One of the main strengths of our programs is the strong emphasis on laboratory training. Almost all courses include a laboratory component. This enables our students to better understand and appreciate the fundamental concepts of electrical, computer and biomedical engineering. We offer modern and well-equipped instruction laboratory facilities.
The school has state-of-the-art research facilities in antennas and propagation, ASIC design, Bio-MEMS, Biosignal manipulation, Bioinstrumentation, digital imaging, digital instrumentation, digital signal processing, electronic design and test automation, embedded systems and control, fault tolerant design, medical imaging, microscopy, mixed-signal design and test, nanoelectronics, photonics, network systems, power systems control and protection, real time embedded systems, renewable generation, RF electronics, smart grid and hybrid vehicles, telecommunications, VLSI design, wetlab techniques.
- Instruction Labs
- Research Labs
- High Performance Computing Facility
Fabrication and Anechoic Chamber Lab
Location: Engr E-128 Video of Lab
The Antennas Laboratory provides students with the computing, fabricating, testing and measuring equipment necessary to analyze, design, build, test and measure antennas for a wide variety of wireless applications from cell phones to radars. In addition, the lab features CST Studio, VPI Photonics, and TIMS-301 Modeling Systems for communication related courses.
Computer-Based Instruction Lab
Location: Engr E-136 Video of Lab
The Computer-Based Instruction Lab lab consists of workstations featuring the following software: Microsoft Office, Matlab, Visual Studio, Visual C++, Matlab, National Instruments LabView, Orcad, and other software.
Electronics Lab
Location: Engr E-127 Video of Lab
The Electronics Laboratory contains instruments such as signal analyzers, function generators and oscilloscopes for advanced projects and research.
Electronics I Lab
Location: Engr E-237 Video of Lab
The Electronics I Laboratory is comprised of workstations with each workstation consisting of a windows computer, oscilloscope, digital voltmeter, power supply, frequency generator, and logic analyzer. Each computer features the following software: Microsoft Office, Matlab, Visual Studio, Xilinx/Vivado, Matlab, National Instruments LabView, PSpice, Orcad, Digilent Adept, DipTrace, Femm, and other software.
Electronics II Lab
Location: Engr E-231 Video of Lab
The Electronics II Laboratory is comprised of workstations with each workstation consisting of a windows computer, oscilloscope, digital voltmeter, power supply, frequency generator, and logic analyzer. Each computer features the following software: Microsoft Office, Matlab, Visual Studio, Xilinx/Vivado, Matlab, National Instruments LabView, PSpice, Orcad, Digilent Adept, DipTrace, Femm, and other software.
Instrumentation Lab
Location: Engr E-3 Video of Lab
The Instrumentation Laboratory provides undergraduate and graduate students with biomedical equipment necessary to instruct fundamentals of biomedical instruments including Biosignal measurement and analysis, Biosignal manipulation, Bioinstrumentation, and electronics design for instrumentation.
The layout of the lab consists of 6 general-purpose student lab benches plus an optical table for experiments. Each student lab bench consists of a windows computer, oscilloscope, function generator, BioPAC system, National Instruments USB data acquisition device with LabVIEW software, Digilent FPGA development boards, Backyar Brain Heart and Brain SpikerBox, Neuron and Muscle SpikeBox, and Evos FLoid cell imaging station.
Measurements Lab
Location: Engr E-37 Video of Lab
The Measurements Laboratory provides undergraduate and graduate students with a state-of-the-art, hands-on teaching facility necessary to instruct fundamentals of biomedical studies including wet-lab techniques, Biosignal recording and analysis, Biomedical Imaging, Bioinstrumentation, and Microscopy.
The layout of the lab includes 4 general-purpose student lab benches plus two wet-lab benches. Each student lab bench consists of Evos XL microscope, micropipette, serological pipette, Magnetic stirrer, and Vortex. The wet-lab equipment consists of RT-PCR instruments, Western Blot System, distilled water system, biosafety cabinet, CO2 incubator, chemical hood, temperature controlled centrifuge, Benchtop incubator-shaker, Nanodrop UV-vis spectrophotometer, pH meter, Balance, Automatic autoclave, Osmometer, and Refrigerate/Freezer.
