Electrical Engineering

Degrees Offered

• Professional Online Masters in Electrical Engineering *This degree can be earned by completing the last three certificates listed below plus one additional course.
• Master of Science (Electrical Engineering)
• Doctor of Philosophy (Electrical Engineering)
• Graduate Certificate in Data Science for Signals and Systems
• Graduate Certificate in Information and Systems Sciences
• Graduate Certificate in Microwave Engineering
• Graduate Certificate in Power and Energy Systems

Program Overview

The Electrical Engineering Department offer the degrees Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical Engineering. These degree programs demand academic rigor and depth yet also address real-world problems.

The Department has three areas of research activity that stem from the core fields of Electrical Engineering: 1) Antennas and Wireless Communications, 2) Information and Systems Science, and 3) Power and Energy Systems. Individual research projects may encompass more than one research area.

Research Areas:

Antennas and Wireless Communications is a research area that builds on the fundamental physics and mathematics of electromagnetic waves and propagation. The research in this area includes design, analysis, optimization, and measurement of antennas, antenna arrays, microwave, millimeter-wave, and terahertz devices. Applications address current academic, industry, and society needs, such as wireless communication systems, radar and remote sensing, and electromagnetic imaging.

Information and Systems Sciences is an interdisciplinary research area that encompasses the fields of control systems, data science, optimization, signal and image processing, compressive sensing, robotics, and mechatronics. Applications can be found in renewable energy and power systems, materials processing, sensor and control networks, bio-engineering, computer vision and pattern recognition, autonomous systems, imaging, intelligent structures, and geosystems.

Power and Energy Systems is focused on both fundamental and applied research in the interrelated fields of conventional electric power systems and electric machinery, renewable energy and distributed generation, energy economics and policy issues, power quality, power electronics and drives. The overall scope of research encompasses a broad spectrum of electrical energy applications including investor-owned utilities, rural electric associations, manufacturing facilities, regulatory agencies, and consulting engineering firms.

Primary Contact

EE Graduate Program Manager
eegrad@mines.edu

Professor and Department Head

Peter Aaen

Professors

Atef Elsherbeni

Kathryn Johnson

Tyrone Vincent

Michael Wakin

Associate Professors

Qiuhua Huang

Salman Mohagheghi

Assistant professors

Omid Beik

Yamuna Phal

Gabriel Santamaria-Botello

Teaching Professors

Abd Arkadan

Chris Coulston

Teaching Associate Professor

Prachi Sharma

Teaching Assistant Professor

Hisham Sager

Emeriti Professor

Ravel Ammerman, Emeritus Teaching Professor

Pankaj (PK) Sen, Emeritus Professor

Jeffrey Schowalter, Emeritus Teaching Professor

Marcelo Simoes, Emeritus Professor

Catherine Skokan, Emerita Associate Professor

Program Details

The Electrical Engineering Department offers the degrees Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical Engineering. The master's program is designed to prepare candidates for careers in industry or government or for further study at the PhD level; both thesis and non-thesis options are available. The PhD degree program is sufficiently flexible to prepare candidates for careers in industry, government, or academia. See the information that follows for full details on these four degrees.

Mines Combined Undergraduate/Graduate Degree Program

Students enrolled in Mines’ combined undergraduate/graduate program may double count up to 6 credits of graduate coursework (500-level) to fulfill requirements of both their undergraduate and graduate degree programs. These courses must have been passed with B- or better, not be substitutes for required coursework, and meet all other university, department, and program requirements for graduate credit.

Students are advised to consult with their undergraduate and graduate advisors for appropriate courses to double count upon admission to the combined program.

Prerequisites

Requirements for Admission to EE: The minimum requirements for admission to the MS and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering are:

• A baccalaureate degree in engineering, computer science, a physical science, or math with a grade-point average of 3.0 or better on a 4.0 scale.
• TOEFL score of 79 or higher (or 550 for the paper-based test or 213 for the computer-based test) for applicants whose native language is not English. In lieu of a TOEFL score, an IELTS score of 6.5 or higher will be accepted.
• For the PhD program, prior research experience is desired but not required.

Admitted Students: The EE department graduate committee may require that an admitted student take undergraduate remedial coursework to overcome technical deficiencies. The committee will decide whether to recommend regular or provisional admission.

Transfer Courses: Graduate-level courses taken at other universities for which a grade equivalent to a B or better was received will be considered for transfer credit with approval of the advisor and/or thesis committee, and EE department head, as appropriate.  Transfer credits must not have been used as credit toward a bachelor's degree. For the MS degree, no more than 9 credits may transfer. For the PhD degree, up to 24 credits may be transferred. In lieu of transfer credit for individual courses, students who enter the PhD program with a thesis-based master's degree from another institution may transfer up to 36 hours in recognition of the coursework and research completed for that degree.

