Academic Course Descriptions
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References to the timing of course offerings which follow
apply only to day courses. Evening and summer school course offerings
are scheduled according to need. Christian Brothers University reserves
the right to cancel classes at any time due to insufficient enrollment.
ELECTRICAL AND COMPUTER ENGINEERING
COURSES
ECE 112. COMPUTERS IN ENGINEERING PROBLEM SOLVING
(Formerly EE 112)
Introduction to the use of the digital computer in problem solving.
Topics include flow of control, functions and user defined functions,
pointers, array, strings and File I/O, study structured programming,
pseudocode. Some applications will include graphics. Corequisite: MATH
131 or registration therein. Offered in the Fall and Spring. One semester;
three credits
ECE 201. ENGINEERING INSTRUMENTATION
(Formerly EE 201)
A laboratory course designed to instruct students in the theory and
use of various engineering instruments and transducers. Emphasis is
placed on appropriate error analysis in the reduction, analysis, and
reporting of data. Technical report preparation is emphasized. Two lecture
periods and one laboratory period of three hours. Prerequisite or corequisite:
ECE 221. Offered in the Fall and Spring. (Same as ME 301) One semester;
two credits
ECE 221. ELECTRIC CIRCUIT ANALYSIS I (Formerly
EE 221)
Fundamental electrical concepts: charge, voltage, current, power, resistance,
capacitance and inductance. Techniques of circuit analysis; Kirchhoff’s
Laws; nodal and mesh analysis; source transformations. Thevenin’s
and Norton’s theorems; linearity and superposition. Transient
analysis; source free R-L, R-C, and R-L-C networks; unit step forcing
function; natural and forced responses. Sinusoidal steady-state analysis;
the complex forcing function; phasors-complex impedance; complex power;
effective values and balanced three-phase systems. Prerequisite: MATH
132. Corequisites: MATH 231 and PHYS 251. Offered in the Fall and Spring.
One semester; three credits
ECE 222. ELECTRIC CIRCUIT ANALYSIS II
(Formerly EE 321 or EE 222)
Complex frequency; damped sinusoidal forcing function, Z(s) and Y(s).
Frequency response; series and parallel resonance. Magnetically coupled
circuits; mutual inductance, linear and ideal transformers. Two-port
networks; admittance, impedance and hybrid parameters. Fourier analysis;
trigonometric and complex forms; complete response to periodic forcing
functions. Fourier transforms; unit impulse function; convolution and
circuit response in the time and frequency domain; system transfer functions.
Laplace transform techniques; initial and final value theorems and transfer
functions. Prerequisites: ECE 221 and MATH 231. Offered in the Fall
and Spring. One semester; three credits
ECE 234. DATA STRUCTURES AND PROGRAMMING
The course strengthens the student programming skills through the design
and implementation of correct, robust and readable programs. Students
will learn techniques for building systems of interacting components.
Coding, testing, and debugging of modular programs. Topics include the
implementation techniques of inheritances and polymorphism through involved
design projects. Offered in the Fall semester. (Same as CS 234) Prerequisite:
ECE 112 or CS 122. One semester; three credits
ECE 236. OBJECT ORIENTED SYSTEMS DESIGN
(Formerly ECE 233)
The course teaches the student how to build effective models using object
oriented methods. It stresses the use of strategies and patterns in
the analysis and the design of object oriented systems in engineering
and sciences. It uses a modeling approach for the structure and behavior
of objects. Students implement models using a Unified Modeling Language
(UML) software tool. Offered in the Spring semester. (Same as CS 236)
Prerequisite: ECE 234. One semester; three credits
ECE 244 COMPUTER PROGRAMMING LABORATORY
Lab to accompany ECE 234. Project driven laboratory experiments with
emphasis on library design, polymorphism techniques, and debugging.
(Same as CS 234L) Corequisite: ECE 234. One semester; one credit
ECE 250. DIGITAL DESIGN (Formerly EE
250)
Binary number system and Boolean Algebra. Minimization of logic functions.
Implementation of logic circuits. Design of combinational circuits.
