The 2000-2001 academic year in the WPI ECE department is summarized in this report. It includes an overview of all the major aspects of the department's activities, and provides a compact compilation of department statistics and accomplishments for the year.

Major Accomplishments

The 2000-01 academic year brought substantial accomplishments to the ECE department:

Four new tenure-track faculty joined the department.
The new Electrical and Computer Engineering undergraduate major was approved by the WPI faculty and is being implemented. This ECE major will eventually replace the EE major.
Several new undergraduate Courses were implemented or were developed for offering in 2001-02.
The IEEE student chapter's breadth of activities and membership growth (to over 100 members) was featured in the IEEE's nationwide newspaper, The Institute. This membership drive was part of the "University Partnership Program" created by IEEE to stimulate student membership. WPI's success resulted in a savings in subscription fees to IEEE periodicals by the WPI library of several thousand dollars.
A new student award was initiated: the HarOld S. Black Award, which recognizes one EE senior each year who has demonstrated both outstanding academic achievement and outstanding contributions to the department, WPI, or society. Joshua Resnick was selected as the first recipient.
Data from a national survey of engineering senior students (conducted by Educational Benchmark Inc., EBI) showed WPI, in general, and the ECE department, in particular, to be clearly at the forefront in essentially every aspect measured in comparison with a broad range of peer institutions.
WPI was elected as an Affiliate University member of the International Engineering Consortium in recognition of the quality and amount of activity in the communications/networks area.
The Association of American Colleges and Universities selected WPI as one of sixteen Leadership Institutions, thanks in large part to the efforts of Associate Dean and ECE Associate Professor Richard Vaz.
A new "Studio Classroom", which integrates computers, laboratory instruments, and classroom facilities, was approved by the WPI administration and constructed over the summer of 2001.
Two well-qualified new staff joined the department.
Camp Reach, the summer camp for junior high school girls interested in science and engineering founded and directed by Prof. Denise Nicoletti, completed another very successful session.

While 2000-01 brought substantial accomplishments, two areas of concern are evident: funded Research and faculty recruiting/retention. Regarding the latter, Prof. Christof Paar announced his intention to leave for a chaired position in Germany at the end of the 2000-01 academic year, and several other excellent faculty have left for various reasons over the past several years.

Review of Goals

In the 1999-2000 report, two major goals were identified for the 2000-2001 year:

Implementation of the new departmental Strategic Plan, with at least one major initiative in both the undergraduate and graduate/Research areas.
Continued recruitment of excellent faculty, particularly in the areas of computer engineering, Analog microelectronics, and optoelectronics (a new area identified in the Strategic Plan).

Considerable progress has been made on the first goal, implementation of the ECE Strategic Plan; details are provided in a separate section. Regarding the important goal of faculty recruiting, no progress was made in 2000-01. Several excellent candidates visited campus, four offers were extended, but none were accepted. This marks the first year in memory with no success in faculty recruiting. Three factors seem to be at work: an incredibly competitive faculty recruiting marketplace with many more positions than qualified candidates; our focus on the most sought-after areas (optical communications and computer engineering); and finally, our requirement for faculty who are enthusiastic about, and excellent in, both undergraduate teaching and Research. The last factor reduces the pool of appropriate applicants substantially. With the economic downturn the faculty recruiting environment now appears to be improving somewhat. Historically, we have added some of our best faculty during past downturns, and it works to WPI's great benefit that we are quite stable financially and in terms of enrollment. Also, it should be noted that four excellent faculty were recruited in the previous year.

Looking Ahead

Major ECE department goals for 2001-02 include:

Continued implementation of the departmental Strategic Plan, together with review and modification as appropriate.
Implementation of the ECE Major, including graduation of at least one student.
Recruitment of excellent faculty, particularly in the areas of computer engineering, Analog microelectronics, and optoelectronics (a new area identified in the Strategic Plan).
Preparation for the ABET accreditation visit for the EE and ECE programs in the Fall of 2002.
An increase in Research proposals and external funding.

Review of Progress on Strategic Plan

Following is a brief review of progress on the ECE Strategic Plan during the past year.

Goal 1, Leadership in Undergraduate ECE Education

Strategies:

Leadership via comprehensive assessment, Publications, and Presentations off campus and workshops on campus: Under Denise Nicoletti's leadership the assessment plan is well implemented, and many faculty have been active in education-related Publications and Presentations. Camp Reach represents one type of important on-campus activity, but more would be desirable.
Enhancement of MQP: As documented elsewhere, the goals for off campus and supported MQPs were met in 2000-01, but corporate support appears to be lessening, and there is concern regarding the ability to Maintain accomplishment of this goal.
New curricula in Information Engineering: The ECE Major has been designed, approved, and is being implemented. It will be offered for accreditation in 2002. A new course in Optoelectronics is being developed and will be offered in B term, 2001.

Goal 2, Improvements in the Graduate and Research Program

Strategies:

Increase the number of PhD students to 25: No numerical progress has been made on this goal, although recruiting efforts, including the development of a PowerPoint presentation have been undertaken.
Maintain approximately the same number of full-time MS students: This goal is satisfied.
Actively recruit PhD students whose Research interests are in areas of importance and high demand: This has not borne fruit.
Increase the amount of external Research support to $2,000,000 annually: No progress has been made.
Significantly improve the academic and Research environment: Efforts to enhance the graduate Seminar series have been successful. It is planned to hOld a "Research day" for graduate students to present their Research.

Goal 3, Explicitly Address the Future of ECE

Strategies:

Annually, with the participation of the ECE Advisory Board, identify one or more long-term growth areas involving Research, external support, and graduate or undergraduate education: The optical communications area has been identified and it appears likely that an endowed chair will be announced soon.
Develop relations with, and submit proposals to, major funding agencies based on item 1: This is currently in the early stages of implementation.
HOld a high-visibility Seminar series on the new areas: This is pending.
Support and reward the development of funded Research programs in the identified areas: This is pending.
Target one half of all new faculty hires for the identified areas: This is being done.

Undergraduate Education

The practice of including a summary of the overall status of the undergraduate program was begun last year. This summary is intended to both highlight achievements, and to identify areas for improvement or new initiatives.

Summary of Undergraduate Program Status

As in past years, the major strengths of the ECE undergraduate program are summarized:

Data from the EBI Survey (a nationally developed and scored but locally administered survey of the opinions of seniors regarding specific aspects of their engineering education) continues to document that WPI students perceive their education in a substantially more positive light than students in comparative universities, and further that EE students are among the most satisfied among the engineering programs at WPI.
The ECE major is being implemented, with at least one graduate expected in the spring of 2002.
Substantial progress on assessment has been made, with an overall assessment plan in place.
An excellent faculty, further strengthened with the recently-hired faculty.
A substantial laboratory component, well-integrated with the theoretical components of the curriculum.
Good facilities, particularly in teaching labs and in computer facilities.
Generally up-to-date Courses, including recently created Courses, which integrate well with the overall curriculum and are relevant to present-day electrical and computer engineering.
Very good students in general, with some truly exceptional students.
Many excellent MQP Opportunities, both on and off campus.
A very positive atmosphere among both faculty and students, with a very active student chapter of IEEE

With these strengths, it is clear that the undergraduate EE program is in very good shape overall. Nevertheless, several significant areas merit attention and improvement over the long term. The first two items reMain from the past.

The number of faculty in the computer engineering area has been low compared to the number of students in this area, leading to difficulty staffing Courses and advising projects. With recent faculty losses and the implementation of the ECE major, it is no exaggeration to say that this problem has reached the crisis stage.
Faculty losses in general over the past several years cause concern. While the reasons for departure in each case have been different, and most reasons appear to be outside WPI or ECE control, the fact is that the faculty who have left have been among our most promising.
Portions of the undergraduate program have been in need of overhaul in response to the information/computation/telecommunications revolution. This overhaul is well underway with the addition of Courses in modern RF circuit design, digital signal processing, and optoelectronics. However, more work is needed. For example, there is no ECE course on computer networking principles.
While the percentage of MQPs associated with corporations is large, considerable difficulty is being encountered in securing financial support for these projects from the corporations. With the slowing economy, this problem is expected to grow.
As reported previously, class sizes are often large. Given our high teaching quality and the dedication of faculty, there is no concern about basic educational quality, but there are at least two significant problems: (1) Since we offer only one lecture section of each course, student schedules are quite constrained, and course conflicts often arise; (2) the faculty workload implied by a single course, which may have well over 100 students and a laboratory component, is very large.
While average student quality is quite good, there continues to be a strong feeling among faculty that a small but significant fraction of the student body is not prepared to do work at the level of quality that the faculty expect and that the WPI Plan is designed for. This leads to either (or both) a lowering of standards and/or a substantial increase in faculty effort to help that group of students succeed.

Curriculum Innovations

Regarding the curriculum, the most major change is the addition of a second major area of study in the department. Since our founding in 1896, the department's single major has been titled "Electrical Engineering." About 12 years ago the name of the department was changed to "Electrical and Computer Engineering" to reflect the new realities and to give Computer Engineering appropriate prominence. As the discipline has changed and broadened, several new, related majors have arisen elsewhere. The principal one is titled "Computer Engineering," but others, including "Systems Engineering," and "Electric Power Systems," are available at some schools. After a substantial period of discussion, the faculty of the ECE department concluded that we should continue to offer a single major, and that it should be called "Electrical and Computer Engineering." This is in accord with our view that undergraduate education should stress breadth rather than specialization, and that graduate school is both appropriate and generally necessary for the level of knowledge needed to practice the profession today.

The Degree Requirements for ECE ensure that students will have reasonable breadth in the "traditional" EE areas, in the Computer Engineering area, and in the important areas of software.

Professor Peder Pedersen is developing the following new course which meets a major need, there being no ECE course in any area of optics or optical communication.

EE371X - "Introduction to Electro-Optics" introduces students to the important field of photonic devices and their application. Since an ever-increasing proportion of signal transmission is performed optically using light signals, participation in this course should be considered by all ECE students, regardless of specific concentration. The course will be offered in B01. Suggested Background: EE2201, EE2311, and PH1140.

Projects Program

In 2000-01, 40 EE MQPs were completed. Of these, 74 percent were sponsored by corporations. Of the sponsored projects, 55 percent were conducted on campus (as in NECAMSID and the General Dynamics Trusted Networks Solutions Center) and 45 percent were conducted off campus, as in Ireland, Silicon Valley and at NASA Goddard. These percentages are very much in line with departmental goals that target 60% of MQPs for sponsorship and 40% for off-campus completion. However, not all of the off-campus projects were financially supported by their corporations.

WPI's Project Presentation Day was held on April 19, 2001 and 28 EE MQPs were presented by 65 students. A substantial number of projects were presented at other times at off-campus locations and in the fall presentation session.

The NASA Goddard Project Center, originated and directed by Prof. Fred Looft, completed another very successful year with seven projects and 22 students. The Limerick, Ireland, site continued to be successful, and plans were made to expand to 12 students and four projects for the 2001-02 academic year. ECE is also playing a significant role in the Silicon Valley Project Center that is directed by Prof. David Finkel of the CS department.

An IQP, advised by Prof. Len Polizzotto, and conducted by ECE students, Matthew Geiger, Jeremy Lynch, Rabin Tamang, and Brian Laplume, designed and prototyped a simple device to allow blind persons to locate Buttons to activate walk lights at busy street corners. The students worked with the city of Worcester's Assistant Director of Human Resources, Larry Raymond, who is blind.

EE 2799, Introduction to ECE Design, is now offered twice per year, and it is expected that it will be completed by all students before beginning their MQP.

Winners of the MQP departmental and Provost's award are listed in the Student section.

Enrollment and Degrees

Table 1 presents data on the student enrollment by class over the past 10 years. The rise in undergraduate enrollment (509 in 00-01 vs 425 97-98) is noteworthy. There is a small drop in the entering class size in the Fall of 2000-01, but Admissions data (Table 3) indicate this to be an aberration. EE is currently the second-largest undergraduate major at WPI. First is Computer Science with 573 students, and third is Mechanical Engineering with 500 students. Graduate data are discussed separately.

