ECE Illinois Overview
Brad Petersen
Assistant Director of Communications
Fall 2007
The University of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign
“Here, my friends, on the prairies of Illinois and of the Middle West,
We can see a long way in all directions.
We look to east, to west, to north and south.
Our commerce, our ideas, come and go in all directions.
Here there are no barriers,
No defenses, to ideas or the spirit,
No rigid patterns of thought, and no iron conformity.”
-Adlai E. Stevenson II, Illinois Governor 1949-1953
The University of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign
• Land-grant
university created by
Morrill Act
• Founded in 1867
• Flagship institution
• 41,342 students*
• 2,083 faculty*
• 7,155 staff*
* As of 9-07
Alma Mater
Administration
• Joseph B. White, President, University of Illinois
• Richard Herman, Chancellor, Urbana Campus
• Linda Katehi, Provost and Vice Chancellor for
Academic Affairs, Urbana Campus (an ECE professor)
• Ilesanmi Adesida, College of Engineering Dean (an
ECE professor)
• Richard E. Blahut, ECE Illinois Department Head
“This university has many faces:
a superb undergraduate institution
for exceptionally talented students;
a research powerhouse
that produces breathtaking discoveries
and advances in knowledge;
one of the world's leading training grounds
for the next generation of
scientists, professors, and policy makers;
and, a force shaping the possibilities of the future
across the domains of human endeavor.”
-Chancellor Richard Herman
University of Illinois:
Research Powerhouse*
• 21 Nobel Prizes and 20 Pulitzer Prizes (faculty/alumni)
• 359 active US patents
• Spends more than $500 million for science and
engineering R&D (2004)
• Received more NSF funding than any other academic
institution each year from 1998 to 2003, second most in
2004
• Nationally, ranked 8th in PhDs awarded (2006)
* As of 6-07
University of Illinois:
How We Size Up *
• 272 main campus buildings on 2.3 square miles
• 562 total campus buildings on 7.5 square miles
• Over 1,000 registered student organizations, coalitions,
honorary societies, and teams
• One of the largest alumni organizations in the nation with
nearly 140,000 members
* As of 6-07
We’ve Got World Connections:
• The Institute of Higher Education at Shanghai
Jiao Tong University ranks us 25th in their “2006Top 500
World Universities”
• Ranked 9th nationally in number of students enrolled in
study abroad programs
• Ranked 6th nationally for total number of international
students enrolled
• Home to PLATO and the first computer network; ranked
6th “most connected, plugged-in, and high-tech
campuses in the country” by PC Magazine (2006)
Engineering at Illinois
12 Distinguished Departments
• Aerospace
• Agricultural and
Biological
• Bioengineering
• Chemical and
Biomolecular
• Civil and Environmental
• Computer Science
• Electrical and Computer
• Industrial and Enterprise
Systems
• Materials Science and
Engineering
• Mechanical Science and
Engineering
• Nuclear, Plasma, and
Radiological
• Physics
College of Engineering Numbers*
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Undergraduate students: 5,010
Graduate students: 2,307
Professors: 208
Associate professors: 73
Assistant professors: 92
BS degrees conferred: 1,108
MS degrees conferred: 535
PhD degrees conferred: 232
* As of 6-07
Major Research Facilities
• Beckman Institute for Advanced
Science and Technology
• Coordinated Science Laboratory
• Micro and Nanotechnology
Laboratory
• Frederick Seitz Materials
Research Laboratory
• National Center for
Supercomputing Applications
Beckman Institute
Over 40 Interdisciplinary/
Multidisciplinary Centers and Laboratories
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Center of Advanced Materials for Purification of Water with Systems
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Advanced Transportation Research and Engineering Laboratory
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Information Trust Institute
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Mid-America Earthquake Center
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Center for Nanoscale Chemical-Electrical-Mechanical
Manufacturing Systems
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Power Systems Engineering Research Center
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Center for Reliable and High-Performance Computing
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Technology Entrepreneur Center
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Center for the Simulation of Advanced Rockets
Grainger Engineering Library
Information Center
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Technologically advanced;
inspiring learning and discovery
environment
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Serves more than 1.5 million
students, faculty, and visitors each
year
