes projection methods for model reduction that seek to replace scale systems (VLSI circuits, weather prediction models, and MEMS) with systems of computational complexity that the original dynamical system requires while still maintaining model fidelity.

Long Title: NEURAL NETWORKS AND INFORMATION THEORY I

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: Review of major Artificial Neural Network paradigms. Analytical discussion of supervised and unsupervised learning. Emphasis on state-of-the-art Hebbian (biologically most plausible) learning paradigms and their relation to information theoretical methods. Applications to data analysis such as pattern recognition, clustering, classification, blind source separation, non-linear PCA. Cross-list: COMP 502, STAT 502. Recommended Prerequisite(s): ELEC 430 and ELEC 431 or equivalent or permission of instructor.

Long Title: NON LINEAR DYNAMIC SYSTEMS ANALYSIS

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: Analytical methods for the study of nonlinear systems are introduced, including singular point and phase plane analysis, the describing function technique, Lyapunov and Lagrangian state functions, stability analysis, bifurcation analysis, and chaotic behavior in nonlinear dynamic systems. As a substrate for the study of nonlinear systems, numerical analysis of ordinary and partial differential equations, boundary value problems, simulation methods, parameter estimation and sensitivity analysis methods are also included. Recommended Prerequisites: Knowledge of ordinary differential equations; electricity and magnetism, and solid mechanics from elementary physics; linear control theory.

Long Title: NONLINEAR SYSTEMS: ANALYSIS AND CONTROL

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: Mathematical background and fundamental properties of nonlinear systems: Vector norms, matrix norms, matrix measures, existence and uniqueness of solutions of ordinary differential equations. Linearization, second order systems, periodic solutions, approximate methods. Lyapunov stability: Stability definitions, Lyapunov's direct method, invariance theory, stability of linear systems, Lyapunov's linearization method, converse theorems. Selected topics in nonlinear systems analysis and nonlinear control from: Input/Output stability: Small gain theorem, passivity theorem. Perturbation theory, averaging, and singular perturbations Feedback linearization control. Other methods in the control of nonlinear systems such as backstepping, sliding mode and other Lyapunov-based design methods. Advanced nonlinear and adaptive robot control. Cross-list: CAAM 508, MECH 508.

Long Title: SUSTAINABILITY, ENERGY, AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: AN INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: An interdisciplinary course addressing the energy issues facing computing in the coming decade and beyond. In a student research-driven format we will ask how IT may address its power consumption problem and serve as a vehicle for energy efficiency, sustainability, and reduced carbon emissions across all human activity. Cross-list: COMP 514.

Long Title: ANALOG CIRCUIT DESIGN

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: This course will cover transistor level analysis and design of analog circuits, with emphasis on intuitive design methods, quantitative performance measures, and practical circuit limitations. Students will use hand calculations and computer simulations to compare the results. This course will discuss the physics of bipolar and MOS transistors, low-frequency behavior of single-stage and multistate amplifiers, current sources, active loads, differential amplifiers, operational amplifiers, as well as supply and temperature independent biasing. It will also cover high-frequency response of amplifiers, feedback in electronic circuits, stability of feedback amplifiers, and noise in electronic circuits.

Long Title: ARCHITECTING MODERN LEARNING ALGORITHMS

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: This course focuses on architecture development and hardware realization of contemporary learning algorithms. A multitude of new learning algorithms have been recently developed, in particular in the sparse approximation domain. Thus far, the basic functionality of the new algorithms have been mostly verified and evaluated in simulation packages such as Matlab and software implementation. Application-specific customization and hardware implementation would bring orders-of-magnitude energy-performance efficiency improvement to important learning methods. The course will include FPGA reconfigurable fabric architecture and design flow, high analysis of multimedia processing VLSI architectures, and prototyping on FPGA. The focus of the project will be implementation of the state-of-the-art signal processing and learning algorithms on FPGA. Recommended Prerequisite(s): A digital logic design course and hands-on experience such as ELEC 326/ELEC 327, Background in VLSI, computer architecture, and signal processing/learning is also very useful, but the course is designed to be self-contained.