**Table 1 ECE Enrollment Detail**
	A Term
Category	91-92	92-93	93-94	94-95	95-96	96-97	97-98	98-99	99-00	00-01	01-02
1st Yr	105	69	91	110	108	104	126	121	124	119	136
2nd Yr	139	110	101	109	106	90	92	122	128	121	117
3rd Yr	117	119	101	88	99	93	72	82	112	131	111
4rd Yr	97	109	109	93	75	100	87	73	70	108	129
post-4th	14	11	10	27	20	18	16	17	23	7	18
part-time	18	15	14	11	14	10	NA	NA	NA	NA	10
transfer	23	11	23	16	12	12	14	10	14	14	8
co-op	19	22	24	19	23	12	18	19	13	9	5
Total UG	532	466	473	473	457	439	425	444	484	509	534
FT grad	77	57	52	47	47	53	52	48	44	57	42
PT deg grad	75	63	65	52	49	39	38	47	51	34	39
Total	661	586	590	552	553	531	515	539	579	600	615

The numbers of BS (as well as MS and PhD) degrees awarded over the past ten years are summarized in Table 2. The rise in BS degrees and apparent stabilization in the drop in MS degrees is worthy of note. However, PhD production is not increasing.

**Table 2 Summary of ECE Degrees Granted**
	Academic Year
Degree	91-92	92-93	93-94	94-95	95-96	96-97	97-98	98-99	99-00	00-01
BS	112	114	102	110	89	92	91	100	90	99
MS	57	41	31	41	37	28	31	30	22	26
PhD	5	7	2	3	2	1	6	3	3	3

Admissions Activities and Results

Undergraduate admissions data for the past seven years are presented in Table 3.

**Table 3 Admissions Data**
	1995-96	1996-97	1997-98	1998-99	1999-00	2000-01	2001-02
WPI apps	2481	2715	3165	3167	3243	3259	3137
WPI admits	2113	2251	2446	2462	2559	2515	2462
WPI selectivity	85%	83%	77%	78%	79%	77%	78%
WPI deps	588	689	687	684	683	700	729
WPI Yield	28%	31%	28%	28%	27%	28%	28%
WPI Fr. class	623	722	724	714	688	724	700
SAT, WPI, median		1280	1280	1280	1280	1270	1270
SAT, ECE, median							1260
WPI apps	355	368	468	519	578	541	550
WPI admits	290	298	360	411	430	397	435
WPI selectivity	82%	81%	77%	79%	74%	73%	79%
WPI deps	80	89	109	117	119	92	128
WPI Yield	28%	30%	30%	28%	28%	23%	28%
WPI Fr. class	108	104	126	121	124	119	123

Interest in Electrical and Computer Engineering continues to show a slow, but reasonably steady, increase. Selectivity and yield, both for ECE and for WPI, continue to represent areas for improvement, although they are quite comparable with high-quality peer institutions.

Following is additional information on the enrolled students in the entering ECE class in the fall of 2001. Of the 128 admitted students who returned deposits:

7 are international (Lebanon, Turkey, India, Bahrain, Turks and Caicos)
7 are women
1 is Black
4 are Hispanic
6 are Asian American
2 are Native American
50 are from Massachusetts
37 are from the reMainder of New England
9 are from New York
3 are from Florida,
3 are from New Jersey
2 are from Oregon
2 are from Maryland
1 each is from CA, KY, LA, NM, MO, PA, PR, VA, VT

Overall, this is a dramatically white male, local (Massachusetts/New England) group, and dramatically different from the diversity that we (WPI and ECE) seek.

Historically, the percentage of women and minority students in the EE applicant and matriculant pools has been disappointing. However, the trends indicated by Table 4 are moderately encouraging, at least prior to the data presented above. There has been an overall slow improvement in the numbers of female applicants and matriculants, although the female percentage for 2000-01 shows a small decline.

**Table 4 Gender and Ethnicity Data**
Acad Year		White	Black	Hispan	Asian	Native Amer	Non- res	Un- known	Female
1997-98	WPI	83%	2%	3%	6%	0	6%	0%	21%
	ECE	76	3	3	11	1	6	0	7
1998-99	WPI	83	2	2	6	0	6	0	22
	ECE	75	3	3	10	1	7	0	8
1999-00	WPI	83	2	3	7	0	5	1	23
	ECE	73	3	3	13	0	7	1	10
2000-01	WPI	81	1	2	7	0	5	3	23
	ECE	74	2	3	12	1	6	2	9
2001-02	WPI	82	1	3	7	0	7	2	23
	ECE	77	2	2	10	1	?	2	9

We can make similar comments regarding our desire to increase the numbers of minority students. However, we are pleased to note that although the numbers are small overall, we have a relatively large percentage of Black students in ECE. Also, our percentage of Hispanic students exceeds the WPI value. As is true nationally in EE, we have a relatively large percentage of Asian-American students as well as foreign students from Asia.

Student Awards

A new student award was initiated in 2001: the HarOld S. Black Award, which recognizes an EE senior who has demonstrated outstanding creativity and enthusiasm in engineering problem solving, practical implementation of problem solutions, and exemplary character in his/her contributions to the welfare of the WPI community. Joshua Resnick, '01 was selected as the first recipient. This award is named for the inventor of the concept of negative feedback in electronic amplifiers, HarOld S. Black, a member of the WPI EE class of 1921.

A substantial number of ECE students were recognized with WPI-wide awards. In addition, several departmental awards are presented annually.

For Academic Year 2000-01, the following WPI awards were received by ECE students:

Salisbury Prize(most meritorious seniors at WPI, total of 15 awards to the Senior class):
- Jennifer Hardy
- Paul Laplume
Provost's MQP Awards(also recipients of ECE Alumni MQP Awards):
- First Place: Joshua Resnick, '01, "Remediating Fluctuations in Radioactive Decay Measurements," advisor Prof. David Cyganski.
- Second Place: Karim Nofal, '02, Jonathan Perreault, '01, John Ruggiero, '01, Antonio Troncoso, '01, "Aviation Warning System," advisor Prof. John Orr.
- Third Place: Ali Khan, '01, Siu Nin Lam, '01, Nai Yin Wong, '01, "DSP-Based Crypto Co-Processor for PDAs," advisor Prof. Christof Paar.

Nina Simon, ECE '02, was selected as the recipient of the Tau Beta Phi Sophomore of the Year Award. This award recognizes the sophomore who best demonstrates academic excellence as well as the Tau Beta Phi ideals of personal integrity, breadth of interest, adaptability, and unselfish activity. Nina was also featured in the ECE faculty-student Rock Concert.

Eta Kappa Nu presented its Outstanding Senior Award to Vishnu Pandey, '01, and the award for Outstanding Contributions to the ECE Department to David Holl, '01.

Senior-Faculty Banquet

The sixth annual ECE Senior-Faculty-Staff banquet was held this year on April 27, CDR submission day. This banquet, held at Ping's Garden Chinese Restaurant, has become a pleasant tradition. A large majority of the senior class took part, together with about half of the ECE faculty and staff. Also at this event, the MQP and Eta Kappa Nu awards were announced (see the Student Awards section)..

Senior Exit Survey and EBI Survey

Another six-year-Old practice is the Senior Exit Survey, which is a written questionnaire that all graduating seniors are asked to complete. This year the survey was completed by 51 of 99 graduating seniors. This is a very good response rate, particularly given that those students who completed their degree requirements prior to D term (about 20 percent of the total) are difficult to reach. With six years of accumulated data, we are becoming able to identify trends in either the positive or negative direction. ECE Seniors in 2001 scored their satisfaction with their ECE education at a level of 3.36 on a 4-point scale, and their satisfaction with overall WPI education at 3.25 on the same scale. Over the six years of the survey, these scores have been quite consistent, with a range of ECE satisfaction between 3.36 and 3.64. ECE students indicate their lowest satisfaction with Social Science (1.96), Computer Science (2.29), and Humanities sufficiency (3.04). To some extent, lower results on out-of-major activities are to be expected, but this information may be useful on a comparative or longitudinal basis.

This represents the second year of data collection from a national survey of engineering seniors managed by Educational Benchmark, Inc. (EBI). Now with two years of consistent data, these results show WPI, in general, and ECE, in particular, to be clearly at the forefront in essentially every aspect measured in comparison with a broad range of peer institutions. The EBI data directly addresses the Outcomes which are important for ABET accreditation, as well as additional factors. EBI data for WPI and ECE may be compared to the data from all EBI institutions, to six schools that WPI identifies (MIT, Carnegie Mellon, Stevens, Boston University, Northeastern, Vanderbilt), and to all participating institutions in WPI's Carnegie Classification. In all comparisons, WPI and ECE are at or very near the top in each category. Detailed comparison data are available.

Student Activities

The student chapter of IEEE grew in membership and in the number and breadth of its activities in 2000-01. In collaboration with the WPI library, the chapter staged a membership growth program that resulted in substantial savings on IEEE journal subscription costs by the library. Membership was raised from 77 to over 100 student members. On April 19, a daylong Student Professional Awareness Conference was held in the new WPI Campus Center. The conference addressed issues ranging from the low number of female electrical engineers to leading-edge techniques in digital system design. The enthusiastic officers of IEEE (Vishnu Pandey, chair, David Holl, vice chair, Nicholas Hatch, secretary, Jennifer Scheipers, treasurer, and Nicholas Nigro, corporate liaison) deserve credit for this extremely successful year, along with faculty advisor Hossein Hakim who provided advice, encouragement, and support. The chapter's success was featured in the IEEE's monthly newspaper The Institute.

A major social event of the year was the staging of the first ECE Rock Concert on April 11, 2001, featuring faculty and students. The faculty band included Profs. Bill Michalson (guitar), Denise Nicoletti (bass), Len Polizzotto (drums), and Rick Vaz (vocal), with introductions and attempts at comedy by Prof. John McNeill. ECE seniors Nick Arcolano, Jay Bose, M.V.S. Chandrashekhar, Mike Milner, and Nick Nigro opened the show. The highlight of the student set was "My Amputee Dog" composed by Nick Arcolano. Closing the show was a show-stopping performance by ECE women: Nina Simon, Jennifer Hardy, and Laura Domey.

The IEEE office/lounge, together with the Power Panel Lounge, receive extremely heavy use by students for studying as well as socializing.

The student group WECE (Women in ECE), advised by Prof. Denise Nicoletti, continues to be quite active. Click here for more info.

Eta Kappa Nu, the EE student honor society, annually recognizes one Outstanding ECE Faculty Member. This year the honor went to Professor Alex Emanuel.

Graduate Education

The graduate program is integral to the ECE department. Obviously, the Research program is critically dependent on the availability of graduate Research assistants and thesis students, but the undergraduate program also benefits from the availability of high-quality teaching assistants and the state-of-the-art graduate topics. Over the past several years, the supply of well-qualified graduate students, particularly those who are American citizens, has been extremely limited. Still, graduate enrollments have been steady overall.

Enrollment and Degrees

Table 1 (in the previous section) lists graduate student enrollment.

Over the past several years, total graduate student enrollment has been very stable. The lack of increase in part-time graduate students is disappointing. At a time when employment in the eastern Massachusetts area was growing rapidly, we expected an increased pool of students interested in pursing part-time graduate study.

Presently 10 PhD students are enrolled vs 15 at the time of the 1999-2000 report, including several who are completing their requirements on a part-time basis. The department has set a target of 25 PhD students in the Strategic Plan, which would result in approximately 7 or 8 PhD degrees annually. Clearly, negative progress toward that goal was made over the past year and so re-evaluation of either the goal or the strategy is in order.

