Electronics/Photonics/Biophotonics General Exams

Contact Dr. Helena Silva for more information

Approved by the Electronics/Photonics/Biophotonics division in Spring 2014

1. The general exams will be given twice per year (January and May), in general, during the same week as the Systems general exams.
2. Written Exams will be required on 6 courses (PhD) or 3 courses (MS-Plan B) from the courses/areas listed below. General Exams may not be taken on independent study courses.
3. Exams will be closed books / closed notes / no computers, phones, etc.
4. There will be an oral component of the general exam (typically as part of the prospectus defense).
5. An average score of at least 70% will be required for passing the written exams taken by a student (exact passing score is instructor’s decision depending upon exam difficulty).
6. Ph.D. Students will be required to finish their exams within their first 6 semesters.
7. Students will have only 2 attempts to pass their exams. The student needs to repeat only the failed exams.
8. Students will have to take the exams either all at the same time or in blocks of three courses at a time.

Courses/Areas for non-track-specific Electronics/Photonics/Biophotonics Exams

A student will select the 3 (MS) or 6 (PhD) courses for the written exams in consultation with his/her advisory committee. For both MS and PhD exams, at least one course each should be chosen from each area.

AREA ONE: EM/Photonics (choose at least one course)

1. ECE 5201: Electromagnetic Wave Propagation / Bansal
2. ECE 5231: Fundamentals of Photonics / Taylor

AREA TWO: Semiconductor/Optoelectronic devices (choose at least one course)

GROUP 2.A (intended primarily for electronics/photonics students)

1. ECE 5211: Semiconductor Devices and Models / Ayers, Anwar
2. ECE 6222: Advanced Semiconductor Devices / Donkor
3. ECE 5225 Electron Device Design and Characterization / Gokirmak
4. ECE 5212: Fundamentals of Optoelectronic Devices / Jain
5. ECE 5232: Optoelectronic Devices/ Taylor

OR GROUP 2.B (intended primarily for Bio-Photonics students: exam format determined by the instructor)

1. ECE 5101: Introductions to Systems Theory/ Luh
2. ECE 6111: Applied Probability and Stochastic Process/ Pattipati
3. ECE 6122: Digital Signal Processing/ Willett
4. ECE 6439: Estimation and Filter Theory/ Bar-Shalom
5. ECE 6121: Advanced Signal Processing/ Willett
6. ECE 6125: Digital Image Processing/Javidi
7. ECE/BME 6143: Image Recognition/Javidi
8. BME 5210: Biomedical Optics/ Zhu

AREA THREE: Applications (choose at least one course)

1. ECE 6243: Nanotechnology/ Jain
2. ECE 5223: Nanophotonics/ Donkor
3. ECE 6242: VLSI Fabrication Principles/ Ayerr
4. ECE 6211: Antenna Theory and Applications / Bansal
5. ECE 6212: Microwave Techniques / Bansal
6. ECE/BME 6126: Optics for Biomedical Engineers/ Javidi
7. BME 6420  Medical Imaging Systems/ Zhu
8. ECE 6421 Advanced VLSI Design / Wang
9. ECE 6095 Special Topics: Memory Devices and Technology / Silva
10. ECE 6095 Special Topics: Solar Photovoltaic Energy Conversion / Bazzi
11. ECE 6095 Special Topics: Metamaterials/Tonn