Sequential devices. Design of synchronous sequential circuits. Introduction
to counters, registers, and Register Transfer Language. Design of advanced
arithmetic circuits. Memory devices. Processor design and microprogramming.
Written reports are required for each of three design projects. Prerequisite:
ECE 112 or equivalent. Offered in the Fall semester. One semester; three
credits
ECE 251. MICROPROCESSOR ARCHITECTURE AND PROGRAMMING
(Formerly EE 251) Eight bit microcomputer architecture, instructions,
addressing modes registers, assembly language. Interfacing methods and
devices. Current popular microprocessors with emphasis on the Motorola
68HCII. Two design projects will be required, one of which must include
hardware. Prerequisite: ECE 250. Offered in the Spring semester. One
semester; three credits
ECE 314. ENGINEERING ECONOMY (Formerly
EE 314)
Fundamentals of engineering economy. Cost concepts. Time value of money
and equivalence. Economic analysis of alternatives. Replacement analysis.
Depreciation and after-tax analysis. Effects of inflation on economic
analysis. Prerequisite: Junior standing. (Same as CH E 314, CE 314,
ME 314) One semester; three credits
ECE 322. LINEAR CONTROL SYSTEMS (Formerly
EE 322)
Analysis and design of linear control systems. Transfer function, block
diagrams and state-variable representation. Feedback concepts and stability
analysis in both the frequency and time domain. Design by Root locus,
Bode plots, and state variable methods. Emphasis on use of computational
software for complex cases. (Same as ME 422 Control Systems Engineering)
Prerequisites: MATH 231 and ME 202. Offered in the Fall semester. One
semester; three credits
ECE 331. ELECTRONICS I (Formerly EE 331)
Properties of semiconductors. PN-junction diodes: theory, models, and
circuit applications. Operation and characteristics of bipolar junction
and field effect transistors. Analysis and design of transistor bias
circuits. Low frequency transistor models. Analysis and design of single
stage amplifiers. Introduction to the operational amplifier and some
of its applications. Introduction to frequency response of amplifiers.
Introduction to oscillation. Prerequisite: ECE 221. Offered in the Fall
semester. One semester; three credits
ECE 332. ELECTRONICS II (Formerly EE
332)
Analysis and design of single and multi-stage transistor circuits. Applications
of the operational amplifiers and other integrated circuits. Introduction
to feedback amplifiers, digital electronics, and small analog-digital
systems. Prerequisites: ECE 222, 331. Offered in the Spring semester.
One semester; three credits
ECE 335. SYSTEMS, SIGNALS AND NOISE (Formerly
EE 335)
Signal models, systems analysis, random variables and random processes.
Analog communication systems, baseband analog signal transmission, and
continuous wave modulation techniques for analog transmission. Digital
transmission for analog signals, sampling, quantizing, encoding of analog
signals for transmission over digital systems. Analysis and design of
digital communications systems, information theory, discrete pulse and
carrier wave modulation schemes. Written reports are required for each
of the three design projects. Prerequisites: ECE 222 and MATH 309. Offered
in the Spring semester. One semester; three credits
ECE 341. JUNIOR LABORATORY I (Formerly
EE 341)
Experiments paralleling topics from ECE 222 and ECE 331. Most experiments
will relate to topics from electronics and stress designing with discrete
electronic devices. Introduction to integrated circuits through circuit
applications. Students will be required to maintain a lab journal. Prerequisite:
ECE 201. Prerequisites or corequisites: ECE 222, 331. Offered in the
Fall semester. One semester; two credits
ECE 342. JUNIOR LABORATORY II (Formerly
EE 342)
Design projects paralleling ECE 322 and ECE 331. Some experiments may
be assigned by the instructor, but some projects will be proposed by
the students and submitted to the instructor for approval prior to the
initiation of the work. An engineering notebook is kept by each student.
Prerequisite: ECE 341. Corequisites: ECE 322, 332. Offered in the Spring
semester. One semester; two credits
ECE 350. COMPUTER SYSTEMS DESIGN AND ARCHITECTURE
General-purpose machines. Machine language and instruction set design.