Graduate Student Support

In 2000-01, 15 students were supported as Teaching Assistants, 14 as Research Assistants (not all for the full academic year), and 3 as Fellows (with Fellowships from NECAMSID, GTE and WPI). These numbers are down slightly from the previous year (15 TAs, 16 RAs, and 6 Fellows).

Curriculum

Updating of the graduate curriculum continues. Reflecting changes in the profession, two "traditional" introductory ECE graduate Courses, State Space Analysis of Linear Systems and Modern Signal Analysis, were combined into a single course, Analysis of Deterministic Signals and Systems. Also, enhancement of the Cryptography and data security area continues with the addition of a course in network security to complement the course in computer security previously introduced. The complete Crypto area now includes four Courses.

Adjunct faculty taught 11 of 25 graduate Courses (not including Courses cross-listed with CS) in 2000-01, or 44%. This percentage has been approximately constant over the recent past. This level is higher than the faculty feel is desirable, although the teaching by our adjunct faculty is of quite high quality.

Historical graduate course enrollments for the past ten years are listed in Table 5. All enrollments in ECE Courses cross-listed with the CS department are included. The number of Courses listed represents individual offerings (multiple sections of a course are counted individually) not including non-credit Seminar Courses. Enrollments are higher than previous years, but this is due in large measure to increases in the number of Computer Science students in the cross-listed Courses.

**Table 5 Graduate Course Enrollments**
Year	Semester	# Courses	# Students
1992-93	fall	20	227
	Spring	15	176
1993-94	Fall	17	224
	Spring	15	197
1994-95	Fall	19	211
	Spring	15	197
1995-96	Fall	16	274
	Spring	15	200
1996-97	Fall	17	187
	Spring	13	212
1997-98	Fall	14	277
	Spring	16	222
1998-99	Fall	15	241
	Spring	14	225
1999-00	Fall	14	244
	Spring	15	216
2000-01	Fall	15	287
	Spring	14	259

Graduate Student Awards

The departmental Eta Kappa Nu Outstanding ECE Teaching Assistant Award for 2000-01 was presented to Ruben Lara-Montalvo.

Faculty and Staff

Overview

Four new tenure-track faculty joined the department in 2000-01: Profs. Edward Clancy, Donald R. Brown, and Berk Sunar at the Assistant Professor level, and Prof. Sergey Makarov at the Associate Professor level. These faculty bring wide-ranging expertise in important areas (particularly networking and wireless communications), experience in industry, and enthusiasm and ability in teaching. Also, Mr. Stephen Bitar joined us at the Instructor level. Steve is a WPI alum (BSEE '85 and MSEE '95) and provides much-needed teaching expertise in Analog microelectronics. Unfortunately, Prof. Christof Paar announced that he would be leaving the department effective in September 2001 to accept a chaired position at the University of Bochum, Germany.

For the 2000-01 academic year, the department included 24 full-time faculty, including Profs. Robert Labonté”. and Leonard Polizzotto, Professors of Practice, and Mr. Stephen Bitar, Instructor, all non-tenure track. This is equivalent to 23 full-time faculty after accounting for the fact that Prof. Vaz and Prof. Polizzotto were assigned outside the department for 50 percent time. The distribution of these positions by rank and tenure status for 2000-01 was:

Professor: 8
Associate Professor: 7
Assistant Professor: 6
Instructor: 1
Tenured: 15
Non-tenured, tenure track: 6
Non-tenure track: 3

A list of faculty is provided in the Appendix.

Satin Fellowship

The Joseph Samuel Satin Award for 2000-01 was presented to Prof. Edward (Ted) Clancy. Ted joined WPI in the fall of 2001 from industry in the fall of 2000. In 1983, Ted received his BS degree from WPI in EE, followed by his MS and PhD degrees in EE from MIT. His PhD Research was in stochastic Modeling of electromyographic signals, and he pursued Research in this and related areas at Colin Research America, Aspect Medical Systems, and Liberty Mutual Research Center. Since joining WPI's faculty, Ted has brought his experience and enthusiasm to both the teaching and Research realms.

Faculty Accomplishments

Following is a summary of significant events for our faculty over the past year.

Prof. Christof Paar was awarded tenure and promoted to Associate Professor. Unfortunately, Prof. Paar has left WPI to accept a chaired professorship at the University of Bochum, Germany.
Prof. Alexander Emanuel received the Trustees' Award for Outstanding Academic Advising. Alex is the first WPI faculty member to have been selected for all three Trustees' Awards (scholarship, teaching, and academic advising).
Prof. David Cyganski was appointed by the Provost as the Weston Hadden Professor of ECE.
Prof. Peder Pedersen was selected for the WPI Teaching Technology Fellowship program. This program identifies faculty, who are interested in enhancing their teaching with modern information technology, and provides technical support, instruction in new pedagogical techniques, and group interaction among the Fellows.
Prof. Kaveh Pahlavan was named a Nokia-Fulbright Scholar.
Prof. Fred Looft delivered one of three "Engineering the Future" lectures at the Boston Museum of Science in January 2001. Prof. Looft's talk was titled, "It Is Rocket Science - Preparing for the Space Age."
Prof L. Ramdas Ram-Mohan, with an appointment as Professor of both Physics and Electrical and Computer Engineering, was elected as a Fellow of the Optical Society of America for "his development of the paradigm of wavefunction engineering and, through software, making it practical for optimized quantum well laser design."
Prof. Richard Vaz was selected as "Favorite Professor" in the Tech News annual poll.

Faculty activity in textbook authorship continues at a high level. Four books or book chapters were published. In addition, manuscripts are in preparation by ReinhOld Ludwig and Sergey Makarov (on the electromagnetic properties of materials) Kevin Clements (on computational methods for electric power networks), Bill Michalson (on microprocessor system design), and Alex Emanuel (on power harmonics and power quality).

A set of short Courses that represent an intensive introduction to technology was developed for the finance professionals at Lucent Corporation. The offerings include a two-day short course centered on communications, and an intensive 3-credit graduate course that includes modules on ECE, software, and management aspects of high technology. The ECE portions were developed and presented by David Cyganski, John Orr, and Len Polizzotto. The Computer Science and Management portions were developed and presented by George Heineman, and Chick Kasouf, respectively. These Courses were presented at Lucent headquarters in Murray Hill, New Jersey, and on campus.

Faculty Service to WPI

A list of ECE faculty participation on WPI standing and ad hoc committees is provided in the Appendix. While no comparison data are available, this level of service to WPI is clearly very substantial.

ECE Staff

The organization of the ECE staff underwent some changes in the past year. In particular, one of the technician positions was eliminated and replaced with a professional position with the title of Laboratory Coordinator. This person will work closely with the ECE faculty as well as with the other staff in support of the educational mission. After an extensive search, Mr. Dean Daigneault was selected for the position, and he joined us in August 2001. Including Dean, the staff includes seven full-time employees, who provide a broad range of essential services to the department. This group comprises three secretarial employees, one electronics technician, and three professional staff (one computer systems administrator, one senior electrical engineer, and one laboratory coordinator). Mr. David Holl, our previous computer systems administrator, decided to return to graduate school (in ECE at WPI) full-time, and the position was filled by Mr. Robert Brown. A complete list of staff is provided in the Appendix. Our staff members are called upon to perform a very wide range of duties often under considerable time pressure. It is a major goal of the department to assure that staff compensation is adequate in light of their demonstrated abilities as well as the extremely competitive job market. Some progress was made this past year for the technical staff.

Finally, a new full-time staff position in the computer support area was approved for the 2000-01 fiscal year. Due to the need to fill the primary systems administrator position, the search to fill this position was temporarily suspended.

Alumni

We take great pride in the many accomplishments of our alumni, a few of which are mentioned here.

Bob Woog receives Newell Award for 2000-01

Robert Woog, Senior Vice President of Global Crossing, was presented with the Hobart Newell Outstanding ECE Alumni Award on May 3, 2001. This presentation and banquet marked the beginning of the second decade of Newell awards. Each year one graduate of the WPI ECE department is honored for outstanding professional contributions.

Throughout his Career, Bob has been an innovator and a leader in the momentous changes in the telecommunications industry. After graduation from WPI in 1968, Bob began with ATT Long Lines, spending eighteen years in management positions, including an international assignment as Assistant Director General of the Telecommunications Company of Iran. In 1987, he brought his extensive experience and business acumen to a new executive position at Digital Transervice Corporation before joining Communications Techniques.

In 1988, he moved to Positron Industries, a trading turret manufacturer, as Vice President. (A "trading turret" is the physical device that provides communications among traders of securities and other financial instruments.) This position provided a platform for his transition to IXNet, a firm which provided a high performance global extranet for the financial services community, and where he served as Vice President for Business Development until the merger of IXNet and IPC Communications into Global Crossing. The new corporate identity brought a customer base of 2000 of the world's largest financial services firms from IXNet, and a global extranet with a presence in 38 countries built by IPC, into Global Crossings' intercontinental network. Today, as Senior Vice President of Business Development, Bob is involved in building one of the world's most extensive global IP-based fiber optic networks, which will ultimately have 100,000 route miles serving five continents, 27 countries and more than 200 major cities in the world.

During the past two decades, Bob has served WPI as an alumni admissions volunteer, as a member of the global committee for the Campaign for WPI, and as an important member of the President's International Advisory Board. Bob Woog's vision and thoughtful approach to the challenges and Opportunities in the telecommunications arena as engineer, businessman, and entrepreneur, during the past three decades, exemplify the criteria of the Hobart Newell award.

Previous recipients of the Newell Award include: William R. Grogan, '46, Paul A. Allaire, '60, Ronald L. Zarrella, '71, Robert E. McIntosh Jr., '62, John Lott Brown, '46, Donald H. Foley, '66, H. Richard Freeman, '61, Peter B. Myers, '46, Alfred A. Molinari, Jr., '63, and John C. Petrillo, '71.

The namesake of the award, Prof. Hobart Newell, was a leader of a much earlier telecommunications revolution, beginning his Career at Westinghouse Labs after his WPI graduation in 1918. While at Westinghouse, he was instrumental in establishing the pioneering broadcast station KDKA in Pittsburgh. Prof. Newell joined the WPI faculty in 1921, and taught electrical engineering here for 44 years. He brought modern electronics into a profession and a department that had been dominated by electric power engineering, and he received the first Trustees Award for Outstanding Teaching at WPI. Prof. Newell was a Fellow of the IEEE.

In recognition of the tenth anniversary of the Newell Award, a banquet was held in the Odeum of the Campus Center for the presentation of the award to Bob Woog. Over 100 faculty and alumni were present at this festive occasion. The range of class years represented was very broad and provided an opportunity both to renew Old acquaintances and to make some new ones while celebrating the success, not just of the Newell recipient, but of ECE graduates, in general.

WPI Alumni Awards

The WPI Alumni Association recognized the following ECE graduates at Reunion, 2001:

Dr. H. Richard Freeman, BS EE '61, received the Robert H. Goddard Award for Outstanding Professional Achievement. Dr. Freeman recently retired as Chief Engineer at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and is currently Principal Engineer at the Aerospace Corporation.
Dr. Donald Foley, '66, received the Robert H. Goddard Award for Outstanding Professional Achievement. Dr. Foley is Executive VP, Science Applications International Corp.
Susan Loconto Penta, BS EE '86, partner and co-founder of Midior Consulting, received the Ichabod Washburn Young Alumni Award for Professional Achievement.

Alumni Accomplishments and Professional Activities

Over the past year, many ECE alumni have been in the news with regard to their professional accomplishments, and many more have advanced to positions of leadership in their Careers. Following is a representative, and quite incomplete, listing:

Dr. Anup Ghosh, BSEE '91, received the IEEE Third Millennium Medal for Outstanding Contributions to E-Commerce Security.
Michael Grady, BSEE '71, was named Executive Vice President of Engineering, Chinook Communications.
William Hwang, MSEE '89, was named a partner in the law firm of Goodwin, Procter LLP.
Peter Rado, BSEE '70, was appointed Vice President of Engineering at Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Scholarship and External Support

Fifteen ECE faculty reported journal or conference Publications in 2000-01. A complete list of faculty Publications is provided in the Appendix. Also, 14 faculty submitted grant requests for Research and educational activities in 2000-01. Finally, patent activity reMains high, as is book publication. Total external (corporate, foundation, and funding agency) support for the ECE Research and teaching activities in 2000-01 was $1,901,000.