Long Title: ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN MODERN SYSTEMS

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: Energy efficiency has become critically important for modern computing systems, from battery-powered mobile devices to wall-powered high-performance servers. The course presents the fundamentals of energy characteristics of modern systems, and introduces basic energy-saving mechanisms and methodologies for system energy characterization. It also covers emerging technologies in energy-efficient design. Instructor Permission Required.Cross-list: COMP 518.

Long Title: NETWORK SYSTEMS ARCHITECTURE

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 4

Prerequisite(s): COMP 320 OR ELEC 326

Description: Design and Implementation of network systems, including hardware and software architectures of network routers and servers. Students will design and implement wither the hardware or software components of a network system, depending on their experience and preferences. This course is suitable for students with expertise in either software or hardware. Cross-list: COMP 519. Recommended Prerequisite(s): COMP 221 or COMP 326 or ELEC 326.

Long Title: DISTRIBUTED SYSTEMS

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture/Laboratory

Credit Hours: 4

Description: Distributed systems: workstations, local area networks, server machines. Multiprocess structuring and interprocess communication. File access and memory management. User interfaces: window systems and command interpreters. Case studies of selected distributed systems. Emphasis on performance aspects of system software design. Cross-list: COMP 520.

Long Title: HIGH PERFORMANCE NANOSCALE SYSTEMS

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture/Laboratory

Credit Hours: 4

Prerequisite(s): PHYS 532

Description: This course provides an overview of many of the critical issues in Embedded and High Performance Nanoscale Systems. The course covers applications of computational electromagnetics and model reduction in nanoscale systems such as interconnect modeling, electromigration, and thermal effects. The course also addresses emerging issues in embedded nanoscale systems. Repeatable for Credit.

Long Title: ADVANCED VLSI DESIGN

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: Design and analysis of algorithm-specific VLSI processor architectures. Topics include the implementation of pipelined and systolic processor arrays. Techniques for mapping numerical algorithms onto custom processor arrays. Course includes design project using high-level VLSI synthesis tools.

Long Title: COMPUTER-AIDED DESIGN FOR VLSI

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: Fundamental topics in computer-aided design for VLSI-Logic synthesis and formal verification, timing analysis and optimization, technology mapping, logic and fault simulation, testing, and physical design will be covered. Relevant topics in algorithms and data structures, generic programming, and the C++ standard template library will also be covered. Cross-list: COMP 523.

Long Title: MOBILE AND WIRELESS NETWORKING

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisite(s): COMP 429 OR ELEC 429

Description: Study of network protocols for mobile and wireless networking, particularly at the media access control, network, and transport protocol layers. Focus is on the unique problems and challenges presented by the properties of wireless transmission and host or router mobility. Cross-list: COMP 524. Recommended Prerequisite(s): COMP 421 OR ELEC 421.

Long Title: ADVANCED MICROPROCESSOR ARCHITECTURE

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 4

Prerequisite(s): (ELEC 425 OR COMP 425)

Description: Exploration of the current trends and future directions of microprocessor architecture. Includes topics such as technology trends that affect microprocessor architecture, modern microprocessor design, techniques for statically and dynamically maximizing parallelism, memory system issues, and proposed future microprocessor architectures. Cross-list: COMP 525.

Long Title: HIGH PERFORMANCE COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisite(s): COMP 425 OR ELEC 425

Description: Design of high performance computer systems, including shared-memory and message-passing multiprocessors and vector systems. Hardware and software techniques to tolerate and reduce memory and communication latency. Case studies and performance simulation of high-performance systems. Cross-list: COMP 526.

Long Title: COMPUTING DESIGN WITH NANOTECHNOLOGIES

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisite(s): (COMP 311 OR COMP 412) AND (COMP 421 OR COMP 429 OR ELEC 429)

Description: CMOS transistors, building elements of modern computing are entering the nanometer era. This course aims at providing basic knowledge of nanotechnologies-based computing. It starts with addressing immediate challenges facing CMOS-based computing. It then covers emerging non-standard CMOS and non CMOS devices, their physical properties, fabrications, circuit design, and impacts on the existing design flow and computing paradigms. Cross-list: CHEM 527, COMP 537.