Advisor and Thesis Committee: Students must have an advisor from the EE faculty to direct and monitor their academic plan, research, and independent studies. Advisors must be full-time permanent members of the faculty. In this context, full-time permanent members of the faculty are those that hold the rank of professor, associate professor, assistant professor, research professor, associate research professor or assistant research professor. Upon approval by the graduate dean, adjunct faculty, teaching faculty, visiting professors, emeritus professors and off-campus representatives may be designated additional co-advisors. A list of EE faculty by rank is available in the faculty tab in the catalog.

Master of Science (thesis option) students must have at least three members on their thesis committee; the advisor and one other member must be permanent faculty in the EE department. Students who choose to have a minor program must select a representative from the minor area of study to serve on the thesis committee.
PhD thesis committees must have at least four members; the advisor and two additional members must be permanent faculty in the EE department, and one member must be outside the departmental faculty and serving as chair of the committee. Students who choose to have a minor program must select a representative from the minor area of study to serve on the thesis committee.

Degree Audit and Admission to Candidacy: All degree students must submit required forms by the deadlines posted by the Office of Graduate Studies 

Master's thesis students must complete the Degree Audit form by the posted deadline.
PhD students need to submit the Degree Audit form by the posted deadline and need to submit the Admission to Candidacy form by the first day of the semester in which they want to be considered eligible for reduced registration.

Time Limit: As stipulated by the Mines Graduate School, a candidate for a master's degree must complete all requirements for the degree within five years of the date of admission into the degree program. A candidate for a doctoral degree must complete all requirements for the degree within nine years of the date of admission into the degree program.

Program Requirements

Master of Science – Electrical Engineering

The MS degree in Electrical Engineering (thesis or non-thesis Option) requires 30 credits. All MS students are also required to enroll in the zero-credit course EENG 500 Graduate Seminar each semester​. Requirements for the thesis MS are 24 hours of coursework and 6 credits of thesis research. The non-thesis option requires 30 credits of coursework. A maximum of 6 credits of independent study can be used to fulfill degree requirements. There are three tracks in Electrical Engineering: 1) Antennas and Wireless Communications (AWC), 2) Power and Energy Systems (PES), and 3) Information and Systems Sciences (ISS). Students are encouraged to decide between tracks before pursuing an advanced degree. Students are also encouraged to speak to their advisor and/or a member of the EE faculty before registering for classes and to select a permanent advisor as soon as possible. The following set of courses is required of all students.

MS Thesis - Electrical Engineering

MS Thesis Defense: At the conclusion of the MS (thesis option), the student will be required to make a formal presentation and defense of her/his thesis research.

MS Non-Thesis - Electrical Engineering

Doctor of Philosophy - Electrical Engineering

The PhD degree in Electrical Engineering requires 72 credits of coursework and research credits. A minimum of 30 credits of coursework and a minimum of 24 credits of research is required. The remaining 18 credits required can be earned through research or coursework and students should consult with their advisor and/or thesis committee. The students are also required to enroll in the zero-credit course EENG 500 Graduate Seminar each semester.​ There are three tracks in Electrical Engineering: 1) Antennas and Wireless Communications (AWC), 2) Power and Energy Systems (PES), and 3) Information and Systems Sciences (ISS). Students are encouraged to decide between tracks before pursuing an advanced degree. Students are also encouraged to speak to their advisor and/or a member of the EE faculty before registering for classes and to select a permanent advisor as soon as possible. The following set of courses is required of all students.

PhD Qualifying Examination 

Students wishing to enroll in the Electrical Engineering PhD program will be required to pass a qualifying exam. Normally, full-time PhD candidates will take the qualifying exam in their first year, but it must be taken within four semesters of entering the program.  Part-time candidates will normally be expected to take the qualifying exam within no more than six semesters of entering the program. 

The purpose of the qualifying exam is to assess some of the attributes expected of a successful PhD student, including:

• To determine the student's ability to review, synthesize and apply fundamental concepts.
• To determine the creative and technical potential of the student to solve open-ended and challenging problems.
• To determine the student's technical communication skills. 

Students will be asked to prepare an oral presentation to be given to the Qualifying Exam Committee. This will be a technical presentation (typically 30-45 minutes) on a topic chosen by the student's advisor in consultation with the student. It could cover a single paper from the literature, a number of papers on a common subject, or a specific topic for which the student would need to perform a literature review. The topic may or may not be directly related to the student's research area.