Beyond funded Research and Publications, many ECE faculty are professionally active in service to their societies, peer review of journal paper submissions, and consulting work.

Table 6 summarizes proposal activity and success in external grants over the past ten years. This table only includes proposals submitted through the Research Office, which is a fraction of the total grant request activity. Additional Research-related support (such as graduate fellowships and sponsorship of specialized centers) received through the University Relations office is not included. The success rate measured as the percentage of proposals granted continues to be very encouraging. There is some concern at the relatively small number of proposals submitted and awards received over the past three years. For WPI as a whole, 118 grants were received in FY01 with a value of $8,401,327. The ECE awards for FY01 represent nine percent of the WPI total, approximately equal to the percentage of the WPI faculty, which ECE represents.

A summary of proposals submitted and grants received in 2000-01 is included in the Appendix. This list includes all funding requested or received through the Research Office; it also includes some of the support requested or received via University Relations.

**Table 6 Summary of ECE Research Funding**
	Proposals		Grants Rcvd.
Acad. Yr.	#	$000's	#	$000's
88-89	32	$2,869	18	$859
89-90	31	$3,224	12	$694
90-91	43	$12,068	22	$1,170
91-92	36	$4,758	20	$654
92-93	31	$3,682	14	$954
93-94	21	$2,752	15	$1,105
94-95	33	$6,900	21	$911
95-96	28	$3,103	20	$1,128
96-97	25	$3,219	15	$796
97-98	30	$4,972	21	$1,730
98-99	20	$2,899	20	$967
99-00	20	$3,685	12	$751
00-01	20	$3,224	11	$723
Note: Only Research grants/contracts are included here, not fellowships, donations, etc.

Placement

Due to the unavailability of information from the Career Development Center, salary and most other data on placement results for ECE department graduates cannot be presented here. A list of corporations that hired BS and MS graduates in 2000-01 is presented in the Appendix. In general, some lessening of the intense interest from corporations was noted toward the end of the 2000-01 academic year, but all indications are that essentially all students received offers and were placed in appropriate positions. No salary data are available.

External Relationships

WPI was elected as a University Affiliate member of the International Engineering Consortium. The IEC is a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting the information industry and its university communities, based in Chicago. Since 1944, the IEC has provided high-quality educational Opportunities for industry professionals, academics, and students. The IEC conducts industry-university programs that have substantial impact on curricula. It also conducts Research and develops Publications, conferences, and technological exhibits that address major Opportunities and challenges of the Information Age. More than 70 leading high-technology universities are currently affiliated with the IEC, based on the quality and level of their involvement in Research and education in communications, and this membership reflects the growing national and international reputation of ECE's communications and networking activities. Also, Prof. John Orr was elected as a member of the Board of Directors of IEC..

Many ECE faculty are actively involved with the ECE profession outside WPI, in a wide variety of roles. The following list is representative but incomplete:

Alex Emanuel: IEEE Working Groups on (1) Definitions of Power and Nonsinusoidal Signals (chair), (2) Harmonics, (3) Power Quality, and (4) Harm Caused by Nonsinusoidal Loads; International Conference on Harmonics and Quality of Power (chair).
Christof Paar and Berk Sunar helped organize the Workshop on Cryptographic Hardware and Embedded Systems in 2000 (held at WPI) and 2001 (held in Paris).
Kaveh Pahlavan: Editor in Chief of the Journal of Wireless Information Networks.
John Orr: National EE Department Heads Association (Vice President in 1999-00, president in 2000-01); IEEE Finance Committee (member); IEEE Educational Activities Board (member and Treasurer); ABET Evaluator for electrical engineering programs, member of Board of Directors of IEC (International Engineering Consortium).
Richard Vaz: WPI representative to the American Association of Colleges and Universities.
William Michalson: Institute of Navigation, New England Section (treasurer).

ECE Advisory Board

The ECE Advisory Board assists the department in a wide variety of ways. It was involved throughout the Strategic Planning process and provided invaluable perspectives. A list of the current membership is provided in the Appendix. The newest member joined the Board in the spring of 2001: Maureen Crozier is Vice President of Engineering, Nortel Access Group, Nortel Networks in Chelmsford, MA. Maureen joined Bell Northern Research in 1980 after receiving her BS degree in Applied Science in Mathematics and Engineering from Queens University, Canada, and MS degree in Electrical Engineering from the Imperial College of Science and Technology, University of London, UK. She has held a variety of technical and managerial positions at Nortel in Network Access Product Development and Fiber Optics Products.

Camp Reach

Camp REACH, founded in 1997 by Prof. Denise Nicoletti, together with Prof. Chrysanthe Demetry of the ME Department, marked its fifth year of operation in 2001. Prof. Nicoletti took complete responsibility for the program last summer. Camp REACH (Reinventing Engineering and Creating New Horizons) is a residential program for Massachusetts' girls who have completed sixth grade and who are interested in learning about engineering and technology. This is an exciting and innovative summer program to stimulate the interest of young women in science and engineering.

Camp REACH was created with a grant from the National Science Foundation and is now assisted by several corporate supporters. Denise Nicoletti raised $37,500 to support the 2001 edition of Camp Reach from the following corporations and foundations: Intel ($10,000), General Motors ($6,500), TJX Foundation ($5,000), Fidelity Investments ($5,000), Engineering Information Foundation ($3,500), Technical Expositions and Conferences ($3,000), Mercury Computer ($2,000), Raytheon ($1,500), and AQUAL Clinical Research Services ($1,000). This program has received nationwide recognition and press coverage. Camp REACH is a two-week program that involves campers in using science and technology to accomplish real-world projects. Thirty campers participated in Camp Reach in 2001.

Facilities

In the summer of 2001, a major renovation of one of ECE's laboratory facilities (AK 227) was conducted, resulting in a 50-seat "studio classroom" with facilities for both traditional classroom as well as laboratory work, and modern computer-based AV equipment. The specific stimulus for this facility was the development of a new hands-on course in Digital Signal Processing by Prof. Nate Whitmal, which he proposed be taught in the integrated lecture-lab format. The room is equipped with 25 student stations, each containing a Pentium PC with flat screen, as well as standard ECE lab equipment (digital oscilloscope, signal generator, power supply).

It has been 21 years since the home of the ECE department, Atwater Kent Labs, was completely renovated and expanded. In general, that renovation has served the department well, and the facilities reMain in generally good condition. Certain aspects of the renovation, including HVAC and electric power distribution, were quite inadequate, and those shortcomings are being addressed on a year-year basis. Most recently, the ECE department offices were renovated, as were the laboratories in the east wing of the ground floor. It should be noted that the Atwater Kent building is substantially overdue for a new roof, with leaks which are impacting our teaching and Research.

Air conditioning is still needed in the three classrooms in the building (AK 232, 233, 219) as well as in several interior office areas.

The ECE computer facilities have been operating efficiently under the direction of our full-time Computer Systems Administrator. David Holl held this position at the beginning of the academic year, and transferred it to Robert Brown as of August 1, 2001. The size and complexity of the computer operations continues to grow. The computer systems are operated and managed by one full-time person with part-time help roughly equivalent to 0.75 FTE. Such staffing is marginal at best, and a second full-time position has been approved.

The ECE electronics support facility is managed by Jim O'Rourke, with one full-time laboratory manager (Dean Daigneault) and one full time technician (Tom Angelotti). The support provided by the shop ranges from an extensive stock of electronic parts and supplies to equipment Maintenance, construction of specialized equipment, and consultation to students and faculty on circuit fabrication and laboratory operations. Jim O'Rourke also provides valuable assistance in laboratory teaching.

Given the growth in the ECE department in terms of numbers of faculty (both full-time and visiting) and in Research activities, laboratory space is very tight. In the immediate future, significant additional space will be needed.

Custodial and building Maintenance services have improved in recent years and, in general, the building is in good condition. Given the heavy use of the building, additional daytime custodial service, particularly in the first and second floor public areas and restrooms, is needed

Plans for the Future

For 2001-02, the ECE department will concentrate attention in three areas:

Completion of the documentation and other preparation for the ABET visit to the EE and ECE programs in the Fall of 2002.
Implementation of the ECE major, and graduation of at least one student with that major.
Recruit excellent new faculty. As mentioned earlier, faculty recruiting in 2000-01 was not successful and the need is urgent. At present there is one vacancy; with faculty currently on leave the number of openings could rise to three. We have urgent needs in computer engineering, and substantial needs in Analog and mixed signal electronics and opto-electronics (a new area identified in the strategic plan).

Appendices

ECE Faculty

Tenured and Tenure Track Faculty

Following is a summary of the tenured and tenure-track ECE faculty, including their areas of teaching and Research interest and the institution where they obtained their Ph.D. degree. Also listed are tenured faculty of other departments who have joint appointments in ECE.

Matthew C. Bromberg, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., University of California, Davis, 1990. Communications area, particularly wireless communications and "smart antennas."

Donald R. Brown, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Cornell University, 2000. Communication and computer networks, with interest in wireless multi-user systems and channel equalization.

Edward A. Clancy Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1991. Computer engineering and signal processing with particular interest in the interdisciplinary area of electromyography.

Kevin A. Clements, Professor; Ph.D., Polytechnic of Brooklyn, 1970. Large-Scale and nonlinear systems, power systems.

David Cyganski, Professor; Ph.D., WPI, 1981. Robot vision, pattern recognition, automatic target recognition, data conversion, digital signal processing, global optimization.

R. James Duckworth, Associate Professor; Ph.D., Nottingham, England, 1984. Parallel computation, computer architecture, real-time systems, distributed computers.

Alexander E. Emanuel, Weston Hadden Professor; D.Sc., Technion (Israel), 1969, P.E. 1978. Power Electronics, electromagnetic design, high-voltage technology.

Hossein Hakim, Associate Professor; Ph.D., Purdue, 1982. Digital signal processing, power systems analysis, system engineering.

Fred J. Looft, Professor; Ph.D., University of Michigan, 1979. Digital and Analog systems, signal processing, biomedical engineering, sensory systems analysis, microprocessor systems and architectures.

ReinhOld Ludwig, Professor; Ph.D., Colorado State, 1986. Computational acoustic and electromagnetic wave Modeling, linear and nonlinear, inverse methods piezoelectric transducer characterization for medical diagnostics and nondestructive evaluation.

Sergey N. Makarov, Associate Professor; Dr.Sc., St. Petersburg State University, Russia, 1995. Modeling of electromagnetic and acoustic fields, materials processing and testing, antenna design.

John McNeill, Associate Professor, Ph.D., Boston University, 1994. Analog and mixed signal integrated circuit design, electronics for high-speed imaging.

William R. Michalson, Associate Professor; Ph.D., WPI, 1988. Satellite navigation systems, system simulation and Modeling, high performance computer systems.

Denise W. Nicoletti, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Drexel University, 1991. Ultrasonic nondestructive evaluation, signal processing, scaling and fractal properties of signals.

John A. Orr, Professor and Department Head; Ph.D., University of Illinois, 1977. Image processing, digital signal processing, power quality, engineering education.

Christof Paar, Assistant Professor, Ph.D., Institute of Experimental Mathematics, Essen, Germany, 1994. Cryptography and data security, network and electronic banking security, VLSI arithmetic architectures, channel coding.

Kaveh Pahlavan, Professor; Ph.D., WPI, 1979. Wireless local-area networking, personal and mobile communication, communication over fading multipath channels, adaptive filtering, spectral estimation.

Edward A. Parrish, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and President, WPI, Sc.D., University of Virginia, 1968. Computer engineering, pattern recognition and image processing, engineering education.

