Office of Graduate Programs
Purdue School of Engineering and Technology, IUPUI

ECE Graduate Programs

Master of Science - MS (Electrical and Computer Engineering)

The MS degree is interdisciplinary in nature. Advanced work is directed toward research and professional development in biomedical engineering, signal/image processing, computer engineering, control and robotics, and microelectronics. Each program has a thesis and non-thesis option and requires a total of 30 semester credit hours. Students completing a master's degree will be prepared to enter the job market at a relatively high level of responsibility and expertise.


Master of Science in Engineering - MSE (Electrical and Computer Engineering)

The MSE degree program is also an interdisciplinary engineering program with an emphasis on the basic engineering sciences. It is designed to meet the specific needs of engineers employed in industry. The program has enough flexibility that the student may elect courses in several engineering disciplines or may elect strong options in fewer disciplines. The recommended maximum load for any student who is fully employed is two courses per semester. Both thesis and nonthesis programs can be arranged. The nonthesis program requires a minimum of 30 credit hours of course work, and the thesis program requires a minimum of 21 credit hours of course work in addition to an acceptable project or thesis. In either the thesis or a nonthesis program, a plan of study consists of a group of courses in the student's primary area and other courses in a related area or areas. The courses in the primary area should form a coherent group, with all courses showing a close relationship. Courses in the related area or areas are less closely related to the primary area but still contribute to the program. Generally, courses in mathematics will be included in the plan of study.


Master of Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering - MSECE

The graduate program leading to the MSECE degree is organized into several areas of study including computer engineering, controls and automation, communications and signal processing, and biomedical engineering.

The computer engineering program emphasizes three areas of research and applications. These areas are embedded processors, telecommunications and networking, and software engineering.

The controls and automation area is for students interested in modeling, controls design, and software development of intelligent robot manipulators and modern control theory. A thorough understanding of these problems will ultimately lead to advances in production technologies such as flexible manufacturing cells in automated factories. A recent area of concentration has been in the application of these methods to electric and hybrid electric vehicle research. Much of this work is in collaboration with the Advanced Vehicle Technology Institute (AVTI), a research center which is part of AdvanceTek, a multi-center research enterprise which is attached to the Purdue School of Engineering and Technology.

The communications and signal processing track offers research opportunities in processing and compression in audio, video, and image applications. Algorithm development using state-of-the-art digital signal processors is a major emphasis of the track, with funded projects from several major industrial partners. Our newest laboratory is the very large scale integrated (VLSI) circuit design facility with major applications in signal processing. The newly formed Applied Digital Electronics Research Facility has close ties with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

The biomedical engineering area has a concentration in cardiac and neural electrophysiology. This concentration involves research in bioinstrumentation, biosignal processing, computational and experimental neurobiology, and biophysical modeling. In addition, there are numerous joint research activities with the IU Medical and Dental Schools in the areas of medical imaging, speech and hearing research, and other experimental and clinical studies.

Students may choose either the thesis option or the non-thesis option track for their program.

The thesis option track requires a total of 30 credit hours of course work: 9 credit hours of research thesis, 6 credit hours of core courses, 6 credit hours of primary area courses, 6 credit hours of either primary areas or related area courses, and 3 credit hours of mathematics.

The non-thesis option also requires a total of 30 credit hours of course work: 6 credit hours of core courses, 9 credit hours of primary area courses, 9 credit hours of related area courses, and 6 credit hours of mathematics.

Core courses for both thesis and non-thesis tracks include ECE 600 Random Variables and Signals, ECE 602 Lumped System Theory, and ECE 608 Computational Models and Systems.