Electrical Engineering

What is an Electrical Engineer?

Take your pick, this like all other forms of engineering, is a very diverse field. An Electrical Engineer (EE) can specialize in communication or power.

Communication deals with how to send, get and process messages. This type of Engineer might develop a microchip, or computer circuit board. But he is not limited to computers, the Engineer might develop new or improving upon older ways of sending information such as wireless or telecommunication.

An Engineer that has specialized in power can solve problems regarding the production and distribution of electrical power. The Engineer might help design the systems in a new power plant, or come up with a more efficient way of producing energy.

The path of an Electrical Engineer is one of interesting challenges that combine into the core the 21st century.

What does the USF EE Department have to offer?

The University of South Florida's Electrical Engineering department offers varied challenges and opportunities for the student. As you will find out below, there are various research labs that are funded well enough to meet the demands of students. The instructors are very good and have a strong commitment to the student body. What follows below is a short description of the various labs found within the Electrical Department. If you would like to schedule an appointment so see any one of these labs, please contact the Electrical Engineering dept at 813-974-2369.

Click here to see more administrative information about the USF - Electrical Engineering Program.

Or visit their website at http://ee.eng.usf.edu/

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WAMI Lab

The WAMI lab's focus is everything wireless. A student doing research in this lab would focus on the design of wireless circuits, wireless systems, or applying the principles of electromagnetic to antennas.

In order to perform the research, a lot of high tech equipment is required. Because of the nature of wireless systems, equipment must be continually updated to better serve the needs of the students. For example, pictured to the left, is one of the newer machines, a 110 GHz network analyzer.

A great deal of learning also goes on within the WAMI Lab, proof of this is the communications test bed pictured below. This is basically a expanded version of a regular WI-FI PCMCIA card where the individual components are discretely separated and can be worked on by a student.

For more information about the WAMI program, please visit their web site at http://ee.eng.usf.edu/WAMI/

 

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Surface Science Lab

The surface science lab's goal is to create better materials for electrical systems. Pictured to the right, Chris Braunagel is taking out a metal plunger out of a cylinder that has been prepared with various chemicals to allow the deposition of an organic thin film. These thin films are new materials that might just replace silicon as the dominant material used to make chips. The organic thin film is more stable than silicon based wafer.

Another emerging technology also being studied at the lab is the growing of carbon nano tubes. These nano tubes were first discovered in 1991 and ever since have been one of the hottest thing in electrical research. These tubes can change their electrical properties by just adjusting their diameter, length, twist or any other number of properties.

To learn more about this lab visit Dr. Rudy Schlaf's website at http://www.eng.usf.edu/~schlaf/ also on his website are several Realplayer movies of undergraduate students explaining what they do in these labs, to see these movies directly, visit http://www.eng.usf.edu/~schlaf/REU/index.html.

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Semiconductor Fabrication and Testing Lab

At this lab, research is being done into the improvement of solar cells. Standard glass is bought from a home improvement store and then specially treated to produce electricity.

The glass is treated with a special mixture of gases to create tin oxide, a transparent conductor, which allow light to pass but at the same time it allows electricity to pass.

 

The opportunities for an undergraduate at this lab also abound. The machine pictured below was created by a team of students doing their senior design project. The machine is still being used test the reaction of various solar cells to differing wavelengths, with the objective to analyze the properties of a solar cell.

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Clean Energy and Vehicle Research Program (CEVRP)

The Electric Vehicle/Solar Energy Program at the College of Engineering at the University of South Florida was designed to be the first comprehensive electric vehicle solar powered charging station and test facility in the United States. It was formally dedicated in August of 1991.

The Florida Energy Office selected the University of South Florida’s Clean Energy and Vehicles Research Center to develop a state-of-the-art electric vehicle and solar charging station demonstration. The solar system was completed in 1996 and the cars delivered in March, 1997. The objective of this project is to demonstrate the possibilities of integrating electric vehicle (EV) technology with the use of a photovoltaic charging station.

These technologies represent a real world evaluation of the possibilities of using this “pollution free” transportation alternative in commercial duty cycle operation. The station is located in the parking area of the Florida Public Service Commission’s office buildings at the Capital Circle Office Complex in Tallahassee, Florida. The solar generated electricity is used to charge the batteries of the electric vehicles, or when electric vehicles are not plugged in, the solar generated electricity in the form of alternating current flows back to the local utility grid. Objectives To install a high quality and reliable photovoltaic system capable of generating sufficient energy to power the electric vehicles for an average of 180 miles per day.

For more information please visit: http://ee.eng.usf.edu/research_labs/evprogram/

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High Speed Networking Research Program

The high-speed communication networks group under the guidance of Prof. Ravi Sankar has been conducting research work in the general area of high-speed network design and analysis. At present several graduate students are pursuing projects ranging from high performance and fault tolerant network (LAN/MAN/WAN) analysis, architecture and protocols for broadband networks (ATM) supporting multimedia traffic, to the study of wireless personal communication services (PCS) systems.

For more information please visit: http://www.eng.usf.edu/~sankar/hsnr.html

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Signal Processing Applications Research Program

The signal processing applications group under the guidance of Prof. Ravi Sankar has been conducting research in the development of advanced signal processing using conventional algorithms and neural network techniques for speech, communication, biomedical, and underwater applications.

For more information please visit: http://www.eng.usf.edu/~sankar/spar.html

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About the Center for Microelectronics Research

The Center for Microelectronics Research (CMR) is a state-funded research center within the College of Engineering at the University of South Florida. It is comprised of research faculty, who have academic appointments in the College of Engineering, full-time research staff, and graduate students who serve as research assistants. Strong industrial interaction and partnerships are an essential part of the CMR research strategy, with many collaborative industrial ventures well in place. CMR's eight laboratories are available as a shared resource for its industrial partners, and are extensively used by faculty and staff for funded research projects.

The two-fold mission of the Center is:

* to conduct advanced research and development in microelectronics materials, devices and processes; and to develop state-of-the-art capabilities in microelectronics design, prototyping and test techniques.

* to promote the transfer of these technologies to industry and government organizations in the United States, and especially Florida.

To fulfill its mission, CMR coordinates multi-investigator projects of faculty, research staff and students, and supports innovative research programs in microelectronics and applications engineering. The Center provides facilities, funds and administrative support, and assists the faculty and research staff to obtain external funding for these programs.

CMR integrates its research efforts with the university's general educational goals to develop appropriate course work in microelectronics and to provide guidance and instruction to graduate students.

For more information please visit: http://cmr.eng.usf.edu/CMR_About.html

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