Through this presentation, the student is expected to give a clear problem statement, technical insight, and critical analysis of the topic. In addition, he/she may be asked to show her/his understanding of the physics and mathematics behind the broad topic of the presentation. As a rule of thumb, it is expected that the student spends one to two months to prepare for the oral part of the Qualifying Exam. As such, all applicants are encourage to discuss the oral presentation with their advisors well in advance. 

Final pass/fail decision

Based on the oral presentation, the Qualifying Exam Committee will determine whether the student has passed the exam. Official results will be communicated to the student typically by the end of the summer semester. This date could change depending on the completion date of the oral exam. When appropriate and desirable, the Qualifying Exam Committee may ask the student for additional coursework requirements and/or other remedial action.

In the event of a student failing the Qualifying Exam, he/she will be given one further opportunity to pass the exam in the following spring semester. If a second failure occurs, the student has unsatisfactory academic performance that results in an immediate mandatory dismissal of the graduate student from the PhD program. 

PhD Thesis Proposal

After passing the qualifying exam, the PhD student is allowed up to 18 months to prepare a written thesis proposal and present it formally to the student’s graduate committee and other interested faculty.

Admission to Candidacy:  In addition to the Graduate School requirements, full-time students must complete the following requirements within two calendar years of enrolling in the PhD program.

• Have a thesis committee appointment form on file in the Graduate Office:
• Have passed the PhD qualifying exam demonstrating adequate preparation for, and satisfactory ability to conduct doctoral research. 

PhD Thesis Defense

At the conclusion of the student’s PhD program, the student will be required to make a formal presentation and defense of her/his thesis research. The EE department enforces a defense policy for PhD students with regards to their publications and presentations. According to this policy, the required and recommended publications and presentations for EE PhD students before graduation are listed below: 

• Journal Publications
  • Required: Minimum of one first-author paper accepted or published in a peer-reviewed journal before the dissertation defense.  

  • Recommended: Three or more first-author papers accepted or published in peer-reviewed journals. More than three first-author journal publications are recommended for students interested in academic positions.

Electrical Engineering Courses

Required Core:  Antennas and Wireless Communications Track

All students must take three of the following five core courses.

Required Core:  Power and Energy Systems Track

There is no core course requirement for the PES track.

Required Core:  Information and Systems Sciences Track

All students must take:

and choose at least three of the following:

Professional Online Masters in Electrical Engineering

The professional master’s degree is designed to train and target recent graduates or mid-career professionals with a B.S. in electrical engineering or a related field in physics or applied sciences.   The program is composed of 3 stackable certificates plus a required graduate-level mathematics course (MEGN502).   To complete the professional master’s degree the student must complete 30 credits as outlined below.

Students may also register for the professional masters at the outset and take a mixture of courses (from the tracks) in any order.   Should the student elect to register for the full masters, then certificates will not be awarded on completion of the full degree.   For these students, we refer to the certificates as ‘tracks’ as no certificates will be awarded.

Certificate 1 / Track 1: Information and System Sciences – students must complete 9 hours of coursework as follows:

Certificate 2 / Track 2 : Microwave Engineering – students must complete 9 hours of coursework as follows:

Certificate 3 / Track 3:  Power & Energy Systems – students must complete 9 hours of coursework as follows:

While all courses are to be delivered online, students that are interested in attending an on-campus class, may substitute one of the above courses per each certificates (or track) with one of the with appropriate track electives as listed in our Graduate Catalog.

Graduate certificate in information and system sciences

The post-baccalaureate certificate program in Information and System Sciences is targeted to train recent graduates or mid-career professionals with a basic knowledge of modeling and extracting information from signals, systems, or data sets. 

To earn the post-baccalaureate certificate program in Information and System Sciences, students must complete 9 hours of coursework as follows:

Required Courses:

While all courses are to be delivered online, students that are interested in attending an on-campus class may substitute one of the above courses with one of the Information and Systems Sciences track electives as listed in our Graduate Catalog.

Graduate Certificate in Data Science for Signals and Systems

The graduate certificate program in Data Science for Signals and Systems is targeted to train recent graduates or mid-career professionals with a BS in electrical engineering or a related field in mathematical and algorithmic aspects of data science relevant for electrical engineers, specifically for handling the signals and data that are processed and created by modern physical and virtual electrical systems. 

To earn the graduate certificate in Data Science for Signals and Systems, students must complete 12 credits as follows:

Required Courses:

Choose 2 out of 5:

Courses