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Capacity for 350,000 volumes
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1,100 journal subscriptions
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Conference and series
subscriptions
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High-end engineering
workstations
Grainger Engineering Library
US News Rankings
• The undergraduate
engineering program
ranks 4th (2007)
• The graduate
engineering program
ranks 5th (2008)
• Most of the college’s 12
departments are
consistently top-ranked
Undergraduate Engineering
Specialties In 2008 Top Five
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Agricultural (1)
Civil (1)
Computer engineering (5)
Electrical/electronic/communications (4)
Engineering physics (3)
Environmental/environmental health (3)
Materials (5)
Mechanical (5)
Nuclear (4)
Graduate Engineering Specialties
In 2008 Top Five
• Civil (2)
• Computer engineering (4)
• Computer science (5)
• Electrical/electronic (4)
• Environmental (2)
• Materials (2)
• Physics—condensed matter/low temperature (1)
The Department of Electrical and
Computer Engineering
ECE Illinois
• Electrical engineering program established in 1891
• Computer engineering added in 1972
• Annually ranked a top program:
- Undergraduate and graduate electrical engineering
are ranked 4th by US News
- Undergraduate computer engineering is ranked 5th
and graduate computer engineering is ranked 4th by
US News
• 20,000 alumni worldwide
ECE Faculty
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100+ faculty members
Over 50% Institute of Electrical and
Electronics Engineers (IEEE) fellows
Seven American Physical Society (APS)
fellows
Seven Association for Computing
Machinery (ACM) fellows
10 American Association for the
Advancement of Science (AAAS) fellows
Nine members of the National Academy of
Engineering (NAE)
Highly decorated—National Medal of
Science, National Medal of Technology,
Japan Prize, Russian Energy Prize, IEEE
Medal of Honor
Bruce Hajek
Depth and Breadth
Well-Placed Alumni
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Prith Banerjee, senior VP, HP
Todd Beanblossom, chief engineer, Boeing
Mark Bohr, senior fellow, Intel
Ralph Cicerone, president, National Academy of Science
Admiral Archie Clemins, commander-in-chief, US Pacific Fleet (retired)
Martin Eberhard, founder and CEO, Tesla Motors
Rob Kennedy, co-CEO, C-SPAN
Brian Leung, founder, Bay Apparel
Dirk Meyer, president and COO, Advanced Micro Devices
Steve Sample, president, USC
Jerry Sanders, founder, Advanced Micro Devices
Steve Sullivan, director of R & D, Industrial Light & Magic
Jack Sun, director of logic technology division, TSMC
Alumni Distribution
Staff
• ECE staff includes 70
academic professionals
and hourly employees.
• The average length of
tenure is 9 years.
ECE Undergraduate Students*
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Total students: 1,275
Computer engineering (CE) majors: 477
Electrical engineering (EE) majors: 798
CE incoming freshmen
average ACT score: 30.8
EE incoming freshmen
average ACT score: 30.9
CE incoming freshmen average
high school rank: 89
EE incoming freshmen average
high school rank: 89
For 2005-06 academic year:
- 127 CE degrees conferred
- 215 EE degrees conferred
* As of 9-07
ECE Graduate Students
• Total students: 560
• For 2005-2006:
– 125 Master’s degrees
conferred
– 53 PhD degrees
conferred
* As of 9-07
Educating Tomorrow’s Engineers
• Students learn from faculty experts in their fields.
• 30 department undergraduate labs ensure hands-on
component.
• Senior Design or Advanced Digital Projects Laboratory
classes allow undergrads to initiate unique projects.
• Students prepared for leadership roles in increasingly
global environment.
ECE 110
• As freshmen, all ECE students take ECE 110, an
introductory course that provides an overview of the
discipline.
ECE 444
• Students in ECE 444: theory and fabrication of
integrated circuit devices spend time working in the
yellow glow of the “Fab Lab.”
ECE 498: Programming Massively
Parallel Processors
• As parallel processors become more prevalent, need for
experts will grow.
• Development of ECE 498 was unique collaboration
between:
– David Kirk, NVIDIA chief scientist
– Wen-mei Hwu, AMD Jerry Sanders Chair of Electrical and
Computer Engineering
• ECE Illinois and NVIDIA will share blueprint of ECE 498
with numerous peer institutions.
Why Hire ECE Students?
• Students study and collaborate with faculty who are
experts in their areas. They also interact with fellow
students who are outstanding and diverse.
• Students receive a hands-on education, spending a
great deal of time in the department’s many
laboratories.
• Most students leave Illinois prepared for life in the real
world, having survived at least four years on a large
campus offering many distractions, challenges, and
opportunities. Students are mature, well-rounded, and
ambitious.