Peder C. Pedersen, Professor; Ph.D., University of Utah, 1976. Ultrasound measurement techniques, Doppler flow measurements, inverse methods in ultrasonics, biomedical engineering.

Berk Sunar, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Oregon State University, 1998. Cryptography, network security, high performance computing, with particular expertise in algorithms and hardware implementations for fast and efficient enCryption/ deCryption on commercial microprocessors.

Richard F. Vaz, Associate Professor; Ph.D., WPI, 1987. Machine vision, signal analysis, communications, global engineering education (50% time in the Projects Center).

Nathaniel Whitmal, III, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Northwester University, 1997. Communications, audio and acoustics, digital signal processing, particularly as applied to audio signals, including time-frequency and wavelet analysis

Professor of Practice

Robert Labonte, Professor of Practice Electrical Engineering; M.S., WPI 1959. Aerospace Electronics, undergraduate ECE education, student project work.

Leonard Polizzotto, Professor of Practice, Electrical Engineering and Director, Center for Globalization of Technology; Ph.D, Tufts University, 1982. Engineering design, electronic imaging, sensory and image related topics.

Other Full-time Faculty

Stephen J. Bitar, Adjunct Instructor; M.S., WPI, 1995. Analog electronics, especially microelectronics.

Affiliate Faculty

Michael Gennert, Affiliate Associate Professor, ECE (Associate Professor, Computer Science); Ph.D., MIT, 1987. Image processing and machine vision (100% time in the Computer Science Department).

Yusuf Leblebici, Affiliate Associate Professor; Ph.D. University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Digital and Analog IC design, VLSI design, computer engineering.

Robert A. Peura, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Biomedical Engineering; Ph.D., Iowa State, 1969. Biomedical instrumentation, noninvasive biosensors, optical bioinstrumentation, blood pressure, blood glucose and blood gas monitoring (100% time in the Biomedical Engineering Department).

Lam Ramdas Ram-Mohan, Professor of Physics and Electrical and Computer Engineering; Ph.D., Purdue University, 1971. Quantum field theory, nonlinear optical properties of semiconductors, electrodynamics of metals (100% time in the Physics Department).

John M. Sullivan, Affiliate Associate Professor of EE (Associate Professor of ME); D.Eng., Dartmouth, 1986, Non-destructive evaluation, finite element methods (100% time in the Mechanical Engineering Department).

Emeritus Faculty

Wilhelm H. Eggimann, Professor emeritus; Ph.D., Case Institute of Technology, 1961. Computer engineering, VLSI, electromagnetic fields.

William R. Grogan, Professor emeritus, MS, WPI, 1949. Innovations in undergraduate education, particularly engineering education.

H. Peter D. Lanyon, Professor emeritus; Ph.D., Leicester (England), 1961. Solid-state electronics, integrated circuits, effects of heavy doping and large electric fields on integrated circuit device Models.

Part-time Faculty:

Adam Elbirt, Computer engineering (undergaduate)
Richard Campbell, Audio and acoustics (undergraduate)
Rulph Chassaing, Digital signal processing (graduate)
Peter Cukor, Telecommunications policy (graduate)
Thomas Gannon, Computer networks (graduate)
Jonathan Hill, Computer engineering (undergraduate)
Allen Levesque, Systems engineering (graduate)
Leslie Novak, Systems engineering (graduate)
Thomas Schonoff, Communications (graduate)
Richard Stanley, Computer security (graduate)
Robert Swarz, Computer engineering (graduate)
Marc Thompson, Analog microelectronics (graduate)

ECE Staff

Following are the permanent staff of the ECE Department:

ECE Department Office:

Catherine L. Emmerton, Administrative Assistant
Louise P. Campbell, Administrative Secretary IV
Carol Contis, Administrative Secretary IV

Technical Support (Electronics Shop):

James O'Rourke, Senior Electrical Engineer
Gary Adamowicz, Principal Electronics Technician (effective July 1, 2001, this position was eliminated and the new position of Laboratory Manager was created, occupied by Dean Daigneault)
Tom Angelotti, Senior Electronics Technician

Computer Operations:

David Holl, Computer Systems Administrator (replaced by Robert Brown for 2001-02)

WPI Faculty Committee Memberships

Following is a list of service by ECE faculty on WPI committees and task forces in 2000-01:

Committee on Advising and Student Life: Richard Vaz, H. Hakim
Committee on Appointments and Promotions: Kevin A. Clements
Tenure Appeals Committee: Alex Emanuel, Fred Looft (alternate)
Faculty Review Committee: Kevin Clements (alternate)
Presidential Appeals Board: John McNeill
Trustees' Teaching Award Committee: Alex Emanuel
Advanced Distance Learning Network Committee: John Orr
Projects Advisory Committee: Bill Michalson
Student Outcomes Assessment Steering Committee: John Orr
Program Director for Camp REACH: Denise Nicoletti
Director, Goddard Space Flight Center Project Center: Fred Looft
Director, Denmark Project Program: Peder Pedersen
Director, Center for the Globalization of Technology: Leonard Polizzotto
Co-Director, Venice Project Center: Richard Vaz
Directors, Ireland Project Center: John McNeill, Richard Vaz
Massachusetts Academy Advisory Board: Nathaniel Whitmal
Community Building Task Force: Hossein Hakim

There are numerous other examples of service to WPI by ECE faculty and staff, such as, New Student Orientation (Jim Demetry, Richard Vaz), Fraternity Advisor (Len Polizzotto to Alpha Tau Omega, Richard Vaz to Tau Kappa Epsilon) EIT Exam review course instructor (Alex Emanuel), advisor to WPI student organizations (John McNeill to WWPI, the campus radio station, Denise Nicoletti to the WPI Dance Club, Richard Vaz to Tau Beta Pi). Jim O'Rourke organized ECE's participation in the Salisbury Street Sampler program. Within the ECE department, Hossein Hakim is advisor to the IEEE student branch and Denise Nicoletti is advisor to Eta Kappa Nu, the ECE honor society.

ECE Advisory Board Membership

Following is the membership during the 2000-01 academic year:

Dr. Allen Levesque, '59 (Chair) Principal, GPL Communications, Inc.
Thomas I. Burns, '74 Director of Technology, John C. Nordt Company, Inc.
Dr. Wayne Fabricius, '68 Vice President, Mobility Customer Solutions, Lucent Technologies
Dr. Thomas Fitzpatrick, '68 (ME), Vice President, Mission Success/Product Assurance, BAE Systems
Dr. H. Richard Freeman, '61, Principal Engineer, Aerospace Corporation, Integrated Program Office
Jeffrey W. Gwynne, '84, Vice President, Marketing, Quantum Bridge Communications
Dr. Mohsen Kavehrad, '75 (MSEE), Director, Center for Information and Communications Technology Research, Pennsylvania State University
Dr. Sherra E. Kerns, Vice President, Innovation and Research, Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering
Paul A. Lacouture, '72, President, Wholesale Network Services, Verizon
Steven W. Miles, Vice President, New Product Development, Allegro Microsystems, Inc.
Nigel Watkins, 169 WitChes Spring Road, Hollis, NH
Dr. Arthur W. Winston, Senior Associate, Director, The Gordon Institute of Tufts University
In addition, Ms. Maureen Crozier, Vice President Engineering, Network Access Division, Nortel Networks, has just joined the committee.

Faculty Publications

Journal Papers

The following refereed journal papers were authored or co-authored by ECE faculty in the 2000-01 academic year. Papers that have been accepted and scheduled for publication are also listed as well as any papers omitted from 1999-00 report.

Blum, T. and C. Paar, "High Radix Montgomery Modular Expontentiation on Reconfigurable Hardware," to appear in IEEE Transactions on Computers.
Brown, D.R., M. Motani, V.V. Veeravalli, H.V. Poor, and C.R. Johnson, Jr., "On the Performance of Linear Parallel Interference Cancellation," accepted for IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, July 2001.
Cakareski, Z. and P.C. Pedersen, "Statistics of the Integrated Backscatter Estimate from Moving Blood," accepted for publication in IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control, March 2001.
Clancy, E.A. and K.A. Farry, "Adaptive Whitening of the Electromyogram to Improve Amplitude Estimation," IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, Vol. 47, No. 6, pp. 709-719, 2000.
Clancy, E.A., S. Bouchard and D. Rancourt, "Estimation and Application of Electromyogram (EMG) Amplitude During Dynamic Contractions," IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Magazine, in press.
Clements, K.A., A.S. Costa and E. Laurenco, "Power System Topological Observability Analysis Including Switching BranChes," accepted for publication in IEEE Transactions on Power Systems.
Clements, K.A., I. Nejdawi and P. Davis, "An Efficient Interior Point Methods for Sequential Quadratic Programming Based Optimal Power Flow," IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, pp. 1179-1183, November 2000.
Elbirt, A. and C. Paar, "An FPGA-based Performance Evaluation of the AES Block Cipher Candidate Algorithm Finalists," to appear in IEEE Transactions on VLSI Design.
Ludwig, R. and P. Bretchko, "Open-Loop Pulsed Hysteresis Graph System for the Magnetization of Rare-Earth Magnets," IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, Vol. 36, No. 4, pp. 2015-2021, 2000.
Makarov, R. Ludwig, and D. Apelian, "Identification of Depth and Size of Subsurface Defects by a Multiple-Voltage Probe Sensor: Analytical and Neural Network Techniques," Journal of Nondestructive Evaluation, Vol. 19, No. 2, pp. 67-80, 2000.
Makarov, S. R. Ludwig and D. Apelian, "Electromagnetic Separation Techniques in Metal Casting. I. Conventional Methods," IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, Vol. 36, No. 4, pp. 2015-2021, 2000.
Makarov, S., R. Ludwig and D. Apelian, "Electromagnetic Separation Techniques in Metal Casting, II. Separation with Super Conducting Coils," IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, Vol. 37, No. 2, pp. 1024-1031, 2001.
McGorry, R.W., S.M. Hsiang, F.A. Fathallah and E.A. Clancy, "Timing of Activation of the Erector Spinae and Hamstrings During a Trunk Flexion and Extension Task," Spine, Vol. 26, No. 4, pp. 418-425, 2001.
Orr, J.A. and A.E. Emanuel, "On the Need for Strict Second Harmonic Limits," IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery, Vol. 15, No. 3, pp. 967-71, July 2000.
Pahlavan, K., P. Krishnamurthy, A. Hatami, M. Ylianttila, J. Makela, R. Pichna and J. Vallstrom, "Handoff in Hybrid Mobile Data Networks," (invited paper) IEEE Personal Communications Magazine, Vol. 7, No. 2, pp. 34-47, April 2000.
Pedersen, P.C. and A. Grebe, "Application of Time Delay Spectrometry for Rough Surface Characterization," Ultrasonics, Vol. 39, pp. 101-108, March 2002.
Sunar, B. and C.K. Koc, "An Efficient Optimal Normal Basis Type II Multiplier," IEEE Transactions on Computers," (50)1, pp. 83-87, January 2001
Tingley, R. and K. Pahlavan, "Measurement of the Time-Space Characteristics of Indoor Radio Channel," IEEE Transaction on Instrumentation and Measurements, September 2000.
Wilhjelm, J.E., P.C. Pedersen and S.M. Jacobsen, "The Influence of Roughness, Angle, Range and Transducer Type on the Echo Signal from Planar Interfaces," IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control, pp. 511-521, March 2001.

Books and Book Chapters

The following books and book chapters by ECE faculty were published or accepted in 2000-01.

Bromberg, M. and D.R. Brown, "The Use of Programmable DSPs in Antenna Array Processing," to appear in The Application of Programmable DSPs in Mobile Communications, John Wiley, 2001.
Ludwig, R. and P. Bretchko, Solution Manual for RF Circuit Design: Theory and Practice, Prentice Hall, 2000.
Cyganski, D., J.A. Orr, with R. Vaz, Information Technology - Inside and Out, Prentice-Hall, October 2000.
Sullivan, J. R. Ludwig and D. Repin, "Permafrost and Stratigraphic Layer Identification Using a Hierarchical Neural Network for Interpretation of Ground Penetrating Radar," Chapter 9, pp. 107-119, in Contaminant Hydrology, S.A. Grant and I.K. Iskander, editors, Lewis Publications, 2000.