Photonics Instruction Lab
Location: Engr E-214 Video of Lab
The Photonics Instruction Laboratory provides students in undergraduate levels with the fundamentals of Photonics needed to be engaged in an experimental research. Photonics I (ECE 441) and Photonics II (ECE 448) experiments are: intensity modulation using polarizers and wave retarders, measurement of Gaussian beam complex curvature, construction of a Michelson's interferometer to be used for displacement and wavelength measurement, handling fibers and determination of numerical aperture, assembling and testing of a fiber-optic datalink, laser light modulation using an electro-optic device, and optical filtering using Fourier optics. In addition to these experiments, the Photonics research focuses on the terahertz optical A/D convertors and the photorefractive-based resonators.
Power Systems Lab
Location: Engr E-215 Video of Lab
The Power Systems Lab is a large teaching lab that accommodates students specializing in power systems. The power systems equipment includes the Hampden electric machines and power electronics experimentation consoles for conducting experiments and demonstrations on ac and dc electric machines and transformers, as well as power electronic converters and drives. The lab facilities also include the LabVolt experimentation consoles used for small scale power system modeling and simulation.
Robotics and Control Lab
Location: Engr E-132 Video of Lab
The Robotics and Control Laboratory includes equipment related to introductory robotics, mechatronics, and embedded control. This equipment includes robotic arms, haptic devices, programmable logic controllers, heatflow experiments, as well as two industrial robots.
Senior Design Labs
Location: Engr E-131 & Engr E-238 Video of Lab Video of Secondary Lab
The senior design labs provides senior design students computer resources and space to work on their projects. Each team is assigned a unique computer that features software specific to their team project.
Supercomputer and Advanced Control Lab
Location: Engr E-230 Video of Lab
The Supercomputer and Advanced Control Laboratory consists of several high performance computing servers.
Unix Workstation Lab
Location: Engr E-234 Video of Lab
The Unix Workstation Laboratory consists of Linux based workstations featuring Cadence and Synopsys commercial software used for designing application-specific integrated circuits, and systems on chips.
Bio-MEMS Lab
Director: Dr. Hui Li
Location: Engr E-123 Website: Translational Medical Device Laboratory
The Bio-MEMS lab develops micro/nanoengineering devices to improve current practices for pathogen diagnosis, personalize treatments, and drug screening.
Laboratory for Control and Optimization Lab
Director: Dr. Arash Komaee
Location: Engr E-205 Phone: (618) 453-7022
The Laboratory for Control and Optimization Lab is dedicated to research on control of miniaturized systems. The particular emphasis is on design and control of micro-scale robots remotely actuated by magnetic fields. Magnetic fields generated by electro- or permanent magnets are smartly manipulated to gain precise control over magnetized micro-robots. On the theoretical side, our research is aimed at developing novel control, measurement, and signal processing techniques required for precise positioning of micro-scale particles. On the experimental side, we design and implement physical testbeds to verify the effectiveness of our theory and advance them to applied technology. Research areas include control theory, estimation theory, signal processing, and electromagnetics.
Electronic Design and Test Automation Lab
Director: Dr. Spyros Tragoudas
Location: Engr E-201 Phone: (618) 453-7051
The Electronic Design and Test Automation Laboratory research areas are in VLSI Design Automation, Verification and Validation of Embedded Systems, Emerging Technologies, Hardware Security.
Digital Imaging Lab
Director: Dr. Ying Chen
Location: Engr E-208 Phone: (618) 453-7030
The Digital Imaging Laboratory research areas are in medical image reconstruction, signal and image processing.
Digital Instrumentation Lab
Director: Dr. Jun Qin
Location: Engr E-229 Phone: (618) 453-4038
The Digital Instrumentation Laboratory houses equipment and software for research activities related to sensor and instrumentation, digital data acquisition, viral instrumentation, signal analysis, and ultrasound devices. Research areas include bioinstrumentation, digital data acquisition and analysis, acoustic medical applications, noise induced hearing loss, medical system development, ultrasound imaging, and theraputic ultrasound.
Embedded Systems Software Lab
Director: Dr. Iraklis Anagnostopoulos
Location: Engr E-121 Phone: (618) 453-3285
The Embedded Systems Software Lab houses equipment and software for research activities related to embedded and many-core systems. Our research activities focus on the development of novel algorithms for run-time resource management, software frameworks and application customization. The goal is to produce innovative and efficient solutions while keeping high quality standards. Research Areas include embedded systems, real-time systems, many-core architectures, and application customization.