Simple RISC Computer using RTN, CISC (Motorola 68000) and RISC (SPARC)
machines. Processor design, machine reset and exceptions. Pipelining
and parallelism. Radix conversion, fixed and floating point arithmetic.
Memory system design, virtual memory, and multi level memory. I/O subsystems,
DMA, and error control. Peripheral Devices and intro to computer communication.
Offered in the Fall semester. Prerequisite: ECE 251. One semester; three
credits
ECE 400. THE COMPLEAT ENGINEER (Same
as CE 400 and ME 400)
This course deals with a wide array of issues facing the practicing
engineer. Topics include: engineering ethics; regulatory issues; health,
safety, and environmental factors; reliability, maintainability, produciblity,
sustainability; and the context of engineering in the enterprise, in
society, and as part of the global economy. Prerequisite: Permission
of the department. One semester; three credits
ECE 401. ELECTROMECHANICAL ENERGY CONVERSION
(Formerly EE 401)
Linear and nonlinear magnetic circuits of transformers. Basic principles
of electromechanical energy conversion, electromechanical devices and
feedback control systems. Derivation and analysis of mathematical models.
Rotating a.c. and d.c. machinery and their use to control systems. Direct
energy conversion systems. Prerequisite: ECE 222. Corequisite: ECE 403.
Offered in the Fall semester. One semester; three credits
ECE 403. ENERGY CONVERSION LABORATORY (Formerly
EE 403)
Laboratory experiments paralleling ECE 401. Single phase transformers.
Induction and synchronous machines. Use of variable frequency sources
for speed control of induction motors, voltage and speed control circuits
of d.c. machines. Structured, written laboratory reports. Corequisite:
ECE 401. Offered in the Fall semester. One semester; one credit
ECE 406. ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELD THEORY (Formerly
EE 405 and ECE 405)
Field and vector operations. Electrostatic and magnetostatic fields.
Time varying fields and electrodynamics. Plane waves. Transmission lines,
transient and steady state. Prerequisites: ECE 221, MATH 232 and PHYS
251. Offered in the Fall semester. One semester; four credits
ECE 409-410. ELECTRICAL AND COMPUTER ENGINEERING
PROJECT (Formerly EE 409-410) Design, development and implementation
of student selected projects. Projects are sponsored by local and national
industry. Includes complete engineering and testing as well as economic
analysis. Written reports are required with the final product in thesis
form. A required oral presentation of the project to industry sponsors,
faculty and students. Prerequisites: Senior standing and Approval of
department advisor. Taken in sequence in the Fall and Spring. ECE 409
– one credit, ECE 410 – two credits. Two semesters; three
credits
ECE 413. ANTENNA THEORY (Formerly EE
413)
Radiation-oscillating electric dipole, radiation from resonant length
antennas. Antenna fundamentals-directional properties, linear arrays,
antenna gain and terminal impedance. Wire antennas, broadband techniques,
and aperture antennas. Emphasis on design techniques and major written
design report. Computer solutions employed. Prerequisites: ECE 405 and
PHYS 252. One semester; three credits
ECE 417. OPTICAL FIBER COMMUNICATION (Formerly
EE 417)
A study of the transmission properties of optical fibers; light sources
and detectors; power launching and coupling; noise sources; modulation
formats, system analysis and design. Prerequisites: ECE 331, 335, 405
and PHYS 252. One semester; three credits
ECE 418. POWER SYSTEM ANALYSIS (Formerly
EE 418)
A study of power system parameters, circuit transposition and per unit
computation. Load flow studies. Fault calculations by digital computer
programs. System stability and protective relaying. Circuit breakers
and lightning arresters. Formal reports required for two design projects.
Prerequisite: ECE 222, 401 or Permission of the instructor. Offered
in the Spring semester. One semester; three credits
ECE 420. DIGITAL CONTROL SYSTEMS (Formerly
EE 420)
Analysis of discrete time systems, sampled-data systems, and digital
systems. Development of Z transforms and pulse-transfer functions. Characterization
of dynamic response of D/A-A/D conversion, sampling, aliasing. Elements
of the design of digital feedback control systems. Transform techniques.