Patents

Agee, B. and M. Bromberg, "Method and Apparatus for Optimization of Wireless Multipoint Electromagnetic Communication Networks," U.S. patent pending, filed June 10, 2001.
Agee, B. and M. Bromberg, "Method and Apparatus for Locally Enabled Global Optimization of Multipoint Networks," provisional patent submitted October 20, 2000.
Agee, B and M. Bromberg, "Method and System for Wireless Multiple-Input, Multiple-Output (MIMO) Network Optimization," provisional patent submitted June 16, 2000.
Duckworth, R.J., "Low Power Infrared Communication System," U.S. Patent No. 6,091,530, Issued July 2000.
Ludwig, R., "Method and Apparatus for Performing Neuroimaging," filed with C. Ferris, August 25, 2000.
Ludwig, R., J. McNeill and J. Stander, "Multi-Probe Impedance Measurement System and Method for Detection of Flaws in Conductive Articles, "U.S. Patent Number 6,218,846, issued April 17, 2001.
Michalson, W.R., "Hand-Held GPS-Mapping Device, U.S. Patent Number 5,902,347, Issued 5/11/99. Covers claims associated with connectivity of a portable mapping device with external networks such as the Internet. Also covers the ability of such a device to provide a "situation awareness" type of display.
Michalson, W.R., "An N-Channel Auto-Calibrating Surround Sound System," provisional patent application pending. The specification describes a system capable of automatically compensating for frequency response errors in a multi-channel surround sound system.

Published Conference Papers

The following conference papers were presented and/or published during the 2000-01 academic year:

Boudreau, J., N.J. Kociuk, D. Li, B. Raissouni, A. Elashi, Z. Bouya, T. El-Korchi, and R. Vaz, "An Energy Use Assessment of Ifrane City, Morocco," Proceedings of GlobeEx 2000, Las Vegas, NV, July 2000.
Bromberg, M. and B. Agee, "The LEGO Approach for Achieving Max-Min Capacity in Reciprocal Multipoint Networks," Asilomar Conference on Signals, Systems, and Computers, November 2000.
Cakareski, Z. and A.E. Emanuel, "Poynting Vector and the Quality of Electric Energy," Proceedings of the 5th International Workshop on Power Definitions and Measurements under Nonsinusoidal Conditions, Milano, Italy, pp. 27-33, October 2000.
Clements, K.A., A. Simoes Costa, and A. Agudelo, "Baysien Estimation Applied to the Identification of Undisclosed Bilateral Transactions," accepted for presentation at the PMAPS Conference, Madeira Islands, Portugal, September 2000.
Cyganski, D. and B. Page, "Quaternions, Torsion and the Physical Vacuum: Theories of M. Sachs and G. Shipov Compared," Vigier III Conference, University of California, Berkeley, August 21-25, 2000.
DEMPSey, P.G., V.M. Ciriello, E.A. Clancy, R. McGorry, G.S. Pransky and B.S. Webster, "Quantitative Assessment of Upper Extremity Capacity and Exposure," Proceedings of IEA/HFES2000, San Diego, CA, pp. 724-727, July 30-August 4, 2000.
DiBiasio, D., N. A. Mello and R.F. Vaz, "Chemical Engineers Solving Global Problems," Proceedings of AICHE Annual Meeting 2000, Los Angeles, CA, November 2000.
Emanuel, A.E., "Practical Aspect of Active and Generating Powers in Nonsinusoidal Situations: Some Questions," Proceedings of the 5th International Workshop on Power Definitions and Measurements under Nonsinusoidal Conditions, Milano, Italy, pp. 1-54, October 2000.
Emanuel, A.E., "Harmonics in the Early Years of Electrical Engineering: A Brief Review of Events, People and Documents," Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Harmonics and Quality of Power, Orlando, FL, pp. 1-7, October 2000.
Emanuel, A.E. and J.A. Orr, "An Improved Method of Simulation of Arc Voltage-Current Characteristics," Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Harmonics and Quality of Power, Orlando, FL, pp. 148-154, October 2000.
Feigin, J., K. Pahlavan, and M. Ylianttila, "Hardware-Fitted Modeling and Simulation of QoS of VoIP over a Wireless LAN," IEEE, VTC '2000, Boston, MA, September 2000.
Guajardo, J., R. Bluemel, U. Krieger, C. Paar, "Efficient Implementation of Elliptic Curve Cryptosystems on the TI MSP430x33x Family of Microcontrollers," International Workshop on Practice and Theory in Public Key Cryptography (PKC 2001), Cheju Island, Korea, February 13-15, 2001.
Hatirnaz, I. and Y. Leblebici, "Scalable Binary Sorting Architecture Based on Rank Ordering," International Symposium on Intelligent Signal Processing and Communication Systems - 2000, Hawaii, November 2000.
Hatirnaz, I. and Y. Leblebici, "Scalable Binary Sorting Architecture Based on Rank Ordering with Linear Time Complexity," ASIC - 2000 Symposium, Washington, D.C., September 2000.
Hill, J.M. and W. R. Michalson, "Real Time Verification of Bit-Cell Alignment for C/A Code Only Receivers," Institute of Navigation Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM, June 2001.
Hill, J.M. and W.R. Michalson, "Design of a Stable Discrete Time Costas Loop," Institute of Navigation National Technical Meeting, Nashville, TN, January 2001.
Hill, J.M. and W.R. Michalson, "Techniques for Reducing the Near-Far Problem in Indoor Geolocation Systems," Institute of Navigation National Technical Meeting, Nashville, TN, January 2001.
Kulkarni, P., J.M. Sullivan and R. Ludwig, "A Neural-Network, Ground-Penetrating Radar System Used for COld Regions Subsurface Stratigraphy Identification," Proceedings of International Conference on Modeling and Simulation, Ed., M.A. Hamza, IASTED/ACTA Press, pp. 7-12, 2001.
Li, X, K. Pahlavan, M. Latva-aho, and M. Ylianttila, "Indoor Geolocation Using OFDM Signals in HIPERLAN/2 Wireless LANs," IEEE PIMRC '2000, London, September 2000.
Li, X, K. Pahlavan, M. Latva-aho, and M. Ylianttila, "Comparison of Indoor Geolocation Methods in DSSS and OFDM Wireless LAN Systems," IEEE VTC '2000, Boston, MA, September 2000.
Ludwig, R., S. Makarov, J.M. Sullivan, "Electro-Thermographic Detection of Cracks in Green-State Powder Metallurgy Compacts," in Review in Progress in Quantitative Nondestructive Evaluation, Vol. 20B, pp. 1549-1554, Ames, IA, July 28, 2000.
Ludwig, R., G. Leuenberger, S. Makarov, and D. Apelian, "System Development for the Nondestructive Assessment of Density in Green-State Powder Metallurgy Compacts," in Review of Progress in Quantitative Nondestructive Evaluation, Vol. 20B, pp. 1914-1919, Ames, IA, July 28, 2000.
Makarov, S., R. Ludwig, and D. Apelian, "A Combined Lorentz-Force and Optical Detection Method for Inclusion Detection in Molten Metal," in Review of Progress in Quantitative Nondestructive Evaluation, Vol. 20B, pp. 1570-1575, Ames, IA, July 28, 2000.
Makarov, S., R. Ludwig and M. Ochmann, "An Iterative Solver of MFIE Using the Method of Normal Equation," National Radio Science Meeting Abstracts, Boulder, CO, p. 63, January 2001.
Makarov, S., R. Ludwig, and D. Apelian, "Identification of Depth and Size of Subsurface Defects by a Multiple-Voltage Probe Sensor: Analytical and Neural Network Techniques," AIP Conference Proceedings, Issue 509a, pp. 675-682, 2000.
Makarov, S. and R. Vedantham, "GMRES Iterative Solution of MFIE for Simple Scattering Geometries," l7th Annual Review of Progress in Applied Computational Electromagnetics (ACES), Monterey, CA, pp. 238-245, 2001.
Makarov, S. and A.E. Emanuel, "Corrected Harmonic Loss Factor for Transformers Supplying Nonsinusoidal Load Current," Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Harmonics and Quality of Power, Orlando, FL, Vol. 1, pp. 87-90, October 2000.
Makela, J., M. Ylianttla and K. Pahlavan, "Handoff Decision Policies in Multi-Service Networks," IEEE PIMRC '2000, London, September 2000.
McNeill, J., "A Simple Method for Relating Time and Frequency DoMain Measures of Oscillator Performance," Invited paper to IEEE SSMSD2001, Austin, TX, February 2001.
Michalson, W.R., J.A. Orr and D. Cyganski, "A System for Tracking and Locating Emergency Personnel Inside Buildings," Institute of Navigation GPS 2000, Salt Lake City, UT, September 2000.
Michalson, W.R. and I. Progri, "Assessing the Accuracy of Underground Positioning Using Pseudolites," Institute of Navigation GPS 2000, Salt Lake City, UT, September 2000.
Motani, M. and D.R. Brown, "On the Convergence of Linear Parallel Interference Cancellation," Proceedings of the International Symposium on Information Theory (ISIT) 2001, Washington, D.C., June 24-29, 2001.
Orlando, G. and C. Paar, "A High-Performance Reconfigurable Elliptic Curve Processor for GF(2m) Cryptographic Hardware and Embedded Systems," CHES Workshop 2000, Worcester, MA, August 17-18, 2000.
Orr, J.A. and D. Cyganski, "Fire Fighter Location Tracking and Status Monitoring Performance Requirements," Fire and Emergency Services Technologies Innovation Conference, Natick SOldier Center, Natick MA, March 28-30, 2001.
Orr, J.A., "The ECE Major: Why Is It So Rare?" accepted for Frontiers in Education Conference 2001, Reno, NV, June 24-27, 2001.
Orr, J.A. (three articles), "Information Technology or Information Engineering?" "Electrical and/or Computer Engineering?" and "Where Do Courses and Grades Fit in the Assessment Picture?" published in the IEEE Education Society Newsletter, The Interface, editions of August and December 2000 and April 2001.
Orr, J.A. and R.F. Vaz, "ECE Department Preparations for a Second ABET EC2000 Accreditation Visit," Proceedings of FIE 2000, Kansas City, MO, October 2000.
Pedersen, P.C. and Y. Sun, "Sample ImPulse Response, Angular Correlation and BUA as Measures of Density and Growth Axis in Coral Samples," 2000 IEEE Ultrasonics Symposium Proceedings, San Juan, Puerto Rico, October 2000.
Pedersen, P.C., C. Hart, and T. Nguyen, "Ultrasound Measurement of Surface Roughness Applied to Grinding Wheels," Grinding Technology Forum, Higgins Grinding Technology Center, October 25-27, 2000.
Pedersen, P.C. and Y. Sun, "Broadband Ultrasound Attenuation for Bone Mass Density Evaluation -Effect of Anisotropy and Microarchitecture," abstract accepted to ASME 2001 Summer Bioengineering Conference, Snowbird, Utah, June 2001.
Policarpo, Jose and A.E. Emanuel, "Induction Motor Loss of Life Due to Voltage Imbalance and Harmonics," Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Harmonics and Quality of Power, Orlando, FL, pp. 75-80, October 2000.
Policarpo, Jose and A.E. Emanuel, "The Need to Limit Subharmonics Injection," Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Harmonics and Quality of Power, Orlando, FL, pp. 251-253, October 2000.
Policarpo, J. and A.E. Emanuel, "Induction Motor Thermal Aging Caused by Voltage Distortion and Imbalance: Loss of Useful Life and Its Estimated Cost," Proceedings of 2001 IEEE Industrial and Commercial Power Systems Technical Conference, New Orleans, LA, pp. 105-114, May 2001.
Progri, I. and W.R. Michalson, "Adaptive Spatial and Temporal Selective Attenuator in the Presence of Mutual Coupling and Channel Errors System for Tracking and Locating Emergency Personnel Inside Buildings," Institute of Navigation GPS 2000, Salt Lake City, UT, September 2000.
Progri, I., J.M. Hill and W. R. Michalson, "Proposed Pseudolite Signal Specification for Indoor Applications," Institute of Navigation Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM, June 2001.
Progri, I., J.M. Hill and W. R. Michalson, "The Impact of the Carrier Frequency, the Transmitted Data Rate, and the Receiver's Sampling Rate on the Navigation Accuracy," Institute of Navigation Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM, June 2001.
Progri, I., and W.R. Michalson, "An Innovative Navigation Algorithm Using a System of Fixed Pseudolites," Institute of Navigation National Technical Meeting, Nashville, TN, January 2001.
Progri, I., J.M. Hill and W.R. Michalson, "Assessing the Accuracy of Navigation Algorithms Using a Combined System of GPS Satellites and Pseudolites," Institute of Navigation National Technical Meeting, Nashville, TN, January 2001.
Rempel, D.M., B. Martin, C.A. Sommerich, E.A. Clancy, R. Wells and R. Kadefors, "Estimating Forearm and Neck Muscle Load Using Surface EMG Amplitude: Methodologic Issues," Proceedings of IEA/HFES2000, San Diego, CA, pp. 525-528, July 30-August 4, 2000.
Weimerskirch, A., C. Paar and S. C. Shantz, "Elliptic Curve Cryptography on a Palm OS Device," 6th Australasian Conference on Information Security and Privacy (ACISP 2001), Sydney, Australia, July 11-13, 2001.
Woodbury, A., D. Bailey, and C. Paar, "Elliptic Curve Cryptography on Smart Cards Without Coprocessors," presented at the Fourth Smart Card Research and Advanced Applications (CARDIS 2000) Conference, Bristol, UK, September 20-22, 2000.

