Home Background Research Group Funding: US Nationals Funding: All Nationals Teaching Related Department Description Nobel Seminars Hosted

 

OLD DOMINION UNIVERSITY
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

The graduate programs offered are selective but growing rapidly. The Master of Science, Master of Engineering, and Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical Engineering are offered. The department also offers Master of Science and Master of Engineering degrees in Computer Engineering. The areas of concentration are in fields where the faculty have made significant contributions and include:
(a) Physical Electronics; encompassing Ultrafast Laser Applications, Surface Science, Bioelectrical Effects, Laser-based Sensors, Fiber Bragg Grating Sensors, Optoacoustic Diagnostics, Gaseous Electronics, Microelectronics and Fast Processes in Semiconductors
(b) Digital Signal Processing; including Digital Speech Communication, Digital System Design, and Biomedical Applications of Microprocessors
(c) Control Engineering; including Nonlinear Control Theory and Computer Vision
(d) Computer Engineering; including Data Compression, Enterprise Level Modeling and Simulation, and Digital System Design. The Master of Science requires 30 hours of graduate course work (eight courses plus six credit hours of thesis research). The Master of Engineering degree requires 30 hours of course credits. The doctoral degree requires 48 hours of credit beyond the master's level. These include 24 course credits (8 courses) plus 24 credits of dissertation research. The department places a premium on the quality of research conducted. For a small number of highly qualified students the department selectively provides accelerated tracks to the master's and doctoral degrees. These tracks grant students exemption from two courses at the master's level and two courses at the doctoral level. This mechanism allows students to graduate earlier and conduct research of an even higher caliber.

Research Facilities
The department houses modern, state-of-the-art laboratories as well as computational facilities dedicated to research. These include research laboratories for: Ultrafast Surface Science and Engineering, Gaseous Electronics, Laser Based Sensors, Bioelectrics, Microelectronics, and Digital Speech Recognition. In addition, the department maintains laboratories in the Applied Research Center at the Free Electron Laser Facility located at the Thomas Jefferson National Laboratory. The department also plays a vital role in the functions of the Virginia Modeling, Analysis and Simulation Center, a facility unique in Virginia and one of only a handful across the nation. The close proximity of Old Dominion University to NASA Langley Research Center has resulted in very strong ties with the scientists and engineers there. As a result, several faculty have joint research involving various facilities at NASA, including those related to Nonlinear Control and Automation, Light Ranging and Detection (LIDAR) as well as the facilities associated with Remote Sensing of the Atmosphere by Space-borne Instruments.

Financial Aid
Financial aid is available for suitably qualified students in the form of Research and Teaching Assistantships, and Graduate Fellowships. In addition, all students who are accepted into the Ph.D. program receive a full tuition grant. A smaller number of assistantships are available to highly qualified master's students who are engaged in thesis research. Such master's students are eligible for the in-state tuition rate. All these forms of financial assistance are available to qualified students, regardless of citizenship. U.S. citizens are eligible for many other highly attractive Fellowships from Federal agencies such as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Science Foundation (NSF). In addition, the Department has been awarded a prestigious grant for seven three-year doctoral fellowships for Graduate Research in Areas of National Need (GAANN) from the U.S. Department of Education. 

Cost of Study
The in-state tuition rate for 1998-99 $180.00 per graduate credit hour, the out-of-state rate is $477.00 per credit hour. All supported students pay the in-state rate regardless of state or country of domicile. A full tuition grant is given to all Ph.D. students. Health fees are $38.00 per semester. Living expenses both on campus and off are between $500-600 per month.       

Student Group 
The student body consists of a diverse population from all across the State of Virginia, and the United States. There is a substantial population of students from all over the world, both at the undergraduate and graduate levels. The student group is vibrant and several student associations are very active. The IEEE Student Chapter is very active and organizes many activities, including annual participation in joint programs with many universities in neighboring states. The honor society of Electrical Engineers (Eta Kappa Nu) plays an active role in student life.

Student Outcomes  
The majority of graduates find employment with high-tech industries in the U.S. Others work in research laboratories, such as those at NASA. Several have gone into academia, obtaining tenure track jobs, either directly after obtaining the doctorate or after spending some time as post-doctoral fellows.  

