undergraduate education in electrical engineering at stanford bruce wooley june 2003
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Undergraduate Education in Electrical Engineering at Stanford Bruce Wooley June 2003. Changing Education in EE. Two factors are driving a major restructuring of undergraduate education in EE Expansion of the field, with a shift in emphasis toward systems Changing student backgrounds - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
BAW 6/03_1
Undergraduate Education inElectrical Engineering at Stanford
Bruce WooleyJune 2003
BAW 6/03_2
Changing Education in EE
• Two factors are driving a major restructuring of undergraduate education in EE
– Expansion of the field, with a shift in emphasis toward systems
– Changing student backgrounds
• EE at Stanford– Undergraduate education is ultimately driven by results of
graduate research, here and elsewhere– Begin with a broad overview of the Department and its
strategic vision
BAW 6/03_3
Stanford EE Department
• 54 tenure-line faculty members (44.5 billets)– 30 Professors, 14 Associate Professors, 10 Assistant Professors– 20 joint faculty (with CS, AP, MgS&E, MSE, Geophysics, Statistics)
• 8 research faculty members (3 joint faculty)
• 97 declared undergraduate students – UG admissions through University
• 890 graduate students (443 PhD students)– 15% of Stanford’s graduate students– Graduate admissions through Department
• 63 PhD, 228 MS and 39 BS degrees in 2001-02
BAW 6/03_4
Research in EE
CSL: Computer architecture / VLSI, core system software, networking, information management, graphics, CAD
ISL: Communications/coding, signal processing, control, information theory, optimization, image processing, medical imaging
ICL: Semiconductor devices and technology, technology CAD, integrated transducers/MEMS, mixed-signal and RF IC design, digital signal processing, neuroengineering
SSPL: Optoelectronic devices and systems, microoptics, scanning microscopy, acoustic sensors and transducers, ultrafast optics, nanotechnology, quantum electronics
STAR: Wireless and optical communications, ionospheric and magnetospheric physics, remote sensing, planetary exploration, signal processing
BAW 6/03_5
What is Electrical Engineering?
• Department is attempting to define what it means to be an EE in the 21st century
– EE includes almost anything “electrical engineers” decide to do– Much of what we do is increasingly defined by applications
• At its core, EE is the discipline that provides the technology for sensing, processing, storing and communicating information
• The future of EE is being impacted by:
– growth in the importance of information technology
– increasing breadth of interactions with the physical sciences
– cross-discipline convergence and the importance of interdisciplinary activity
– increasing levels of complexity
– increasingly rapid change
BAW 6/03_6
A Changing Environment
• Changing student backgrounds– Engineering art is less “visible” than for previous generations– Incoming students more likely to have “taken apart” the
software that runs a system than the physical implementation
• Increasing complexity of systems and tools– Changes the kind of research that is both interesting and
possible– Can “raise the bar” for what qualifies as “good” research– Increasing emphasis on finding new applications of technology
• Compression of time between theoretical concepts and commercial realization – What is “long term”? – Many challenging problems are not only intellectually
interesting, but also result in useful artifacts
BAW 6/03_7
Emerging Research Themes
• Exploiting progress in hardware and information technologies to collect more data about the world
• Extracting meaning from large amounts of data
• Controlling large distributed systems
• Broadening the interface to the physical sciences beyond solid-state electronics to include photonics and biology
• Extending strength in semiconductor circuits and technology upward to support systems-on-a-chip, downward to understand nanoscale devices and laterally to encompass inexpensive, large-scale electronics
BAW 6/03_8
“Recent” EE Faculty Appointments
– Balaji Prabhakar (systems & control)
– Andrea Goldsmith (wireless communications)
– Dawson Engler (software systems)
– Nick Bambos (network architectures & performance)
– Olav Solgaard (applications of microelectonrics technology)
– Ben Van Roy (dynamic programming & control)
– Bernd Girod (digital imaging & video)
– Krishna Shenoy (neuroengineering)– Shanhui Fan (photonic crystals)– John Pauly (medical imaging)– Yoshio Nishi (micro-fabrication technology)– Christos Kozyrakis (computer & systems architecture)– Jelena Vuckovic (photonic crystal structures)– Joe Kahn (photonic systems)
BAW 6/03_9
Diffractive Optical MEMS – O. Solgaard
• MEMS technology enables diffractive optical elements that can be dynamically reconfigured on s timescales
• Diffractive optical MEMS are used in a multitude of device architectures and applications
hmax
h Optional lens to bring the far field closer
Outgoing light
DMDarray
outputcoupler
Phased arrays
for scanning
and free-space
laser comm.
Adaptive optics mirror
for wavefront control
in laser
communications,
ophthalmology, and
astronomy
Diffractive optical filter
for synthesis of optical
spectra in correlation
spectroscopy
Gires-Tournois
interferometer for
filtering, dispersion
compensation, and
coding in WDM optical
fiber systems
BAW 6/03_10
Microinstruments for RNA-i Experiments – O. Solgaard
• Double-stranded RNA (ds-RNA) is a powerful tool for genetic studies
• ds-RNA inhibits the expression of the corresponding gene through a process know as RNA interference (RNA-i)
• We are building microinstruments for studies of development in Drosophila embryos based on RNA-i
– Microinjectors for precise injection in specific locations with low damage– Integrated sensors for improved speed, reliability, and calibration of injections– Microfluidic systems for embryo handling, positioning, diagnostics, and sorting
Detail of microinjector
Drosophila embryo
Injector array for parallel injection. The Pyrex substrate has channels to bring ds-RNA to the microinjectors.
20 m
Injection into drosophila embryo. The flow rate is 10 pl/s for a total injected volume of 300 pl in 30 seconds.
