Analog and Digital VLSI
Professor Hutchens, Johnson, Stine, Y. Zhang

Mixed Signal VLSI Design Group
Wireless Sensory Systems

The revolution in communications and information technology has been fueled by less publicized advances in other areas.  One of these is the ability to manufacture integrated circuits containing thousands of transistors with high reliability.  OSU has active research in several types of Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI).  These areas include: Mixed mode CMOS VLSI including analog, MEMS and digital electronics.  As systems become smaller and smaller more capabilities are being put directly onto a wafer.  The research areas sensor/transducer systems and biomedical engineering.  Other areas of active research are high speed (GHz) and low power CMOS analog to digital and digital to analog converters.

Graduate level courses cover topics in digital and analog VLSI design, and advanced solid state electronics.  Two cleanrooms are affiliated with OSU, and state-of-the-art probe stations are used for characterization.

Energy and Power
Professor Allison, Gedra, Ramakumar

The field of energy and power has achieved national prominence due to federal deregulation of the industry.  The resulting widely fluctuating energy prices and demands have led to major blackouts during times of peak usage, and unpredictable energy costs.  Areas of this very broad field studied at Oklahoma State University include energy conversion, renewable energy sources and systems, reliability, electric power systems analysis, power system economics and pricing.  Before deregulation, many universities discontinued power engineering, leading to a current national need for graduates.

Graduate level courses include topics such as “green” technologies involving direct energy conversion, computer analysis of power system methods, and

economics and regulation of the power industry.  A unique undergraduate lab facility funded by the NSF offers teaching opportunities.

Photonics and Electro-optics:
Professor Cheville, Grischkowsky, Krasinski, W. Zhang, Y. Zhang

Ultra-fast Terahertz Research Group

The science of photonics, or using light as current electrical engineering uses electrons, is the basic technology behind the current communications revolution. As higher and higher data rates are required, photonics will play an ever larger role in the successful engineer’s toolbox.  Research programs at OSU specialize in ultra-fast optoelectronics, and growth and development of new optical materials, especially wide band-gap materials used for blue light generation.

The research group on terahertz (1 THz = 1000 GHz) technology is at the forefront of research in this frequency area.  A new cleanroom facility dedicated to growth and analysis of materials such as GaN promises to make OSU a major player in this new semiconductor technology.

Graduate level courses include fiber optics communication systems, and ultra-fast optics.  A NSF funded PhD program in photonics is cross-disciplinary between physics, chemistry, and ECEN. This program  is one of a very select few in the country which offer emphasis on hands-on experimental research along with foundation courses over a wide range of disciplines.

Intelligent Systems and Control Lab

With its traditional base of supporting statewide industry, it is not surprising that OSU has a strong interdisciplinary program in control systems engineering. Emphasizing neural networks and fuzzy logic, research programs are closely associated with a  Master of Science in Control Systems Engineering degree program. Collaborations in the program are with Chemical Engineering, Industrial Engineering and Management, and Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.  Current research projects focus on predicting impending failures in complex interrelated structures, using assessment tools using emerging neural network and fuzzy logic technology.  Additional work involves neural network based intelligent controllers capable of self-optimization, on-line adaptation and autonomous fault detection and controller reconfiguration.

Telecommunications
Professor Scheets

Explosive growth in telecommunications, both internet and cellular has made the broad area of telecommunications research one of the hottest ones in the country.  Research programs at OSU are closely affiliated with major industry players such as WorldCom based in Tulsa.  The opening of the OSU Tulsa campus as well as explosive growth of the telecommunications management program at OSU promises to make telecom one of the major research areas for the foreseeable future.

Available graduate level courses include both network level and device level descriptions of fiber-optic systems, extensive laboratory courses in telecommunications systems are available with the MSTM program.

Robust Electromagnetic Field Testing and Simulation Lab

Research in computational E&M is becoming more and more closely tied to wireless communications, and high speed computer design.  At OSU current research programs focus on the use of computational electro-magnetics to determine radar scattering of radar from rough surfaces.  

Speech and Audio Communications Laboratory
Visual Computing and Image Processing Lab

The prevalence of data processing technology has enabled the ability to mathematically manipulate data which has formerly relied on the brain for processing such as speech and images.   been topics of research and media attention for decades, much more research is devoted to applications such as image and audio compression.  Research at OSU is focused on areas of audio compression, image processing algorithms, hardware implementation of digital signal processing, and encryption and security.  This area is one of the most active at OSU with two IEEE fellows engaged in active research.

Graduate level courses in this broad area cover topics on digital image and signal processing, neural networks, processing of speech signals, and computer vision.

The word architect is defined as one that plans or devises; one that designs something. A computer architect utilizes detailed knowledge of hardware and software to design computer systems. This includes the detailed design of components within the microprocessor as well as the various components that interact with the core processor. Architects create the blueprint of not only single CPU’s, but entire multiprocessor systems with their various interconnecting hardware.

Students with a background in computer architecture can apply this broad knowledge in a number of different specialties in the industry. Companies like AMD, Intel, and IBM have a number of research and development departments where computer architects work with hardware engineers and computer scientists to design the next generation of processors. In addition to general-purpose and server platform designers, many companies such as Cisco Systems, NVIDIA, and Qualcomm employ computer architects to design their next-generation application-specific or embedded systems. Computer architecture is widely recognized as being at the heart of system design for any computer system.

OSU has an active research program in the area of computer architecture and building of components that comprise system on chip (SOC) systems.  Some of the areas of emphasis include prefetching, cache design, computer arithmetic systems, applications-specific architectures, compilers and hardware for enhanced floating-point performance, and cryptographic hardware.  OSU is also involved in designing state of the art tools that allow complex architectures to be created that comprise billions of transistors. This is an important research topic and is crucial to the progress of scientific research. In addition to working on the important research problems of today, we study the underlying hardware and technology trends to anticipate what the relevant research problems of the next decade would be.

Graduate level courses cover topics in computer architecture, digital VLSI design, computer arithmetic, application-specific architecture design, and system on chip design.  OSU utilizes commercial design tools to create these architectures from Cadence Design Systems, Synopsys, Mentor Graphics, SimICs, and SimpleScalar, just to name a few.