Long Title: SECURITY TOPICS OF EMBEDDED SYSTEMS

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: The course covers wide range of topics pertaining to security of Hardware Embedded systems, including cryptographic processors, secure memory access, hardware IT protection by monitoring and watermarking FPGA security, physical and side-charmed attacks, Trojan horses. Cross-list: COMP 538. Repeatable for Credit.

Long Title: COMPUTER NETWORK PROTOCOLS AND SYSTEMS

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 4

Prerequisite(s): COMP 429 OR ELEC 429

Description: Graduate level course on the study of protocols and systems for wide-area inter-networks with an emphasis on the challenges presented by the scale and complexity of the Internet. Topics include network architecture, router design, intra- and inter- domain routing, multicast services, congestion control, quality of service, network security, active and overlay network, network management. Cross-list: COMP 529.

Long Title: DETECTION THEORY

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: Classic and modern methods of optimal decisions in communications and signal processing. Continuous- and discrete-time methods. Gaussian and non-Gaussian problems.

Long Title: STATISTICAL SIGNAL PROCESSING

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisite(s): ELEC 431

Description: Statistical models for single- and multi-channel signals. Optimal detection and estimation solutions for Gaussian and non-Gaussian environments. Recommended Prerequisite(s): ELEC 533 and knowledge of digital signal processing at the level of ELEC 431

Long Title: WAVELET AND SPECTRAL ANALYSIS

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: Classical and modern techniques for characterizing the frequency content of signals. Periodogram; parametric techniques, including autogressive (AR) and autoregressive moving average (ARMA) modeling; nonparametric techniques, including minimum variance and eigenspace methods, and time-varying spectral analysis. Cross-list: STAT 586.

Long Title: INTRODUCTION TO RANDOM PROCESSES AND APPLICATIONS

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: Review of basic probability; Sequences of random variables; Random vectors and estimation; Basic concepts of random processes; Random processes in linear systems, expansions of random processes; Wiener filtering; Spectral representation of random processes, and white-noise integrals. Cross-list: CAAM 583, STAT 583.

Long Title: WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisite(s): ELEC 430

Description: This is a graduate course on wireless and mobile communication systems, with an emphasis on understanding the unique characteristics of these systems--their analysis and design. Topics include: cellular principles, mobile radio propagation and path loss, characterization of multipath fading channels, modulation and equalization techniques for mobile radio systems, multiple (media) access, Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) system design, and cellular system capacity.

Long Title: INFORMATION THEORY

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisite(s): ELEC 331

Description: Introduction to information theory concepts; basic theorems of channel coding and source coding with a fidelity criterion.

Long Title: APPLICATIONS OF MODERN STATISTICAL LEARNING THEORY IN EMBEDDED SYSTEMS AND NETWORKS

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: The course covers a broad range of statistical modeling and learning methods that find usage in embedded systems, distributed embedded systems and modern processes.

Long Title: COMMUNICATION NETWORKS

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: Graduate-level introduction to design and analysis of communication networks. Topics include wireless networks, media access, routine, traffic modeling, congestion control, and scheduling. Cross-list: MECH 537.

Long Title: ADVANCED TOPICS IN COMPUTER NETWORKING

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: Advanced topics in protocols, modeling, and analysis of wireless networks.

Long Title: SOURCE CODING AND COMPRESSION

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: Review of information theory, scalar quantization, vector quantization theory, scalar quantization, vector quantization, quantizer Design Algorithms, Entropy coding, transform coding, rate-distortion optimization application to image and video coding, wavelet and multi-resolution compression algorithms.

Long Title: ERROR CORRECTING CODES

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisite(s): ELEC 430

Description: Introductory course on error correcting codes. Topics covered include linear block codes, convolutional codes, turbo codes and LDPC codes.