Design using control system specifications and root loci diagrams. State
variable methods. Introduction to random processes and modern filtering.
Effects of quantization. Prerequisite: ECE 322. One semester; three
credits
ECE 421. MECHATRONICS
An intermediate treatment of the design of systems with interdependency
of electrical and mechanical components. Topics will include measurement
theory, computer interfacing and control, sensors, actuators, and introduction
to real-time fuzzy logic controllers. Prerequisites: ECE 251 or ME 202
or Permission of instructor. One semester; three credits
ECE 435. ELECTRONICS III (Formerly EE
435)
Continued use of the computer as a tool in analysis and design of electronic
circuits. Feedback amplifiers; frequency response of feedback amplifiers
including topics in compensation of amplifiers; oscillators; operational
amplifiers; active filters; small analog-digital systems; other selected
topics of interest to the class. A technical report is written and presented
orally in class by each student. Prerequisites: ECE 332. Corequisite:
ECE 445. Offered in the Fall semester. One semester; three credits
ECE 436. POWER ELECTRONICS (Formerly
EE 436)
History and introduction. Diode rectifiers. Thyristors and controlled
rectifiers. AC voltage controllers. Commutation Techniques. Power transistors,
DC choppers, PWM inverters, DC and AC drivers. Protection of devices
and circuits. Offered in Spring semester. One semester; three credits
ECE 445. ELECTRONICS III LABORATORY (Formerly
EE 445)
Design projects paralleling ECE 435. Projects will be proposed by the
students and submitted to the instructor for approval prior to the initiation
of the work. Use of engineering logbook/notebook. Prerequisite: ECE
342. Corequisite: ECE 435. Offered in the Fall semester. One semester;
one credit
ECE 450. COMPUTER NETWORKS
The course emphasizes the relationship between computer systems and
network services. HTTP, SMTP, DNS, NNTP and other networking services
are introduced and explained. The Unix operating system implementation
of these services is studied. Network based programming projects are
assigned to verify understanding of protocols and operating system issues.
Security and privacy issues in a networked environment are addressed.
Prerequisite: ECE 234 or Permission of instructor. Offered in the Spring
semester. One semester; three credits
ECE 451. ADVANCED C++ PROGRAMMING (Formerly
EE 479)
This course extends the object-oriented concepts developed in ECE. The
course will cover topics that address namespaces, templates, exceptions,
run time type indentification, and the standard library including containers,
iterators, and algorithms. Prerequisites: Senior standing or Permission
of the instructor and either ECE 112 or CS 122. One semester; three
credits
ECE 453. COMPUTER GRAPHICS (Formerly
ENGR 423 and EE 423)
This course is designed to give students an introduction to the use
of computers as tools in graphical design. Topics include computer hardware,
two and three dimensional representation, orthographic views, isometric
views, curved surfaces, animation, and interactive techniques. A graphics
project is required. (Same as CS 423) Prerequisites: Permission of the
instructor and ECE 112 or CS 122. One semester; three credits
ECE 454. COMPUTER HARDWARE (Formerly
EE 454)
Review of logic operations. Boolean algebra. Analysis and design of
combinatorial circuits and sequential circuits. Race conditions and
state assignments. Use of FPGA, EPLD, and VHDL in embedded digital design.
Design tradeoffs: economics, speed, power dissipation, timing considerations,
hardware and software. Computer related I/O standards such as: IEEE
488, CAMAC, RS449. Prerequisites: ECE 251and Senior standing. One semester;
three credits
ECE 456. SYMBOLIC ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Theory and applications of various types of expert systems including
rule-based, frame, backboard, and case-based reasoning systems. Handling
uncertainties by certainty factors, Bayesian probability, and fuzzy
logic. Using fuzzy logic in control applications. Automated reasoning
using formal logic. Inductive reasoning methods: ID3 algorithm and artificial
neural networks. Prerequisites: ECE 112 or equivalent; Junior or senior
standing. One semester, three credits
ECE 457. CONNECTIONIST ARTIFICIAL INELLIGENCE
Fundamental concepts of neurocomputing, biological versus artificial
neurons, parallel and distributed computing, learning by adjusting connection
weights. Mapping networks, including Associative Memory, Backpropagation,
and Counterpropagation. Recurrent networks, including Hopfield and Boltzmann
Machine. Self-organizing networks, including Kohonen and Adaptive Resonance
Theory. Neurofuzzy systems. Using genetic algorithms as network-training
algorithm. Prerequisites: ECE 112 or equivalent; Junior or senior standing.