External Presentations

The following external Presentations were made by ECE faculty during the past year:

Brown, D.R., "Performance Analysis of Parallel Interference Cancellation," The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Communications Seminar, Urbana, IL, February 26, 2001.
Brown, D.R., "Performance Analysis of Parallel Interference Cancellation," Ohio State University EE Department Seminar, Columbus, OH, February 27, 2001.
Demetry, C., and D. Nicoletti, "Who Dunnit: Learning Chemistry and Critical Thinking Through Hands-On Forensic Science," a symposium for the New England Association of Chemistry Teachers (NEACT), WPI, Worcester, MA, June 2001.
Mello, N., D. Dibiasio, R.Vaz, and L. Schachterle, "Introduction and Overview of the WPI Global Perspective Program," International Conference on Project-Oriented Education, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, April 2001.
Nicoletti, D. and J.A. Orr, "An Implementable/Sustainable Outcomes Assessment Process for an Electrical Engineering Program," American Society for Engineering Education Conference 2001, Albuquerque, NM, June 24-27, 2001.
Orr, J.A., Invited Facilitator for ABET EC 2000 Preparation, ECE Department, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, March 9, 2001.
Orr, J.A., Invited keynote panelist, "Sustainability of ABET EC2000," Best Assessment Processes IV Symposium, Rose Hulman Institute of Technology, Terre Haute, IN, April 7-8, 2001.
Orr, J.A. (Session Organizer) with D. SOldan and panel member, "ABET EC2000, Advice from the Front Lines," National EE Department Heads Associate Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA, March 16-20, 2001.
Orr, J.A. (Session Organizer) with R. Webb, "Diversity Issues in Faculty Hiring, Retention, and Success," National EE Department Heads Association Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA, March 12-20, 2001.
Paar, C., "Reconfigurable Hardware in Modern Cryptography," invited presentation at the 4th Workshop on Elliptic Curve Cryptography (EEC 2000) Institute for Experimental Mathematics, Essen, Germany, October 4-6, 2000.
Paar, C., "Modern Cryptography and Adaptive Computing," NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, MD, October 12, 2000.
Paar, C. "Fast Arithmetic in Large Characteristics Extension Fields and Its Application to Public-Key Cryptosystems," invited talk, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, February 12, 2001.
Paar, C., "Abstract Algebra in Modern Cryptography," Invited talk, Mathematics Seminar, Holyoke Community College, Holyoke, MA, April 30, 2001.
Pahlavan, K., "Toward Broadband and Ad-Hoc Networks," Keynote speech for the Start of the TEKES' NETS Project, Helsinki, Finland, June 15, 2001.
Pahlavan, K., "Internet Access and Home Networking," BAS Panel, ICC'01, Helsinki, Finland, June 12, 2001.
Pahlavan, K., "What Is Next in Wireless," The WPI International Corporate Leaders Roundtable: The Impact of Evolving Technologies on the Future of Business, Barcelona, Spain, April 20, 2001.
Pahlavan, K., "Evolution of the Wireless LAN Industry - A Historical Perspective," VTT, Oulu, Finland, November 14, 2000.
Pahlavan, K., "Wireless LANS: From Office to Home," (2-day short course) 3COM, Marlboro, MA, November 2000.
Pedersen, P.C. "Sample ImPulse Response, Angular Correlation and BUA as Measures of Density and Growth Axis in Coral Samples," presented at 2000 IEEE Ultrasonics Symposium Proceedings, San Juan, Puerto Rico, October 2000.
Pedersen, P.C., "Ultasound Measurement of Surface Roughness Applied to Grinding Wheels," presented at Grinding Technology Forum, Higgins Grinding Technology Center, October 15-27, 2000.
Polizzotto, L., "Role of Corporate Partnerships in Today's Engineering Education," paper presented at ICEE 2000, Taiwan, August 2000.
Vaz, R.F., "ECE Department Preparations for a Second ABET EC2000 Accreditation Visit," Frontier In Education 2000, Kansas City, MO, October 2000.
Vaz, R.F., "Making Study Abroad Work for Engineers: What Are the Issues?" Moderator for Session at Third Annual Colloquium on International Engineering Education, Kingston, RI, November 2000.
Vaz, R.F., J.F. Zeugner, N. Arcolano, and B. Hart, "Connected Learning: Interdisciplinary Projects in International Settings," invited session at NEASC Annual Meeting, Boston, MA, December 2000.
Vaz, R.F., "An Overview of WPI," invited presentation to the National Panel for the AAC&U Greater Expectations Leadership Consortium, New Orleans, LA, January 2001.
Vaz, R.F. and N. Arcolano, "Teaching Signals and Systems through Portfolios, Writing and Independent Learning," ASEE 2001, Albuquerque, NM, June 2001.

External Grant Proposals

The following external proposals for Research or educational support were submitted by ECE faculty during academic year 2000-01. All proposals submitted through the Research office are listed here, as well as additional proposals submitted via other channels.

Submitted through Research Office

Bromberg, M.C., "Synchronization and Gain Control for Wireless OFDM Communication Using Smart Antennas," submitted to Radix Wireless, Inc., $19,578, August 2000.
Brown, D.R., "Position and Velocity Tracking of Mobile Users in Cellular Communication Systems," submitted to NSF/USDOT, $99,937, June 2001.
Clements, K.A., P. Davis (co-PI), "Stochastic OPF and Transaction Monitoring in Deregulated Power Markets," submitted to NSF, $324,252, October 2000.
Cyganski, D., "Probing, Characterization and Tuning of TCP/IP Stacks for SANs," submitted to Pirus Networks, $64,619, May 2001.
Cyganski, D., "High Demand Network Interface to Military Satellite Services," submitted to Raytheon SATCOM Systems, $54,913, May 2001.
Datta, D., Clements, K.A., D. DiBiasio, Y. Ma, S. Shivkumar (co-PIs), "A New Model for Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) Program in Fuel Cells," submitted to NSF, $2,698,036, January 2001.
Hermanson, J. and Pedersen, P.C. (co-PI), "Stability and Heat Transfer Characteristics of Condensation Fluid Layers in Reduced Gravity," submitted to NASA, $43,086, April 2000; (continue) $79,445, February 2001.
Hermanson, J., Pedersen, P.C. (co-PI), "Dynamics and Heat Transfer of Evaporating Films in Reduced Gravity," submitted to NASA, $439,419, May 2001.
Looft, F.J., "Student Projects at the Goddard Space Flight Center," submitted to NASA, $20,000, March 2001.
Ludwig, R., "Gradient Coil Design for fMRI," submitted to UMass., $200,000, March 2001.
Ludwig, R., "Feasibility Study to Develop a Novel Surface Gradient Technology for High Field MRI," submitted to University of Massachusetts/Worcester, $29,034, April 2000.
Ludwig, R., "Noninvasive Devices for FMRI Studies in Cocaine Abuse," submitted to UMass, $55,055, March 2001.
Ludwig, R. and S. Makarov, "Development of a Shallow Water Electric Field Sensor Array," submitted to Office of Naval Research, San Diego, CA, $92,000, June 13, 2000.
Ludwig, R., "Ultrawideband DC-coupled RF Amplifier," submitted to Teradyne, Boston, MA, $35,587, March 18, 2000
Makarov, S. and R. Ludwig, "Electro-Thermographic Testing of Painted Light Metal Sheets and Engine Components," submitted to Federal Aviation Administration, $79,917, December 2000.
Makarov, S., "Analysis and Design of Volume Photonic Metal Grid Antenna Elements," submitted to NSF, $155,860, August 2000.
Makarov, S., "Extension of Finite Element Acoustic Calculations to Medium Frequency Range," submitted to SFE, Berlin, $10,000, July 2000.
McNeill, J.A., "High Speed Digital Output Camera-On-A-Chip," submitted to EG&G Reticon, $62,816, July 1997; (supplement) $5,000, January 2000; (continued) $5,800, July 2000.
McNeill, J.A., "CMOS Linear Image Sensor," submitted to Perkin Elmer Optoelectronics, $6,500, December 2000.
McNeill, J.A., "Research for Mixed Signal Electronic Technologies," submitted to NSF, $289,137, March 2001.
McNeill, J.A., "Low Jitter Phase-Locked Loop Techniques for Deep Submicroelectronic Digital CMOS," submitted to Semiconductor Research Corp., $256,561, April 2001.
Paar, C., "Efficient Public-Key Algorithms for Embedded Systems," submitted to NSF, $403,500, September 2000.
Pahlavan, K, S. Makarov and J. Beneat (co-PIs), "Small-Scale Ultra Wideband Antennas Design and Measurements," submitted to University of Oulu, Finland, $141,623, March 2001.
Pahlavan, K., S. Makarov and J. Beneat (co-PIs), "Preliminary Study of Small Scale Ultra Wideband Antennas," submitted to University of Oulu, Finland, $15,000, December 2000.
Pahlavan, K., "Co-Existence Methods for Bluetooth and IEEE 802.11B," submitted to Fidelity Investments Corp., $110,411, January 2001.
Pahlavan, K., S. Makarov, J. Beneat (co-PIs) "Small Scale Ultra Wideband Antennas Design and Measurement," submitted to University of Oulu, Finland, $141,623, March 2001.
Pedersen, P, R. Ludwig and S. Makarov, "Development of Optimized, Adaptive Ultrasound-based Sensing System," submitted to NSF, $436,338, September 2000.
Pedersen, P.C. and B. Sunar (co-PI), "Integration of Terason 2000 into a Telemedicine System under Field Conditions," submitted pre-proposal to USAMRMC, Fort Detrich, $466,000, December 2000.
Sunar, B., C. Paar and Martin, W.J. (co-PIs), "ITR/SI: Implementing Public-Key Cryptosystems for Secure Information Infrastructure," submitted to NSF, $479,027, January 2001.