Fault Tolerant Design Lab
Director: Dr. Dimitrios Kagaris
Location: Engr E-115 Phone: (618) 453-7994
The Fault Tolerant Design Laboratory research areas are in: (a) digital design automation, (b) design for testability, (c) sensor networks, and (d) data mining and bioinformatics. The research focus is on optimization of transistor-level designs, design for testability, and VLSI test. Research is also being done on sensor networks.
Mixed Signal and Test Lab
Director: Dr. Haibo Wang
Location: Engr E-4C Phone: (618) 453-7659 Website: Haibo Wang
The Mixed-Signal Design and Test Laboratory research areas are in in mixed-signal VLSI, sensor signal acquisition and processing, intelligent sensor system, and medical sensor device.
Nanoelectronics Lab
Director: Dr. Shaikh Ahmed
Location: Engr E-233 Phone: (618) 453-7053
Research activities in the Nanoelectronics Laboratory focus mainly in the field of theoretical and computational nanoelectronics with particular efforts to address technological challenges and to find possible solutions. The Group is currently interested and working on the multiscale electronic structure and quantum transport modeling of various nanostructures including novel transistors, semiconducting 2-D structures and nanowires, quantum dots and nanocrystals, solid-state lighting sources and their reliability, nanoscale thermoelectric and piezoelectric energy-harvesting devices, and nanoelectronic devices for applications in harsh environments. Research and computational efforts in the Nanoelectronics Laboratory make extensive use of advanced algorithms and state-of-the-art high-performance cluster and CPU/GPGPU distributed computing platforms. The Group is also extensively involved in developing community nanoelectronics software/tools for researchers and academicians around the globe.
Network Systems Lab
Director: Dr. Ning Weng
Location: Engr E-112 Phone: (618) 453-7014
The Network Systems Laboratory focuses on programmable network systems, network security and wireless sensor networks. The increasing network bandwidth, expanding network services, emerging wireless sensor networks and lacking security and quality of service pose continuing and growing challenges for the Internet to evolve and scale. Our lab addresses these challenges by developing network systems architecture, algorithms, methodology and system prototyping. Research areas include network processing systems, deep packet inspection, sensor networks, and embedded system security.
Photonics Lab
Director: Dr. Mohammad Sayeh
Location: Engr E-211, E-214 Phone: (618) 453-7022
Photonics Laboratories provide students in undergraduate and graduate levels with the fundamentals of Photonics needed to be engaged in an experimental research. Photonics I (ECE 441) and Photonics II (ECE 448) experiments are: Intensity modulation using polarizers and wave retarders, Measurement of Gaussian beam complex curvature, Construction of a Michelson's interferometer to be used for displacement and wavelength measurement, Handling fibers and determination of numerical aperture, Assembling and testing of a fiber-optic datalink, Laser light modulation using an electro-optic device, and Optical filtering using Fourier optics. In addition to these experiments, the Photonics research focuses on the terahertz optical A/D convertors and the photorefractive-based resonators. Other research areas include neural networks, image transmission through optical fiber, 3D optical storage, and photonic delta sigma modulators.
Power Systems Design Lab
Director:
Location: Engr E-109
The Power Systems Design Laboratory’s current research concentrations are (1) power systems operation and planning, (2) power systems protection, (3) power systems optimization, (4) renewable energy systems integration, (5) electricity markets analysis, (6) power systems security, (7) power systems reliability, and (8) smart grid.
VLSI System Research Lab
Director: Dr. Chao Lu
Location: Engr E-225 Phone: (618) 453-3035
The VLSI System Research Laboratory’s current research focuses on developing low power and high performance VLSI Systems, including: (1) process-device-circuit-system co-design and optimization (such as energy harvesting systems, 3D-IC VLSI system with emerging novel devices), (2) high efficient video coding (H.265) VLSI hardware implementation.
Wireless Communications and Information Systems Lab
Director: Dr. Gayan Amarasuriya Aruma Baduge
Location: Engr E-105 Phone: (618) 453-7659
Wireless Communications and Information Systems Laboratory (WCISL) is actively involved in the theoretical and practical aspects of modern communications and information systems. Research in WCISL focuses on design and analysis of (i) novel physical-layer transmission technologies for next-generation wireless communication systems and (ii) efficient algorithms for information processing through the applications of mathematical and statistical theories. Other research areas include massive MIMO systems, millimeter-wave wireless communications, wireless energy harvesting for Internet-of-Things, device-to-device communications, physical-layer security, and cooperative relay networks.