Location
Old Dominion University (ODU) is located in South Eastern Virginia in the city of Norfolk, which is one of several contiguous cities including Virginia Beach, Suffolk, Chesapeake, Hampton and Newport News. This metropolitan area is home to a population of 1.5 million residents.  The area enjoys a mild temperate climate and encompasses some of the best beaches in the U.S. In addition to ODU and three other smaller universities, there are two major National Laboratories creating an environment highly conducive to academic growth. Facilities such as the Virginia Modeling, Analysis and Simulation Center provide a unique opportunity for economic development for regional and nationally visible entrepreneurial efforts. The Eastern Virginia Medical School is in very close proximity to ODU. Norfolk itself houses the Headquarters of the Atlantic Command of NATO and is the largest naval base in the world.

The University and The Department
Old Dominion University is a comprehensive and dynamic university with a modern and beautiful campus. It has established a national reputation as a forward-looking university.  It takes full advantage of the rapid strides being made in the current technology for delivery of its programs and is rated by Forbes Magazine as one of the best "wired" universities in the USA. The department is a rapidly growing one and has many excellent state of the art research laboratories.

Applications
  All applicants for the PhD must have demonstrated high quality work at the master's level. On a selective basis, students who have demonstrated an extremely high degree of competence at the baccalaureate degree may be considered for entry into the doctoral program. International applicants are required to have demonstrated a similar high caliber, and in addition must have scored high marks in the GRE as well as the TOEFL.  To be eligible for teaching assistantships, students for whom English is not the mother language must have demonstrated proficiency in spoken English as evidenced by scores in the TSE.  

Correspondence and Information
Information and application forms are available on the departmental web site at http://www.ece.odu.edu, as well as from the Graduate Program Director:

Dr. Amin Dharamsi
Professor and Graduate Program Director
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Old Dominion University Norfolk, VA 23529-0246
Tel (757) 683 4467
Fax (757) 683 3220
e-mail: adharams@odu.edu      

THE FACULTY AND THEIR RESEARCH
The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering consists of 18 full-time tenured or tenure-track slots, of which 16 are currently filled. 

Full-Time Faculty

Dr. Sacharia Albin, Professor. Ph.D. (1975), University of Poona, India. Diamond films, photonic and semiconductor devices, fiber-optic sensors. 
Dr. Lee Belfore, Assistant Professor. Ph.D. (1990), University of Virginia, Fault modeling, simulation and testing of neural networks, system modeling, automated diagnosis, data compression. 
Dr. Amin N. Dharamsi, Professor and Graduate Program Director. Ph.D. (1981), University of Alberta, Canada. Lasers, quantum electronics, molecular spectroscopy including modulation spectroscopy, nonintrusive laser-based sensors, optoacoustic diagnostics.
Dr. Hani Elsayed-Ali, Professor. Ph.D. (1985), University of Illinois-Urbana. Ultrafast (pico and subpicosecond) science and technology, surface science, and laser-solid interactions.
Dr. Glenn A. Gerdin, Associate Professor. Ph.D. (1971), Dartmouth. Automatic data acquisition systems, plasma engineering, particle diagnostics. 
Dr. Oscar González, Associate Professor. Ph.D. (1987), Notre Dame. Multivariable control, robust control design, and artificial intelligence applications in control engineering. 
Dr. W. Steven Gray, Associate Professor. Ph.D. (1989), Georgia Institute of Technology. Geometric control theory for linear and nonlinear systems; minimum sensitivity and robust control techniques; and distributed detection.
Dr. Ravindra P. Joshi, Associate Professor. Ph.D. (1988), Arizona State University. Solid state electronics, semiconductor transport, nonequilibrium phenomena, gaseous discharges, and modeling and simulation of semiconductor devices.
Dr. Vishnu K. Lakdawala, Associate Professor. Ph.D. (1980), University of Liverpool. Semiconductor switches, high voltage breakdown, and gaseous electronics.
Dr. James Leathrum, Assistant Professor. Ph. D. (1992), Duke University. Computer architecture, digital computer systems, and parallel programming. 
Dr. Rick McKenzie, Assistant Professor, Ph.D. (1995), University of Central Florida. Enterprise level modeling and simulation. 
Dr. Roland Mielke, Professor and Technical Director of the Virginia Modeling, Analysis and Simulation Center (VMASC). Ph.D. (1975), University of Wisconsin-Madison. Data flow architectures, graph theory, multivariable control, enterprise level modeling and simulation. 
Dr. Karl Schoenbach, Professor and Eminent Scholar and Director of the Physical Electronics Research Institute (PERI). Ph.D. (1970), Teschnischem Hoschschule, Darmstadt, Germany. Gas discharges, semiconductor switches, semiconductor physics bioelectrics (effects of electric pulses on living cells and organisms), micro hollow-cathode discharges, plasma electronics.
Dr. John W. Stoughton, Professor. Ph.D.(1972), University of Virginia. Signal processing, concurrent computing, and adaptive filtering.
Dr. Linda L. Vahala, Associate Professor. Ph.D. (1983), Old Dominion University. Plasma and atomic physics, molecular spectroscopy
Dr. Stephen A. Zahorian, Professor and Chairman. Ph.D. (1978), Syracuse University. Real-time signal processing techniques for the hearing- impaired, automatic speech recognition, automatic speaker identification, biomedical signal processing. network applications to pattern recognition.

