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Electrical and Computer Engineering

Research

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Biotechnology

Identified as a strategic thrust area by the university, biotechnology is a growing area of research in ECE. The department is strongly positioned to be a leader in bio-informatics, which includes bioMEMS, biocomputing and bioimaging.

In addition to new research directions, new applications for existing research are being investigated. For example, researchers are exploring the use of digital signal processing in gene identification, and the development of a small silicon sensor chip with micro-machined features (MEMS) and coatings that promote bone tissue growth.

Several ECE faculty participate in the newly formed Medical Robotics and Information Technology Center (MERIT).

Projects in this area

Communications, Wireless and Broadband Networking

The area of wireless, wired and optical networking is growing by leaps and bounds. Advances in both computing and networking are enabling our ability to connect humans and information, both of which may be distributed in time and space, in a seamless manner. Such a connection, for example, is the basis for applications and emerging paradigms such as "24 hour collaborative design teams," distributed interactive multimedia, network-based manufacturing, virtual enterprises and distributed simulations of electronic and electro-mechanical systems, and e-commerce to cite a few examples.

Carnegie Mellon always has been a leader in deploying networks and wireless systems on a university campus. For example, we were the first university to have a completely wired campus through the Andrew network and, in 1999, were named the "most wired campus" by Yahoo's Internet Life Magazine.

The Communications, Wireless and Broadband Networking research group at Carnegie Mellon is an interdisciplinary team of faculty and students working on advanced networking concepts and systems with an emphasis on industrial relevance.

The university's long history of interdisciplinary research and collaboration makes it particularly well-suited for addressing intrinsically interdisciplinary topics such as the four thrust areas around which the research is organized:

Networking
Applications, architectures, protocols, and quality of service issues that transcend the specific choice of physical layer, as well as optimization opportunities specific to both wireless and optical channels.
Wireless Communications
Antennas and propagation, radio architectures and components, MAC and transport layer protocols, and applications specific to the mobile environment.
Optical Communications
Optical channels (both free-space and fiber), optical components, routing strategies, and network architectures and protocols designed to maximize the capacity of optical networks.
Telecommunications Policy
Providing a policy forum for industry partners and policy makers to learn more about telecommunications issues, stay abreast of new developments, and debate concerns on neutral turf.

Current research includes projects in the following areas: Unlicensed spectrum policy, mobile computing and networking, quality of service, and network management. E-Commerce, wireless LAN design, position location, compression and coding, multiple access techniques, software radios, novel techniques for RF signal distribution in buildings, compact multi-element antennas, RF components fabricated with Micro-Electromechanical Systems (MEMS) techniques, RF circuit design, telematics, and ad hoc networks.

The educational programs of the Information Networking Institute (INI) in the College of Engineering complement the research emphasis of this research area. The INI offers professional graduate degree programs in Information Networking, Information Security, and Information Technology that integrate the technologies, economics, and policies of secure communication networks.

Projects in this area

Computer Architecture

The Computer Architecture Laboratory at Carnegie Mellon (CALCM) is composed of ten participating faculty and approximately 40 graduate students from the Departments of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Computer Science.

CALCM was founded in 2001 to bring together researchers at Carnegie Mellon interested in computer architecture from several related and connected disciplines to bridge and complement the research strengths in computer systems at Carnegie Mellon. CALCM researchers lead the academic and research communities with interdisciplinary projects ranging from programming paradigms and architectures for massively-parallel single-chip systems, circuit- and technology-aware chip architectures for technologies at nanoscale CMOS level and beyond, and fully-synthesizable integrated hardware and software solutions for signal processing applications.

See an overview of the lab.

Projects in this area

Computer Systems and Security

We rely on computers and networks to run everything from business and finance, to medical procedures, to our military, to critical infrastructures like our power grids. With this reliance comes the critical need to address a wide range of problems in distributed systems, distributed storage and security. Carefully planned and designed security embedded in hardware as well as security features in software are becoming more necessary every day as attacks on networks and computer systems keep happening at increasing rates.

Several years ago the ECE Department recognized the need to increase the numbers of trained security engineers and began to build expertise. Several new faculty with interests in distributed systems, embedded systems, computer security, computer architecture and system survivability have been hired to complement existing interdisciplinary programs. New educational programs are in place, and new research and teaching laboratories, supported by the U.S. computer industry, are being developed.

This research effort in a vitally important area comes together under the umbrella of the newly funded CyLab.

Projects in this area

Computer System Security
Software Systems
Storage Systems

Data Storage Systems

The field of Information Technology comprises the transmission, processing, and storage of information. The Data Storage Systems Center (DSSC) is an interdisciplinary research and educational organization within Carnegie Mellon University whose mission is to advance information storage technologies. Faculty and students from a wide range of academic disciplines and colleges within CMU are developing the fundamental understanding of the science and advanced engineering methods required for future generations of information storage systems. We work closely with our industrial partners to define projects that will advance information storage technology beyond the current frontiers of magnetic recording, optical data storage, probe based systems, holographic, and solid state memory.

Since the center's inception in 1990, efforts within the DSSC have taken a systems-based approach, and we continue to emphasize a multidisciplinary and integrated effort in our work which includes a focus on materials, fabrication, devices, servo systems, signal processing and coding.