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f = 0.361 c/a
f = 0.360 c/a
wa
w
Theory of Micro and Nano-Scale Photonics – S. Fan
Displacement Sensor
PMD Compensator Photonic Crystal Waveguide
Propagation in Photonic Crystals
BAW 6/03_12
Visual Motor
Spinal cord injury
Prosthetic Arm
Neural signals to move real arm
Shenoy GroupControl signals to move prosthetic arm
120 spikes/s
Cue ReachPlan1 second
H E
Batista, Buneo, Snyder, Andersen (1999) Science 285.
120 spikes/s
Cue ReachPlan1 second
H EH E
Batista, Buneo, Snyder, Andersen (1999) Science 285.
Estimate desired arm movement
(algorithms, circuits and systems)
Neural prosthetic experiments with behaving monkeys
Neural Control of Prosthetic Devices – K. Shenoy
BAW 6/03_13
Optical Switch Core
625 160Gb/s Linecards
Optical links
External 160Gb/sConnections
Motivating Example: 100Tb/s Internet RouterProfessors Mark Horowitz, Nick McKeown, David Miller, Olav Solgaard
1. Novel architectures with optical switch and no scheduler.2. 160Gb/s Packet buffers using hybrid SRAM/DRAM.3. Fast Internet address lookup (one packet every 2ns).4. Low-cost, low-power parallel optical serial links.
5. Direct-attach of optics onto silicon.6. Low-power integrated drivers for bumped optical transmitters.7. Integrated optical modulators.8. Novel MEMs switches.9. Drive circuitry for MEMs switches.
Research Problems
Optics in Internet Routers – N. McKeown
BAW 6/03_14
Polymorphic Computing Architectures – C. Kozyrakis
• Goal: next-generation computing substrate– Performance and power/energy of ASIPs– Programmability and flexibility of general-purpose CPUs
• Technical approach– Modular design based on simple processing cores
• Simple to design, scalable, no long wires – Support for multiple programming models
• Thread-level, data-level, and instruction-level parallelism– Configurable on-chip memories
• Can use as caches, local memories, specialized buffers, etc– Allow software to create the optimal processor configuration for
each application
• Faculty: Horowitz, Olukotun, Kozyrakis
BAW 6/03_15
Possible Future Areas of Emphasis
• Embedded systems and signal processing• Semiconductor devices and circuits• Sensing, including biosensing, and actuation• Biology / EE (e.g. biophotonics)• Distributed asynchronous control• Radio, radar and optical remote sensing• Experimental wireless systems• Data mining and large scale optimization• Information storage systems• Internet-scale systems
BAW 6/03_16
Teaching Electrical Engineering
• Traditional curriculum follows a “sequence” structure– Results in “delayed gratification”– Fails to address the need for broad competency required
by the rapid expansion of the field
• Need for courses that introduce the “ideas and methods” of a subject
– Response to two trends: an increasing knowledge base and the move to higher levels of abstraction
• Undergraduate curriculum– Beginning a major restructuring of the undergraduate EE
curriculum
BAW 6/03_17
Changing the Undergraduate Curriculum
• Driven by the information revolution and changing student backgrounds
• Students don’t build radios anymore– Most haven’t built anything physical– But they have a much better software background
• More comfortable in the virtual world– Early courses need to provide physical intuition – Used to an environment with abundant information
• Little tolerance for delayed gratification
• Some unique constraints– Undergraduates admitted to the University– Large number of required units
• 68 in EE and engineering, 45 in math & science, 48 general education requirements
BAW 6/03_18
Current Undergraduate EE Core
Intro toElectron
Intro Ckts101
Sig & Sys 102
Electr 1111
Electr 2112
Dig Lab121
Anal Lab122
EM141
Sig Proc 103
Elec Ckts113
BAW 6/03_19
EE Undergraduate Core
• Traditional core is too large and too linear
• Too long to get to the fun stuff
• Need to:– Motivate students to “sample” different areas– Emphasize fundamental principles that cut across areas– Include motivating examples for all material in the core– Take advantage of the students’ familiarity with a “virtual”
environment– Arouse interest in and curiosity about “hardware”– Broaden students’ appreciation of system issues– Familiarize students with different levels of system
abstraction
BAW 6/03_20
Goals of the New Undergrad Curriculum
• Alter focus of initial classes to emphasize applications– Make the classes more interesting
• Decrease the longest chain in the core by making the requirements more parallel– Enable more options in class selection
• Include lab components in the core classes– Provide immediate utility of material, leverage comfort with
virtual world (simulation) and grow coupling to physical world
• Include digital systems content in the core
BAW 6/03_21
New Undergraduate EE Core
Intro toElectron
Sig & Sys1
Sig & Sys 2
Electron1
Electron2
Dig Sys1
Dig Sys2
Circuits Lab
EngrPhysics
BAW 6/03_22
Specialty Areas in EE
Current specialty areas:
• Computer Hardware
• Computer Software
• Controls
• Electronics
• Fields and Waves
• Signal Processing and Communications
New specialty areas:
• Digital Systems– Hardware– Software Systems
• Signals, Systems and Control– Control– Signal Processing / Commun
• Electronics– Analog and RF– Digital Electronics
• E & M– Field and Waves– Solid State and Photonics
BAW 6/03_23
What’s Next?
• Begin to focus on the lower division curriculum– Retain rigor while making EE more appealing for today’s, and
tomorrow’s, incoming students
• Reconsider how and when math and science are taught– Need to provide more motivation– Are the traditional sequences relevant to modern electrical
engineering?– Can math and science be taught as needed throughout the
four year program, depending on the area pf specialization?