Master of Engineering (M. Eng.) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

Master of Engineering (M. Eng.) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) are research-based degrees, awarded on the basis of independent but supervised research in a topic, culminating in the submission of a thesis. In addition, M. Eng. and Ph. D. candidates must pass a number of prescribed graduate courses and an oral examination on the subject matter of thesis.

Admission into M.Eng. program is normally extended to candidates with a bachelor’s degree, with at least 2nd class honours or its equivalent, while a Master’s degree by research is required for Ph.D. candidate. In both cases, the candidate must show the ability to pursue research in the proposed field of study.

The department constantly upgrades our laboratory facilities and provides a conducive research environment for researchers to work towards the development of state-of-art technologies.

With an aim to better equip and prepare graduate students for their entrance into the industry upon graduation, as well as, creating a local pool of talent for the industry, students pursuing Ph.D. program are also allowed to opt for the Industrial Track Ph.D. program. The department runs industrial track Ph.D. programs with Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing, Ericsson Cyberlab and Siemens.

Research Areas

Research activities in the department are organised into 5 areas, namely, Communications & Microwave, Computer Engineering, Control Engineering, Microelectronics, and Power & Machines.

Communications and Microwave

For communications and microwave, activities are focused on wireless communications, MMIC design and electromagnetic modeling. Many of the staff members are actively involved in the research and consultancy activities of the Radar and Signal Processing Laboratory and the Center for Microwaves and RF. Major facilities on-campus include a Virtual Center for Device Modeling and MMIC Design, a national EMI/EMC Research Center and an externally-funded $5.5 million high-specifications microwave anechoic chamber to serve as national resource centers.

Computer Engineering

With a general interest on computers and their applications, research activities are carried out in four research groups with well-equipped laboratories in the areas of biomedical engineering, computer communication networks, digital systems and applications, specialised

operating and compiler systems, and vision and image processing.

Staff members are engaged in several collaborative and consultancy projects with industry and there are also many research projects funded by the University for investigating problems of a more fundamental nature.

Control Engineering

The primary goal of the Control Engineering group is to establish a world class program, commited to human resource training as well as contributing to long term research in intelligent control. The main focus is on intelligent systems design, engineering and core technology development. The research has focused on the general field of intelligent control and specialized research topics such as automatic tuning methods, adaptive control systems, neural and fuzzy control, intelligent motion control, computer-aided engineering of advanced controllers, and knowledge-based control using expert system methodologies. In addition to long-term fundamental research, the activities also encompass the design and practical applications of advanced control theory. This is appropriate as there is a strong demand for engineers with practical control and automation expertise. The local industry is also just beginning to have in-house capability to translate theory into practice and our graduates can help to accelerate such development.

Microelectronics

Microelectronics is one of the key industries identified to steer Singapore into the 21st century, to create wealth and to generate employment for highly skilled professionals. The research areas include silicon materials process a characterisation, device modelling characterisation, reliability & failure analysis studies, VLSI design and optoelectronic materials & characterisation. Recent work has also begun on nanomagnetic materials & devices for information storage.

Power and Machines

Research activities range from the use of intelligent system techniques on large-scale power and transportation systems to device and circuit designs in power electronics. The emphasis of these activities is on the application of emerging technologies such as neural nets, fuzzy logic and expert systems, not only to traditional problems such as lightning protection and prediction but also to new problems arising from the integration of power electronics, control and actuator design.

For information on staff research areas, please visit the following website at: (http://www.ece.nus.edu.sg/people/acad-frm.htm).

Master of Science

Electrical Engineering

For practicing engineers, who wish to advance their knowledge and careers in their chosen fields of specialisation through evening courses (and at the option of the candidate, a project as well), they can pursue the Master of Science (M.Sc.) program in Electrical Engineering. The department offers the program with possible specialisations which include microelectronics and communications engineering. A candidate can also opt to pursue a M.Sc. degree with or without specialisation. For admission, the candidate must have at least a good degree from an established university and some related work experience. Candidates may opt for part-time sfudy, ranging from 2 to 4 years, or full-time study, ranging from 1 to 2 years.

(Further details can be obtained from http://www.ece.nus.edu.sg/program/msc.html)