The research in information storage conducted within the DSSC places us, by necessity, at the forefront of nanotechnology and its application. As a consequence of our research and educational efforts, we produce uniquely skilled and knowledgeable students who are well positioned to play key roles in information storage systems development in their future careers. DSSC is a collaborative effort between several Carnegie Mellon departments.

Projects in this area

Much of the research in this area is carried out by our Data Storage Systems Center (DSSC). The DSSC maintains an extensive list of their current research projects.

Other research in this area includes:

Electric Energy Systems

The Electric Energy Systems Group (EESG) is a group of faculty, researchers, and graduate students actively pursuing creation of curriculum, research programs, a software laboratory, and an outreach program for modern electric energy systems. The objective is to prepare engineers as a candidate workforce in the industries which are developing electric energy distributions to homes, aircrafts, cars, ships, spacecrafts, etc. The research programs uniquely build on the university's strength in information processing, and in technically focused policy research. We view the future electric energy systems as physical systems enabled by sensing, computing, communications, and control technologies that shape their performance according to well understood and sustainable goals. EESG is actively pursuing close collaboration with technology developers as well as technology users.

Projects in this area

Electronic Design Automation and Manufacturing

ECE has a proud history of more than a quarter century of pioneering research in electronic design automation (EDA) and manufacture. Our faculty and students have made major contributions to the dramatic advancement of design automation tools and capabilities which, in turn, has led to phenomenal progress in semiconductor technologies. However, advances in EDA alone cannot maintain the potential rate of IC design progress.

Our faculty are now researching new technologies for developing regularized silicon components that are created in tandem with design automation tools. These new technologies will facilitate implementation of a system in silicon that is manufacturable and expected to meet the new economic requirement of first-pass success.

Work in this area comes together under the Center for Silicon System Implementation.

Projects in this area

Embedded, Real-time, and Intelligent Systems

Integrating computing hardware, sensing, and software with existing systems have made most of the significant technological advances in systems in recent times. Examples include the concepts of fly-by-wire in aircraft, intelligent copy centers, intelligent disk drives, airbags for cars, etc. The overall functionality of these systems has drastically improved due to our ability to "embed" computers and sensors in a wide variety of systems. We envision this trend to continue and become stronger with time.

Our strengths in robotics, MEMS, computer architecture, software engineering, and real-time systems positions us for major contributions to this area. A diverse group of faculty and students from ECE, the Robotics Institute, the Institute for Complex Engineered Systems, and the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering are working on an extensive research program which includes:

  • Automated robustness testing
  • Robust self-configuring embedded systems
  • Networked wireless sensors
  • Verification of embedded control algorithms
  • Real-time scheduling for distributed embedded systems
  • Schedulability for end-to-end quality of service
  • Adaptive software and middleware for embedded systems
  • Distributed and modular robotics systems
  • Intelligent instruments
  • Gesture-based programming

Projects in this area

Advanced Mechatronics Laboratory (AML)
Distributed and Modular Robotics
Programming Environments
Speech and Language Technologies

Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS)

As information systems increasingly leave fixed locations and appear in our pockets and palms, they are getting closer to the physical world, creating new opportunities for perceiving and controlling our machines, structures and environments.

To exploit these opportunities, information systems will need to sense and act as well as compute. Thus, the primary research thrust of the MEMS group is toward highly integrated microsystems that interact with the environment and push the boundaries of electrical-mechanical functional integration.

The MEMS Laboratory, housed in the ECE Department, brings together researchers from Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Biotechnology, the Robotics Institute and the Institute for Complex Engineered Systems. The MEMS Lab is engaged in research on sensor and actuator systems with performance derived from mechanical features measured in microns and components numbering from a few to millions.

See an overview of the lab.

Projects in this area

Microelectronics and Semiconductor Devices and Materials

Since microelectronics is an integral part of so many current and future technological developments, faculty working in the area of design, modeling, fabrication and testing of solid state devices are integrated into a broad array of research activities in ECE. These include such activities as semiconductor electronic devices, photonics and optical devices used in data storage systems, and the increasingly complex area of optical networking.

Projects in this area

Signal Processing, Sensor Exploitation, and Multimedia Systems

This research area includes all activities related to application of signal and image processing techniques to processing, analyzing, and understanding information obtained from sensors of various types.

Interdisciplinary collaboration has allowed significant contributions to activities such as the Data Storage Systems Center, NMR Imaging Institute, the Robotics Institute and GM-Carnegie Mellon Laboratory. The faculty have significant expertise in the areas of SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar), ATR (Automatic Target Recognition), acoustic signal processing, image and video processing, multimedia, speech recognition, and signal processing for data storage applications.

  • Fingerprint recognition
  • Iris recognition
  • Voice verification
  • Networked intelligent collaborative environment
  • Speech recognition
  • Automatic implementation of digital signal processing (DSP) algorithms
  • Algebraic derivation of DSP algorithms
  • Medical image analysis
  • Analysis of data from 3-D sensors (e.g., Ladar)
  • Automatic target recognition

Projects in this area

Advanced Multimedia Processing (AMP)

Algebraic Theory of Signal Processing (SMART)

Speech and Language Technologies

SPIRAL



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