Long Title: DIGITAL AUDIO AND VIDEO SYSTEMS

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisite(s): (ELEC 302 OR ELEC 431)

Description: This course covers practical audio and video system design techniques and DSP architectures for implementing real time video and audio algorithms. Topics: A&V circuit and system design fundamentals, digital audio amplifiers, digital audio algorithms, DSP architectures, NTSC and HDTV video systems, MPEG video algorithms, HDTV receiver design and personal video recorder design.

Long Title: HIGH-SPEED DSP AND ANALOG SYSTEM DESIGN

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisite(s): ELEC 342 OR ELEC 332

Description: This course is intended for seniors and graduate students in Electrical Engineering. It covers practical aspects of high-speed DSP system design, and highlights system design and simulation challenges, and demonstrates common pitfalls and how to prevent them. Students learn how to design, simulate, and apply good high-speed and analog design practices that minimize both component and system noise and ensure system design success.

Long Title: ADVANCED DSP

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: The course will cover advanced topics in FIR and IIR digital filter design, advanced topics in signal processing algorithms, especially in FFTs and high speed convolution and correlation, and in wavelet based signal processing and the discrete wavelet transform. The course will be one-half lecture based and one-half project based.

Long Title: THIN FILMS

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: See MSCI 545. Cross-list: MSCI 545.

Long Title: SIGNAL APPROXIMATION USING WAVELETS

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 2

Description: Fourier analysis is the most fundamental tool in signal processing, and dates back to Gauss. Less than a quarter century ago another fundamental tools emerged, namely Wavelet analysis. It had an almost immediate and profound impact in signal processing. For instance the digital processing of finger prints is currently based on so-called Daubechies wavelets. In this course, we will discuss the fundamentals of wavelets and multi-resolution analysis. We will see namely that the basic mathematical problem of searching for "good" orthonormal bases in various signal spaces led to the discovery of wavelets, which is in turn, closely related to "perfect reconstruction filter banks." Repeatable for Credit.

Long Title: COMPUTER VISION

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: The goal of computer vision is to make sense of the three dimensional world from captured images and videos. This requires understanding how light interacts with objects in the environment and then captured by a camera. The goal is to solve problems such as estimating 3D shape of an environment (How does Kinect work?), how to detect and recognize people (How to build your own iPhoto?), detect and track how things move. The course provides an introduction to solving such problems using vision tools such as feature detection, image segmentation, motion estimation, image mosaics, 3D shape reconstruction, and object recognition.

Long Title: PHYSICS OF SENSOR MATERIALS AND NANOSENSOR TECHNOLOGY

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisite(s): ELEC 306 OR PHYS 302

Description: A seminar course consisting of lectures, discussions of journal articles, and student presentations on topics in optical fiber propagation, including linear and nonlinear effects.

Long Title: SUBMICROMETER AND NANOMETER DEVICE TECHNOLOGY

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: Surveys techniques to design, fabricate, and analyze submicron and nanometer structures with emphasis on applications in microelectronics, microphotonics, information storage and nanotechnology.

Long Title: INTRODUCTION TO SOLID STATE PHYSICS I

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: Fundamental concepts of crystalline solids, including crystal structure, band theory of electrons, and lattice vibration theory. Cross-list: PHYS 563.

Long Title: SOLID-STATE PHYSICS II

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: Continuation of PHYS 563, including scattering of waves by crystals, transport theory, and magnetic phenomena. Cross-list: PHYS 564.

Long Title: LASER SPECTROSCOPY

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: Introduction to the theory and practice of laser spectroscopy as applied to atomic and molecular systems. The course covers fundamentals of spectroscopy, lasers and spectroscopic light sources, high resolution and time resolved laser spectroscopy with applications in atmospheric chemistry, environmental science and medicine. Repeatable for Credit.

Long Title: ULTRAFAST OPTICAL PHENOMENA

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: This course covers the generation, propagation, and measurement of short laser pulses, of duration less than one picosecond. Concepts include mode locking, the effects of dispersion, optical pulse amplification, and time-domain non-linear optical phenomena. Intended as an introduction to ultrafast phenomena for graduate students or advanced undergraduates; a basic understanding of electromagnetic waves and of quantum mechanics is assumed. Cross-list: PHYS 569.

