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Michael Richard Gustafson
mrg@duke.eduDirector of Undergraduate Studies, Associate Professor of the Practice of ECE
ECE majors must select a minimum of four upper-level courses from the departmental Areas of Concentration.
To provide depth, at least two of these courses must be selected from the same area. To provide breadth, courses from at least two different areas must be chosen.
For students expecting to enter the engineering profession after graduation, a two-course or three-course sequence prepares the student for professional work in that area of concentration.
For all students, including those expecting to enter fields such as medicine, law, or business management, these upper-level courses reinforce the broad relevance of the powerful problem-solving methodologies of engineering and illuminate enabling technologies for breathtaking applications of technology.
Prerequisite courses are indicated by square brackets: […]
Some concentration areas have a foundation course identified in bold. If two (2) or more courses are taken in such a concentration area, the foundation course for that area must be taken.
This discipline is concerned with the operation and design of computers and computer-based systems. Although analog computers, in which electrical signals directly represent physical quantities, were historically important in the development of modern computers (and continue to be used in some systems), digital computers are today predominant and are the primary focus of the computer engineering effort in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in the Pratt School. The Computer Engineering curriculum begins with a course in logic design that studies the binary language of digital systems, and the means for manipulating and storing ones and zeroes to accomplish useful functions. Students can then study computer architecture (how modern computers work, and how to design them), computer networking, VLSI chip design, and other advanced topics. Computer engineering interfaces strongly with many other areas of electrical engineering (electronics, electromagnetics, signal processing, and control theory) as well as with computer science.
The Digital Systems curriculum is a set of advanced courses in the Computer engineering curriculum; it assumes that students have mastered the material in the two prerequisite courses ECE 250D and ECE 350L.
The disciplines concerned with representing, storing, interpreting, and transmitting information in systems of finite capacity in the presence of interference and noise; with extracting information from speech, image, video, radar, sonar, and medical data signals; and with using information, including feedback information comparing actual and desired system states, for controlling, shaping and stabilizing system performance in the presence of noise, delay, and inertia. Applications include telecommunications, intra- and inter-system communications, remote sensing, imaging, robotics, feed-back stabilized electronics, and the remote control of electro-mechanical systems, both large and small
This area is concerned with the properties and manufacture of building-block devices (diodes, transistors, lasers) used in integrated circuits to build electronic and photonic systems. Example applications include: digital computer components (CPUs, RAM, GPUs), telecommunications equipment components (parts essential for cell phones, digital switches, wifi routers), and displays, which underlie a large array of consumer products (televisions, tablets, touch-screen systems). It also encompasses the burgeoning field of microelectromechanical, micromechanical and microfluidic devices made possible by the fabrication techniques underlying integrated circuit manufacture.
Formerly “Electromagnetic Fields.”
The discipline concerned with the underlying laws of nature (specifically those governing electromagnetic, optical, and quantum phenomena) and how those laws can be applied. Application areas for electromagnetics, optics, and quantum mechanics are extremely broad and include communication systems, radar, radio astronomy, transmission lines, waveguides, optical fibers, cameras, remote sensing, quantum-based communication encryption, and quantum computing.
The discipline concerned with the application of optical and optoelectronic technologies in information science. Photonic applications include information transmission on fiber and free space networks, data storage on disks and volume media, visible and infrared imaging systems, and displays. The Duke photonics program emphasizes hands-on experience with optical systems in communications, sensing, and display applications. Photonic engineering at Duke spans experiences as diverse as logical layer analysis of network protocols over fiber systems, analysis and testing of fiber dispersion, materials studies for optical memory, design of 3D microscopes for biomedical imaging, testing of liquid crystal materials and interfaces, analysis and construction of quantum dynamic systems, and explorations of laser-material and laser-tissue interactions.
Complete a more in-depth pathway to earn a Concentration in Machine Learning designation on your transcript.
Director of Undergraduate Studies, Associate Professor of the Practice of ECE
Associate Director of Undergraduate Studies, Assistant Professor of the Practice in the Department of ECE