Biomedical Measurements Lab
Director: Dr. Chilman Bae
Location: Engr E-037 Phone: (618) 453-2130 Website: BAE Laboratory
Dr. Bae's lab is dedicated to advancing our understanding of cellular mechanobiology through innovative biotechniques and tools, including numerical and computational simulations. They have made significant strides in the electrophysiological study of human mechanosensitive ion channels, specifically PIEZO1 and PIEZO2, by characterizing their biophysical properties and revealing the pathophysiological role of PIEZO1 in humans. Additionally, the lab investigates the synaptic mechanisms underlying opioid-induced, neuropathic, and HIV-associated pain in the spinal cord's dorsal horn.
High-performance computing (HPC) refers to the use of supercomputers and/or computer clusters to accelerate the solution of fundamental problems in science, engineering and business that have broad scientific and economic impact. With a generous support from NSF (Award No. 0855221), SIUC has developed an HPC center (SIHPSI: Southern Illinois HPC Infrastructure), a facility first-of-its-kind not only within the campus but in the greater Southern Illinois region also. SIHPCI initially consists of 106 dual quad-core Dell PowerEdge R410 compute nodes running Red Hat Enterprise Linux and has been fully operational since Spring 2010. Each node has 8 (eight) 64-bit Intel Xeon 2.23 GHz E5520 CPUs and 8 GB of RAM and is connected with Gigabit Ethernet and supported by appropriate hardware. 90 TB of storage is installed behind the Master Node. The machine offers access to scratch space.
SIHPSI is expected to expand the scope and quality of research at SIUC in two broad areas: (1)Computational nanoscience and engineering (CNE): Projects include quantum simulations of nanoscale devices with tens of millions of complex degrees of freedom; computational design of catalysts at the molecular level; large scale computations of multiphase flows such as solidification of binary alloys, dynamics of red and white blood cells in arteries, boiling phenomena in energy generation and electronic cooling, and enhancement of heat and mass transfer by bubble columns in bioprocesses; molecular dynamics studies of polymer morphology at interfaces; fundamental studies of the non-equilibrium states of matter; and quantum information processing exploring new properties of atomic nuclei. (2) Geographic Information Science (GIS): Involves strategic research to investigate new algorithms for representation and transformation of massive dynamic data allowing a cognitive and visual interpretation for analysts by exploiting invariant geometric properties. New representations of the large-scale datasets have the potential to change the way people utilize the data for knowledge discovery.
Computational research in the nanoscience area will support experimental sciences in the pursuit of scientific discovery and technical innovation and is expected to have significant impact in a wide range of technological applications including low-power and fast transistors, coatings, lithography, adhesives to light emitting diodes and sensors, various smart and functionalized materials, and quantum computation. While the GIS research will facilitate efficient data streaming, crime and health studies, medical imaging, and genome mapping. SIHPCI, as the first community HPC infrastructure at SIUC, will serve as a nucleation center for further purchase/addition of HPC resources. The facility would offer new faculty members a much quicker time frame (1-2 weeks) to be up and start computing as compared to a custom cluster configuration which usually takes about 6 months from start to production.
SIHPCI will be closely tied to major educational activities within the campus, and will have a significant impact on SIUC's curriculum development at both undergraduate and graduate levels. SIHPCI is expected to address the needs of more than 20 faculty members (including the SIHPCI investigators Shaikh Ahmed, Mesfin Tsige, Mark Byrd, Tonny Oyana, and Qiang Cheng) spanning over 7 departments. Also, in accordance with SIUC's long tradition of service to its community and region, SIHPCI will play an outstanding role in the greater Southern Illinois area through training a diverse community of college teachers/instructors as well as K-12 students in the field of parallel computing and data analysis and thus will support the overall economic vitality and sustainability of the region.
Earlier in 2009, SIHPSI principal investigator Shaikh Ahmed, an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in the College of Engineering, was one of four researchers nationwide included in Oak Ridge National Laboratory's first High-Performance Computing Grants Competition that allowed his research group access to ORNL's Jaguar supercomputer and other top-end computing platforms and staff housed at the site in Tennessee. Ahmed's group uses the massive computing power to conduct research in petascale modeling and designing of nanoscale devices for use in harsh-environments.
Visit the High-Performance Computing website for more information.