Long Title: ADVANCED TOPICS IN LASER SPECTROSCOPY

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: Advanced topics in Laser Spectroscopy with an emphasis on recent spectroscopic and chemical sensing research publications. Format will include a combination of lectures and student presentations.

Long Title: IMAGING AT THE NANOSCALE

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: A survey of the techniques used in imaging submicron and nanometer structures with an emphasis on applications in chemistry, physics, biology, and materials science. The course includes an introduction to scanning probe microscopy and single photon counting including STM, AFM, NSOM, and confocal microscopy, as well as discussions on the fundamental and practical aspects of image acquisition, analysis, and artifacts.

Long Title: NANOPHOTONIC DEVICES AND CIRCUITS

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: An introduction to the theory and applications of nanophotonic devices built with high refractive index contrast. Topics include waveguides, couplers, resonators, photonic crystals and non-linear optical devices. Both analytical and numerical techniques for devices design will be discussed.

Long Title: OPTICAL SPECTROSCOPY OF NANOMATERIALS

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: This course covers the principles, methods, and applications of optical spectroscopy, as well as the physics of optical processes in semiconductor-, metal-, and carbon-based nanomaterials. Basic characteristics of transmission, reflection, absorption, emission, and scattering spectroscopy, from the far-infrared to the ultraviolet, are examined, while the fundamental physics of charge and spin excitations in nanostructures are discussed. Topics covered include: optical responses of low-dimensional materials; optical properties of excitons, phonons, and plasmons; ultrafast dynamics; electro-optics and magneto-optics; nonlinear optics; quantum coherent phenomena; optical orientation and manipulation of spins; and many-body effects in optical processes.

Long Title: CARDIOVASCULAR AND RESPIRATORY SYSTEM DYNAMICS

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisite(s): (ELEC 481 OR NEUR 481 OR BIOE 481) AND (ELEC 482 OR BIOE 482) AND ELEC 507

Description: Autonomic nervous system control of the cardiovascular and respiratory systems. Development of a large scale model of the human cardiopulmonary model used to simulate measured data from functional laboratory tests. Includes a study of instrumentation and techniques used in the cardiac catherization laboratory. A discussion of ventricular assist devices is included. The course serves as an introduction to engineering in cardiovascular diagnosis and critical care medicine. Recommendation: Knowledge of ordinary differential equations; electricity and magnetism, and solid mechanics from elementary physics; linear control theory and elementary physiology of the cardiovascular and respiratory systems. Cross-list: BIOE 581. Repeatable for Credit.

Long Title: ELECTRICAL PROJECTS

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Research

Credit Hours: 1 TO 6

Description: Theoretical and experimental investigations under staff direction. Repeatable for Credit.

Long Title: FIRST YEAR GRAD STUDENT PROJECTS

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 6

Description: Supervised project required of all first-year graduate students in the Ph.D. program.

Long Title: NEURAL NETWORKS AND INFORMATION THEORY II

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisite(s): ELEC 502 OR COMP 502 or permission of instructor

Description: Advanced topics in ANN theories, with a focus on Self-Organizing Maps and unsupervised learning. The course will be a mix of lectures and seminar discussions with active student participation, based on most recent research publications. Students will have access to professional software environment to implement theories. Cross-list: COMP 602. Repeatable for Credit.

Long Title: TOPICS IN NANOPHOTONICS

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 2

Description: This course is designed as a cornerstone for the NSF funded Integrative Graduate Research and Educational Training (IGERT) program in nanophotonics. It is also an official "home" for the Laboratory for Nanophotonics (LANP) seminars that serve as a forum for the interaction between researchers in nanophotonics at Rice. The conversational atmosphere of the seminar continues the relatively unstructured spirit of the interaction that has been the hallmark of past LANP meetings and collaboration. The course is open to graduate students who are interested in pursuing research in Nanophotonics. Repeatable for Credit.