Student Recruitment: Interviews*
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Interviews scheduled: 1,443
Companies interviewing on campus: 394
Companies recruiting ECE students: 542
Average interviews for BS students: 12
Average interviews for MS students: 10
Average offers for BS students: 2
Average offers for MS students: 3
* From ECS, 2005-2006
Student Recruitment: Salary*
Average starting salary for:
• Bachelor’s: $58,453
• Master’s: $71,548
Signing bonus:
• Bachelor’s: 45% receive; average is $6,400
• Master’s: 57% receive; average is $10,250
* From ECS, 2005-2006
Research Areas
• Biomedical Imaging,
Bioengineering, and
Acoustics
• Communications
• Computer Engineering
• Electromagnetic Fields
• Integrated Circuits and
Systems
• Physical Electronics
• Power and Energy
Systems
• Quantum Electronics
• Remote Sensing and
Wave Propagation
• Signal Processing
• Systems and Control
Plasma Lighting
• Panels of microcavity plasma lamps
invented by Gary Eden and Sung-Jin Park
• Lamps require no ballast, reflector, or
heavy metal housing
• Panels are lighter, brighter, and more
efficient than incandescent lights and are
expected to approach or surpass the
efficiency of fluorescent lighting
• Flexible panel arrays could be used as
photo-therapeutic bandages to treat certain
diseases
Gary Eden and Sung-Jin Park
Transistor Laser
• Transistor laser invented by Nick
Holonyak and Milton Feng
• Uses a quantum well and a
resonator in base to control
electron-hole recombination and
electrical gain
• Can switch between a normal
transistor and a transistor laser
• Combines functionality of a laser
and a transistor
• Progressing towards developing
transistor lasers that operate at
different speeds for a variety of
commercial applications
Milton Feng and Nick Holonyak
Space Weather
• Assistant Professor Jonathan Makela installed a narrow-field
ionospheric airglow imager at Cerro Tololo Inter-American
Observatory in Chile.
• Two GPS scintillation monitors were also installed at the site,
and are used to study ionospheric instabilities at a smaller
size scale.
• Associate Professor Farzad Kamalabadi also working to
predict space weather.
• Has shown the first determinations of fully, three-dimensional
temperature maps of the sun’s corona.
• Both projects may lead to a better understanding space
storms and could improve ability to forecast space weather.
Interferometric Synthetic Aperture
Microscopy (ISAM)
• Developed by Associate Professor Steve Boppart and
Assistant Professor Scott Carney, with research associates
Tyler Ralston and Daniel Marks.
• Produces crisp, three-dimensional images from blurry,
out-of-focus data.
• Uses light from an out-of-focus image.
• Can be applied to existing hardware with minor modifications.
• Assists doctors by providing faster diagnostic information.
• Could lead to imaging large tissue volumes without removal.
ECE Faculty Lead The Way Via
Education, Research, Scholarship
• With over 100 members, the ECE faculty has an unparalleled
breadth and depth of expertise.
• ECE faculty are hard-working, innovative, and collegial, yet
competitive.
• Interdisciplinary projects can utilize Illinois’ structure of collaboration
and access to faculty from other top-ranked engineering disciplines.
• ECE faculty are respected by peers, serving as editors for countless
publications and receiving frequent awards and honors.
• Industry leaders like Microsoft, Google, Micron, NVIDIA, IBM, Intel,
Motorola, Samsung, Toyota, Texas Instruments, AMD, and Boeing
among research partners.
The ECE Legacy:
A history of fundamental contributions
SOUND ON FILM
On June 9, 1922, Professor Joseph T. Tykociner gave the first-ever
demonstration of sound on film. Tykociner produced a
variable-density sound track along one side of the film that records
the picture images, thereby ensuring that pictures and sound
would be synchronized.
ULTRASOUND
Professor William Fry founded the Bioacoustics Laboratory in 1946
and began conducting pioneering research in the use of ultrasound
as a noninvasive surgical tool and a visualization tool for diagnostics,
work which contributed to today’s ultrasound imaging tools.
TRANSISTOR
In December 1947, while working at Bell Labs, John Bardeen and
colleagues William Shockley and Walter Brattain ushered in the era
of solid state electronics with their invention of the transistor, earning
them the 1956 Nobel Prize in physics. Bardeen served on the ECE
faculty from 1951 to 1991.
INTEGRATED CIRCUIT
While working at Texas Instruments in 1958, alumnus Jack Kilby
figured out how to interconnect huge numbers of discrete
components economically and reliably by creating the integrated circuit.
He received the Nobel Prize in physics in 2000 for his invention.
LIGHT-EMITTING DIODE
While working at General Electric in 1962, alumnus Nick Holonyak
developed the first practical, visible spectrum light-emitting diode,
changing information display and illumination forever. Holonyak
has been an ECE faculty member since 1963.
FLAT-PANEL PLASMA DISPLAY
Professors Donald Bitzer and Gene Slottow (both of whom
are also alumni) along with student Robert Willson invented
the plasma display panel in 1964. They received an Emmy
Award for their work in 2002.