One semester; three credits
ECE 470. DATA COMMUNICATIONS (Formerly
EE 415)
Elements of data communication and the ISO reference model. Network
structure, architectures and protocol hierarchies. Algorithms and heuristics
for design of computer network topology. Physical basis for data communication.
Synchronous and asynchronous data communication, interface standards,
data channels and modulation schemes. Data link protocols. Point-to-point,
satellite, packet radio, and local area networks. Written reports are
required for each of the three design projects. Prerequisite: ECE 335.
Offered in the Fall semester. One semester; three credits
ECE 475. DIGITAL TELEPHONY (Formerly
EE 475)
Analysis of telephone transmission media. Study of linear distortion,
echo and losses. Pulse Code Modulation. Logarithmetic and A-Law compounding.
Study of signal to noise ratio of digital modulation schemes. Digital
Switching time and space. Switch complexities and ASDL. Fundamentals
of traffic analysis and teletraffic theory. ISDN. Study of framing.
Quality of Service (QoS) and timing of current telephone trends and
services such as Frame-Relay, IP telephony, ATM and AIN networks. Prerequisites:
ECE 335, Senior standing, or Permission of instructor. One semester;
three credits
ECE 476. MODELING AND SIMULATION OF COMMUNICATION
NETWORKS
(Formerly EE 476) Computer modeling of communication networks including
voice, data and integrated networks. Analysis, modeling, and statistical
validation of network traffic. Design of simulation experiments-Factorial,
Fractional-Factorial, and advanced designs.Validation, analysis and
interpretation of network simulations. The students are required to
implement three designs of communication networks. Prerequisite: ECE
335. One semester; three credits
ECE 477. DIGITAL SIGNAL PROCESSING (Formerly
EE 477)
Discrete time signals and systems. The discrete time Fourier transform.
The z-transform. The inverse z-transform. The discrete Fourier series.
The discrete Fourier transform. Circular convolution. Representation
of linear digital networks. Network structures for IIR systems. Network
structures for FIR systems. Design of IIR digital filters. Digital Butterworth
filters. Design of DIR filters. Computation of the discrete Fourier
transform. The FFT. Written reports are required for each of the three
design projects. Prerequisite: ECE 335. Offered in the Spring semester.
One semester; three credits
ECE 480-489. SPECIAL TOPICS (Formerly
EE 480-489)
Elective courses of special or current interest. Usually taught by visiting
faculty with special or unique qualifications. Normally taken by Seniors.
Prerequisites are announced with course offerings. One semester; three
credits
ECE 490-494. SEMINAR (Formerly EE 490-494)
Special series of lectures on selected topics. Course credit assigned
may range from zero to two. One semester; zero to two credits
ECE 495-496. INTERNSHIPS IN ELECTRICAL AND COMPUTER
ENGINEERING
(Formerly EE 495-496) Students majoring in electrical engineering with
junior standing and a minimum average of B in all engineering subjects,
after receiving the approval of the faculty, are placed in the engineering
offices of contracted firms to receive on-the-job training under the
supervision of members of the firm. Credit is granted on acceptance
of periodic reports and a presentation of a final summary report of
the work done verified by the authorized supervisor. Minimum time: 200
hours. Prerequisites: Junior standing and Faculty approval. Pass/Fail
Grading. One semester; three credits
ECE 497, 498, 499. TOPICS IN ELECTRICAL AND COMPUTER
ENGINEERING I, II, III (Formerly EE 497,498,499)
Directed work on a special problem. Problems of an interdisciplinary
nature are encouraged. A written report is required. A contract outlining
the scope of the project is required prior to the initiation of work.
Prerequisite: Senior standing and a duly executed contract. One semester
each; one, two, and three credits
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