Submitted Internally and through University Relations

Ferris, C., J. King, R. Ludwig, S. Makarov, and J. Sullivan, "Acquisition of 9.4T Micro-Imaging Spectrometer," submitted by UMASS Med. Center with WPI to NSF, $554,691, February 9, 2001.
Ludwig, R., "Development of a Novel Inclusion Sensor for Molten Aluminum," submitted through Metal Processing Institute to Heraeus Electro- Nite International NV, Philadelphia, PA, $56,000, December 2000.
Ludwig, R., "Density Prediction in Green-State Powder Metallurgy Parts," submitted through Metal Processing Institute to Powder Metallurgy Research Center, $64,000, December 2000.
Makarov, S., "Electro-thermographic Material Testing," submitted to Research Development Council, WPI, $8,000, July 2001.
McNeill, J.A., "Establishing and Funding for the New England Center for Analog and Mixed Signal IC Design (NECAMSID), " $30,000 each from Analog Devices, Unitrode, Allegro, EG&G Reticon, Teradyne, August 2000.
Nicoletti, D., "Fundraising for Camp REACH: An Engineering Summer Camp for Middle School Girls and Teachers," proposal requests submitted to the following: Bose Corporation (open), TRW (open), AQUAL (open), General Motors ($4,000), TJX ($5,000), Fleet Charitable Foundation ($20,000), Intellution ($5,000), Quantum ($5,000), Paine Webber ($1,000), Mercury Computer ($2,000), EIF ($10,000), Nellie Mae ($20,000), Fidelity ($5,000), Intel ($10,000) and Technical Expositions and conference (TEC) ($3,000), 2001.
Paar, C., "General Dynamics Trusted Network Systems Center," submitted to General Dynamics, $40,000, July 2000.
Vaz, R., D. DiBiasio, N. Mello and C. Demetry, "The Impact of Study Abroad Experiences on Engineering, Science, and Mathematics Students," submitted to EDC 2000-2001 Grants Program, $15,000, 2000-2001.

External Grants Received

The following new grants, or additional awards on previous grants, were received by ECE faculty in academic year 2000-01. Awards received through the Research office as well as via other channels are included.

Received through Research Office

Bromberg, M.C., "Synchronization and Gain Control for Wireless OFDM Communication Using Smart Antennas," Radix Wireless Inc., $19,578, September 2000.
Clements, K.A., and P. Davis (co-PI), "Stochastic OPF and Transaction Monitoring in Deregulated Power Markets," NSF, $92,618, June 2001.
Hermanson, J. and Pedersen, P.C. (co-PI), "Stability and Heat Transfer Characteristics of Condensation Fluid Layers in Reduced Gravity," NASA, $43,086, April 2000; (continue) $79,445, February 2001.
Looft, F.J., "Student Projects at the Goddard Space Flight Center," NASA, $20,000, April 2001.
Looft, F.J., "Mechanosensitivity of Tactile Receptors," NSF, $65,024 (cont), August 2000.
Ludwig, R., "Feasibility Study to Develop RF Coils for High-Field MRI," University of Massachusetts/Worcester, $16,613, April 1999; (renewed) $27,693, November 1999, (renewed) $29,034, August 2000.
Makarov, S., "Extension of Finite Element Acoustic Calculations to Medium Frequency Range," SFE, Berlin, $10,000, July 2000.
Markarov, S., "Analysis and Design of Volume Photonic Metal Grid Antenna Elements," NSF, $140,000, May 2001.
McNeill, J.A., "CMOS Linear Image Sensor," Perkin Elmer Optoelectronics, $6,500, February 2001.
Pahlavan, K., S. Makarov and J. Beneat (co-PIs), "Preliminary Study of Small Scale Ultra Wideband Antennas," University of Oulu, Finland, $15,000, January 2001.
Pahlavan, K., "Indoor Geolocation Science for 4G Wireless Networks," NSF, $269,999, September 2000.
Sunar, B., C. Paar and Martin, W.J. (co-PIs), "ITR/SI: Implementing Public-Key Cryptosystems for Secure Information Infrastructure," NSF, $479,027, July 2001.

Received Internally and through University Relations

Makarov, S., "Electro-thermographic Material Testing," Research Development Council, WPI, $8,000, September 2000.
McNeill, J.A., "Establishing and Funding for the New England Center for Analog and Mixed Signal IC Design (NECAMSID)," $30,000 each from Analog Devices, Unitrode, Allegro, EG&G Reticon, Teradyne, August 2001.
Nicoletti, D., "Fundraising for Camp REACH: An Engineering Summer Camp for Middle School Girls and Teachers," funds received from the following: Intellution ($5,000), Mass Academy ($10,000), EIF ($10,000), TJX ($5,000), Quantum ($5,000), Mercury Computer ($2,000), PainWebber ($250), General Motors ($6,500), Intel ($10,000), Fidelity ($5,000), Technical Expositions and Conferences (TEC) ($3,000), AQUAL ($2,000), 2001.
Paar, C., "General Dynamics Trusted Network Systems Center," General Dynamics, $40,000, 2000.
Vaz, R., D. DiBiasio, N. Mello and C. Demetry, "The Impact of Study Abroad Experiences on Engineering, Science, and Mathematics Students," EDC 2000-2001 Grants Program, $15,000, 2000-2001.

Corporate Support

The following corporations not listed in the Grants section provided support for the undergraduate and graduate educational activities of the department:

USENIX, PhD Fellowship for Research in security in embedded systems. Christof Paar, $31,000, 2000-01.
Sun Microsystems, Research in "Security on PDAs," Christof Paar, $30,000, 2000-01.
Allegro, Analog Devices, EG&G Reticon, Teradyne, Unitrode: Three Graduate Fellowships in Mixed Signal IC Design, $150,000, John McNeill, 2000-01.
GE Industrial Systems, MQP Support: "Low Cost Current Meter," $7,000, D.R. Brown, October 2000.
Sycamore Networks, Chelmsford, MA, MQP Support: "Guidelines for High-Speed PCB Performance," $5,000, Richard Vaz, October 2000.
Analog Devices, Limerick, Ireland, MQP Support: "Characterization of DSP Application Performance of the AD7725 ADC," $6,000, Richard Vaz, October 2000.
Teradyne, Inc., North Andover, MA, MQP support: $5,000, Richard Vaz, 2000.
DSP Development Corporation, DADiSP Digital Signal Processing software, $174,000, Hossein Hakim, January, 2001

PhD Theses Completed

The following PhD Theses were completed in academic year 2000-2001:

James Kilian, "Automatic Target Recognition with ThreshOld-Stable Distributions and Copulae," David Cyganski, Advisor.
Pavel Bretchko, "Design of an Ultrawideband DC Coupled Amplifier," ReinhOld Ludwig, Advisor.
Renato Baumgartner, "Capacitive Circuit Architectures for Realization of Compact Ripple-Flash Analog-Digital Converters," Yusuf Leblebici, Advisor.

Master of Science Theses Completed

The following MS Theses were completed during 2000-01:

Wesley Blackstone, "Custom Analog ASIC for High Speed Imaging," John McNeill, Advisor.
Carleton Jillson, "Complex Orientation-Invariant Filtering," David Cyganski, Advisor.
Li Wan, "Modeling and Optimal Design of Annular Array Based Ultrasound Pulse-Echo System," Peder Pedersen, Advisor.
Sam Bradshaw, "Characterization of the Mechanosensitivity of Tactile Receptors Using Multivariate Logistical Regression," Fred Looft, Advisor.
Pavan Kumar Hanumolu, "Design of Low Noise, Low Power Linear CMOS Image Sensors," John McNeill, Advisor.
Thomas Wollinger, "Computer Architectures for Cryptosystems Based on Hyperelliptic Curves," Christof Paar, Advisor.
Scott Harrison Payne, "Discrete Frequency Implementation of OFDM for Cellular Networks," David Cyganski, Advisor.
Andre Weimerskirch (CS Student), "Application of the Mordell-Weil Group to Cryptographic Systems," Christof Paar, Advisor.

ECE Department Publications

Following is a list of formal and informal Publications available through the ECE Department Office. Those indicated (web) are available only via the ECE web site.

Beginning the Second Century, 24 page color brochure describing the department faculty, Research, and graduate activities
BS/MS Brochure, 4 page flier describing the 5 Year BS/MS Degree
Computer and Communications Networks, brochure describing the CCN graduate program
Transmissions, Annual publication for alumni and other friends of the ECE Department
ECE Graduate Student Handbook, Detailed information and instructions for all graduate students, part-time and full-time (web)
ECE Undergraduate Student Handbook, Guide to the ECE Department faculty, services, staff and facilities (web)
Self-Guided Tour of Atwater Kent, Identifies and describes department laboratories and other features; intended primarily for prospective students
An Electric Century, Celebrating 100 Years of Electrical Engineering at WPI, 20 page brochure commemorating the EE Centennial
ECE Annual Report for 2000-01 (this publication) and previous Annual Reports

ECE Placement Data

The following corporations were reported as hiring ECE graduates in the 2000-01 recruiting period. The number of graduates hired (if more than 1) is indicated in parenTheses.

BS level:

Agilent Technologies
Allegro Microsystems, Inc.
American Power Conversion
Analog Devices (6)
Artel Video Services
Avid Technology
Avid Technology
Aware Inc. (2)
BAE Systems - IEWS (2)
Cereva Networks, Inc.
Cisco Systems
Compaq Computer (3)
EMC Corp. (2)
General Dynamics Communications Systems
General Electric (2)
Global Crossing Telecommunications Corp.
Intel (5)
Intel Corporation - MA
IPG Photonics Corp.
LSI Logic Corp.
Lucent Technologies Inc. (2)
Maxtor (formerly Quantum) (3)
Mercury Computer Systems
Mindspeed Technologies
NASA - Goddard Space Flight Center
Naval Undersea Warfare Center (2)
Net Plane Systems
Oztek
Pirus Networks
Quantum Bridge Communications (2)
Raytheon Systems Company
StarGen, Inc.
Sun Microsystems
Teradyne, Inc. (5)
University of Southern California
W.B. Engineering

Masters & Ph.D. Level:

Analog Devices (2)
Conexant Systems
MITRE Corporation
Nortel Networks

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Last modified: Sep 22, 2006, 20:35 EDT

Annual Report 2000-2001

Electrical and Computer Engineering Department

Annual Report

for the period

July 1, 2000 - June 30, 2001

Contents

Major Accomplishments

Review of Goals

Looking Ahead

Goal 1, Leadership in Undergraduate ECE Education

Strategies:

Goal 2, Improvements in the Graduate and Research Program

Strategies:

Goal 3, Explicitly Address the Future of ECE

Strategies:

Summary of Undergraduate Program Status

Curriculum Innovations

Projects Program

Enrollment and Degrees

Admissions Activities and Results

Student Awards

Senior-Faculty Banquet

Senior Exit Survey and EBI Survey

Student Activities

Enrollment and Degrees

Graduate Student Support

Curriculum

Graduate Student Awards

Overview

Satin Fellowship

Faculty Accomplishments

Faculty Service to WPI

ECE Staff

Bob Woog receives Newell Award for 2000-01

WPI Alumni Awards

Alumni Accomplishments and Professional Activities

ECE Advisory Board

Camp Reach

ECE Faculty

Tenured and Tenure Track Faculty

Professor of Practice

Other Full-time Faculty

Affiliate Faculty

Emeritus Faculty

Part-time Faculty:

ECE Staff

ECE Department Office:

Technical Support (Electronics Shop):

Computer Operations:

WPI Faculty Committee Memberships

ECE Advisory Board Membership

Faculty Publications

Journal Papers

Books and Book Chapters

Patents

Published Conference Papers

External Presentations

External Grant Proposals

Submitted through Research Office

Submitted Internally and through University Relations

External Grants Received

Received through Research Office

Received Internally and through University Relations

Corporate Support

PhD Theses Completed

Master of Science Theses Completed

ECE Department Publications

ECE Placement Data