Earn your master's with ECE

Research AreasMeet our faculty

The Master of Science degree is awarded after the completion of 30 credit hours with a minimum GPA of 3.0. Students are also required to obtain a C- or better in all technical core courses. Specific requirements may vary depending on whether a student pursues the thesis or non-thesis option.

Under the thesis option, a valid plan of study must include a total of 30 credits: 24 credits of approved course work at the 400-level and above and six credits of ENEE799: Master’s Thesis Research. The plan of study must satisfy the following rules:

  1. No more than nine credits at the 400-level may be included. ENEE499 may not be included.
  2. Three core courses must be included.
  3. Prerequisites must be fulfilled before taking courses that require them.
  4. No more than one credit of ENEE698: Graduate Seminar may be included.
  5. Combined total number of credits of ENEE698 and ENEE699 may not exceed three.
  6. No more than 9 credits earned while holding the advanced special student status may be included.
  7. At least six credits of ENEE799: Master’s Thesis Research must be included.

A minimum overall GPA of 3.0 must be maintained. For the purposes of meeting the plan of study rules, all transferred courses will count as B (3.0 grade point value). However, grades obtained on transfer courses do not affect the GPA as recorded on the official UMCP transcript. If two or more attempts are taken at a course, only the grade obtained at the latest attempt will count towards the GPA.

Under the non-thesis option, a valid plan of study must include a total of 30 credits of approved course work at the 400-level and above. The plan may not include ENEE799: Master’s Thesis Research. The plan of study must satisfy the following rules:

  1. No more than nine credits at the 400-level may be included. ENEE499 may not be included.
  2. Four core courses must be included.
  3. Prerequisites must be fulfilled before taking courses that require them.
  4. No more than one credit of ENEE698: Graduate Seminar may be included.
  5. Combined total number of credits of ENEE698 and ENEE699 included in the plan of study may not exceed three.
  6. No more than 9 credits earned while holding the advanced special student status may be included.

A minimum overall GPA of 3.0 must be maintained. For the purposes of meeting the plan of study rules, all transferred courses will count as B (3.0 grade point value). However, grades obtained on transfer courses do not affect the GPA as recorded on the official UMCP transcript.

If two or more attempts are taken at a course, only the grade obtained at the latest attempt counts towards the GPA.

Technical Divisions

ECE master's students specialize in one of the following technical divisions. 

Communications:

The faculty in this area lead broad research programs in wireless communications and networking, information theoretic security, multiuser information and coding theory, all aspects of communication networks and systems, information theory, resource allocation, and performance modeling.

Signal Processing:

Major research programs are led by ECE faculty in this area, which include statistical and adaptive signal processing, neural signal processing, image processing and computer vision, machine learning and pattern recognition, multi-dimensional signal processing and stochastic processes, information security and forensics, and multimedia and video processing. 

Faculty working in this technical division include: 

  • Alexander Barg
  • Rama Chellappa
  • Sanghamitra Dutta
  • Anthony Ephremides
  • Carol Y. Espy-Wilson
  • Richard J. La
  • K.J. Ray Liu
  • Armand Makowski
  • Prakash Narayan
  • Adrian Papamarcou
  • Shihab Shamma
  • Mark Shayman
  • Jonathan Simon
  • Steven Tretter
  • Sennur Ulukus
  • Min Wu
  • Kaiqing Zhang

The field of Computer Engineering sits at the boundary of hardware and software design.  Researchers in this field integrate electronic circuits and systems, software, and algorithms to build efficient computer systems that can be either general-purpose or application specific.  The faculty interests in this area cover a broad spectrum ranging from optimization techniques for nano-circuits, embedded systems, design methodologies for Internet of Things, hardware security and cybersecurity, high-performance processor architectures, design of memory systems, Computer-Aided Design for signal processing systems, and parallel computing.

Faculty working in this technical division include: 

  • Rajeev Barua
  • Shuvra S. Bhattacharyya
  •  Tudor Dumitras
  • Manoj Franklin
  • Bruce Jacob
  • Joseph JaJa
  • A. Yavuz Oruc
  • Charalampos (Babis) Papamanthou
  • Gang Qu
  • Charles Silio
  • Dana Dachman-Soled
  • Ankur Srivastava
  • Uzi Vishkin
  • Donald Yeung

This broad subject-area is supported by a strong faculty for theoretical studies in Intelligent Control, Adaptation and Learning, and Physical Modeling, as well as linking such studies to advances in related areas of Communications, Computing, Information Theory, and Signal Processing. Mathematical abstraction and data-driven approaches are investigated to address fundamental problems pertinent to creating resilient technological systems such as smart electric grids, cooperating robots, human-equivalent learning programs, secure autonomous mobility etc. The work incorporates multi-disciplinary scientific threads, from mathematics and physics to neuroscience and biological inspiration for technological realizations. 

Faculty working in this division include: 

  • Eyad H. Abed
  • John S. Baras
  • Gilmer L. Blankenship
  • P.S. Krishnaprasad
  • William Levine
  • Steven Marcus
  • Nuno Martins
  • André Tits
  • Kaiqing Zhang

Microelectronics faculty have internationally recognized research programs in the hardware that enables our newest technology, from cell phones to clean energy distribution. Research that extends the nanoelectronics revolution into the 21st century, including two-dimensional materials, solid state devices, high resolution CMOS sensors and nanoscale mixed-signal circuit design, exposes students to the forefront of these fields. UMD is very active in the new Wide Bandgap Semiconductors, and their applications which are giving rise to a revolution in power electronics and green energy.   Our advanced research in Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems or MEMS is enabling a new generation in micro and nano-robotics.  Researchers at UMD not only design, but also build these futuristic devices at the multi-million-dollar Maryland Nanofabrication Center. Devices and circuits designed and patented have also paved the way to high-tech startups and related entrepreneurial endeavors. 

Faculty working in this technical division include: 

  • Pamela Abshire
  • David F. Barbe^
  • Reza Ghodssi
  • Neil Goldsman
  • Timothy Horiuchi
  • Agis A. Iliadis
  • John Melngailis
  • Robert Newcomb
  • Martin Peckerar^

^ Faculty Emeritus

Electrophysics faculty have active research programs in areas such as magnetically confined plasma, high power sources of coherent and pulse radiation and the interaction of radiation with plasmas and solids, nonlinear dynamics and chaos, lasers, nonlinear and quantum optics, quantum dots and nanophotonics, optical communication and computation, plasmonics, solar energy conversion, bioelectromagnetics, magnetics and spintronics. 

Faculty working in this division include:  

  • Thomas M. Antonsen
  • Mario Dagenais
  • Christopher Davis
  • Julius Goldhar
  • Romel Gomez
  • Victor Granatstein
  • Mohammad Hafezi
  • Ping-Tong Ho
  • Wesley Lawson
  • C.H. Lee^
  • Isaak D. Mayergoyz
  • Howard Milchberg
  • Jeremy Munday
  • Thomas E. Murphy
  • Edward Ott
  • Herbert Rabin^
  • Martin Reiser^
  • Leonard Taylor^
  • Edo Waks
  • Kawthar Zaki^

^ Faculty Emeritus


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