Long Title: COMPUTATIONAL ELECTRODYNAMICS AND NANOPHOTONICS

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: See PHYS 605. Cross-list: PHYS 605. Repeatable for Credit.

Long Title: ADVANCED TOPICS IN SIGNAL PROCESSING

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisite(s): (ELEC 531 AND ELEC 533)

Description: Topic vary from semester to semester. Repeatable for Credit.

Long Title: ADVANCED TOPICS IN IMAGE AND VIDEO PROCESSING

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: Seminar on topics of current research interest in image and video processing. Students participate in selecting and presenting papers from technical literature. Discussions aim at identifying common themes and important trends in the field.

Long Title: GRAPHICAL MODELS

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: This course will focus on providing diverse mathematical tools for graduate students from statistical inference and learning; graph theory, signal processing and systems; coding theory and communications and information theory. We will discuss exact and approximate statistical inference over large number of interacting variables, and develop probabilistics and optimization-based computational methods. We will cover hidden Markov models, belief propagation, Monte Carlo sampling algorithms, and variational Bayesian methods. Cross-list: STAT 631.

Long Title: INFO-GAP THEORY AND ITS APPLICATIONS

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: Strategic decisions under uncertainty in analysis, design and certification of complex systems. Assessment and control of reliability and risk. Project management. Decision paradigms for information-gap uncertainty. Reliability with limited information. Balancing trade-offs between robustness, performance and opportuneness. Evolution of preferences through analysis of uncertainty. Value judgments. Decisions with multiple criteria. Learning and the value of information. Decisions with hybrid uncertainties. Repeatable for Credit.

Long Title: BACK TO THE FUTURE: THE HISTORY OF PROGRAMMABLE DSP ARCHITECTURES

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 2

Description: Class members will research the development of programmable DSP architectures over the last twenty five years, studying trends in architecture, the development of tools to support the programming and debug, and the role of semiconductor technology in their development. We will also consider key market forces driving their development. Finally class members will guide and engage in discussion of this history. We will also have guest speakers. finally the class members will collaborate to develop a report on the possible future of DSP architectures for the next twenty five years.

Long Title: ADVANCED TOPICS-COMPUTER SYSTEMS

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 1 TO 3

Description: This course is a discussion based seminar about state of the art embedded and digital signal processing systems, with emphasis on both hardware architectures as well as software tools, programming models, and compilers. The seminar focuses on state of the art academic and commercial offerings in these areas. Cross-list: COMP 693. Repeatable for Credit.

Long Title: FUTURE PERSONAL COMPUTING TECHNOLOGIES

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: Survey of the component and standards trends that are the basis of personal computers and digital appliances with the aim of predicting technologies, solutions, and new products five years into the future. Cross-list: COMP 694. Repeatable for Credit.

Long Title: ADVANCED TOPICS IN COMMUNICATIONS AND STATISTICAL SIGNAL PROCESSING

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: Section 1: Spring 2012 - Innovations in Mobile Health - In this seminar, we will study the merging area of mobile health, enabled by prevalent data connectivity, highly portable medical sensors, smart-phones and inexpensive cloud computing. The seminar will involve a mix of lectures, paper reading, case studies and group projects. The course is suitable for both undergraduate (junior and seniors) and graduate students. The course is part of the new ECE initiative on scalable health (http://sh.rice.edu). Open to both undergraduate and graduate students. Section 2: Spring 2012 - This is a graduate seminar class focused on the role of information theory in engineering wireless networks. Students will survey, read, and present both classic as well as recent papers in the area. Repeatable for Credit.

Long Title: COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE SEMINAR

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 1

Description: Discussion of recent research papers in computer architecture and current computer architecture at Rice. May be repeated for credit. Repeatable for Credit.

Long Title: BAYLOR/RICE MD/PHD PROGRAM

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Independent Study

Credit Hours: 3

Description:  Repeatable for Credit.

Long Title: RESEARCH AND THESIS

Department: Electrical & Computer Eng.

Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory

Course Type: Research

Credit Hours: 1 TO 15

Description:  Repeatable for Credit.