Research Faculty

Dr. Mool Gupta, Research Professor and ODU Director at the Applied Research Center (ARC), Ph.D. (1973) Washington State University, Optoelectronics, thin films, lasers.
Dr. O. J. Sengupta, Ph.D. (1998), Stanford University, Ultrafast processes, thin films.
Dr. Mounir Laroussi, Ph.D.(1988) University of Tennessee. Physical and plasma electronics.
Dr. Robert Stark, Ph. D. (1996), Freidrich-Alexander University, Germany, Physics, Microhollow cathode discharges and bioelectrics.
Dr. Frank Leipold, Ph.D. (1996), Inst of Low Temp Plasma Physics, Greifswald, Germany, Physical Electronics.
Dr. Arnel Lavarias, Ph.D. (1997), Old Dominion University, Analytical Science & Materials normal'
Michael Bosley, MS (1994), US Naval Postgraduate School, Information Technology Computer and data communication/networking based courses
William Saxon, MS,(1999) Old Dominion University, Digital system design 
Dr. Paul Miner, Ph.D. (1988), Indiana University, Fault tolerant systems, Formal methods, logic, hardware design, synthesis and verification and computer-aided design. 


Research Facilities and Other Resources
 The department operates several state-of-the-art laboratories in the following research facilities, described briefly below.  

The Physical Electronics Research Institute (PERI)
This houses five laboratories having modern facilities including many different lasers (both continuous and pulsed, including subpicosecond systems) capable of providing coherent radiation in regions stretching from the UV to the mid infrared. The work in these laboratories involves both laser surface processing as well as laser-based diagnostics. In addition there are several detection and imaging systems as well as electron guns for electron diffraction measurements. The laboratories also have pulsed high-voltage and current sources that provide controlled sources for research in the new field of bioelectrics.There is on-going research in atmospheric pressure plasmas as well as in micro-hollow cathode discharges. The research in PERI is funded by various federal and state agencies including the U.S. Department of Energy, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, NASA, the National Science Foundation as well as the Virginia Space Grant Consortium.

The Speech Communications Laboratory 
This laboratory houses high-speed Windows NT computers connected to a dedicated file server, extensive software, data acquisition systems and high-speed digital signal processing (DSP) subsystems. The National Science Foundation has funded this research for the last two decades. In addition support also comes from NASA.

The Microelectronics and Photonics Laboratory
This laboratory houses a clean room and equipment and facilities for semiconductor device operation and testing, as well as equipment related to research on fiber-optic Bragg grating sensors. The laboratory is funded by industry, NASA as well as the State of Virginia 

The Applied Research Center (ARC)
This facility is operated by the Laser Processing Consortium and is located, within driving distance, at the Free Electron Laser site at the Thomas Jefferson National Laboratory. The Center performs research and development related to the use of lasers in material processing. Various facilities including those for lithography as well as a femtosecond (table-top terrawatt) laser with appropriate detection systems exist at this center. 

The Virginia Modeling, Analysis and Simulation Center (VMASC) 
This a one-of-a-kind facility in the state of Virginia engages in modeling and simulation with an emphasis toward assisting state and national enterprises to optimize their operations. VMASC is located in near proximity to the largest simulation center in the USA, run by the US Army at the Joint Training and Simulation Center (JTASC). 

Other Additional Resources for Students
Aside from conventional research and teaching assistantships available for graduate study, the department faculty regularly assist students to secure special dedicated fellowships from various national and state agencies, such as NASA, the Virginia Space Grant Consortium and the Environmental Protection Agency. In addition, the department has recently won a prestigious PhD fellowship award from the US Department of Education with partial matching from the University for seven students, totaling approximately $450.000. The awards will be given out competitively in the fall of 2000 and will each be renewable for three years.