Electrical Engineering

Related Student Organizations and University Programs

Association for Computing Machinery

IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers)

National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE)

Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers

Society of Physics Students

Society of Women Engineers (SWE)

Tau Beta Pi (engineering honor society)

Career Paths

With a professional education that’s grounded in the liberal arts, Bucknell’s electrical engineers are in demand. Graduates go into a wide variety of careers, from computer and network positions to employment in the power industry. Recent alumni of the program have secured positions at the following companies:

• First Solar
• PPL Corporation
• Lockheed Martin Corporation
• BAE Systems
• SynQor
• Sikorsky Aircraft
• Merck & Co., Inc.

Grants & Awards

Recently, electrical engineering faculty members have secured grants and awards from the following organizations:

• Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania
• Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Foundation
• Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
• National Science Foundation

Selected Faculty Publications

Recently, faculty in the electrical engineering department have had their scholarship appear in the following sampling of publications:

IEEE Circuits and Systems Magazine

IEEE Signal Processing Letters

IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems

IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation

IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing

IEEE Transactions on Magnetics

IEEE Transactions on Audio, Speech and Language Processing

IEEE Transactions on Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems

Journal of Robotic Systems

Photonics Technology Letters

Optical Engineering Letters

Internships

Electrical engineering majors can gain hands-on and career experience through summer internships. Bucknell’s Career Development Center provides guidance to students who want to pursue internships. Recently, students have interned at:

• Allegheny Power
• BAE Systems
• First Solar
• General Electric
• IBM
• Johnson & Johnson
• JPMorgan Chase
• Lockheed Martin
• NASA
• National Institute of Standards and Technology
• National Security Agency
• Northrop Grumman
• PPL
• Raytheon
• SAIC

Study Abroad

The College of Engineering has recently created new Bucknell faculty-led study abroad opportunities for engineering students. These programs have taken students to England, Argentina, Switzerland, Germany, France, Sweden, Norway and Denmark.

Program Details

• Students become part of a small department that emphasizes close interaction between students and faculty.
• The electrical engineering program at Bucknell emphasizes active learning with a strong laboratory component to nurture the intellectual, professional and personal development of its students.  All courses, including laboratory sections, are taught by professors.
• Bucknell electrical engineering graduates not only have good technical skills, but they also are skilled communicators. The electrical engineering curriculum emphasizes oral and written communication skills by requiring students to present and document ideas, innovations and designs, both individually and in teams.
• Bucknell’s electrical engineering students have diverse interests; they are well represented in campus musical organizations and sports teams.
• Bucknell offers a new five-year joint-degree program in engineering and management as well as a B.S. in computer engineering offered jointly by the departments of computer science and electrical engineering.
• We also offer a five-year program in which students can earn a Bachelor of Arts degree and a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering.
• A special five-year program allows students to earn a B.S. and an M.S. in electrical engineering.

Faculty

Maurice F. Aburdene
B.S., M.S., Ph.D. Connecticut
Scholarly interests: Massively parallel computers, computer modeling and simulation, digital signal processing, distributed algorithms, instrumentation and measurements

Alan Cheville
B.S., Ph.D. Rice University
Scholarly interests: Optoelectronically generated THz spectroscopy and imaging as well as engineering education system and learning environments

K. Joseph Hass
B.S., M.S. Kansas State; Ph.D. Idaho
Scholarly interests: embedded computing, real-time signal processing, novel solid-state memory technology, radiation-tolerant design

David F. Kelley
B.S., M.S. Virginia Tech; Ph.D. Penn State
Scholarly interests: antenna analysis and design, biologically inspired optimization methods, computational electromagnetics

Richard J. Kozick
B.S. Bucknell; M.S. Stanford; Ph.D. Pennsylvania
Scholarly interests: sensor networks, wireless communications, statistical signal processing

Jie Lin
B.S. Electronic Technology and Science University of China; Ph.D. Maryland
Scholarly interests: optoelectronic material and devices, photonic integrated circuits, semiconductor devices fabrication technology, silicon photonics, nanophotonics, fiber optics communication systems

Robert Nickel
Diplom Ingenieur (B.S.) Rheinisch-Westfalische Technische Hochschule, Germany; M.S.E., Ph.D. Michigan
Scholarly interests: speech signal processing (speech modeling, synthesis, enhancement, recognition), detection and estimation theory, general signal theory, time-frequency analysis, generalized scale analysis

Michael S. Thompson
B.S. North Carolina State; M.S., Ph.D. Virginia Tech
Scholarly interests: networking, mobile computing, reconfigurable computing

Matthew A. Watkins

Undergraduate Research

The Department of Electrical Engineering encourages students to participate in research opportunities with faculty mentors. Some students develop independent projects, while others assist professors with their research. Recent project titles include:

• Design of a Ground Penetrating Radar Antenna for Landmine Detection Applications
• Emitter Identification for Wireless Communication Networks
• Yagi-Uda Arrays with Null-Steering Capability
• Fire-Fighting Robot
• Designing a Processor Board for Use in Mobile Robotics
• Wireless Electrical Guitar
• Photonic Integrated Polarization Splitters
• Flexible Inter Network Stack Framework
• Embedded Distributed Computing Using Reconfigurable Computing Systems
• Reliable Content Addressable Memory (CAM) Arrays
• Exploring Nanoelectronic Devices

Facilities & Resources

Bucknell offers well-equipped, modern laboratories with a good complement of computer-controlled instrumentation. Labs are accessible to students 24 hours a day. Resources include:

• New Agilent 7000-series oscilloscopes
• New Agilent 3 GHz spectrum analyzers and RF signal generators
• Agilent 8.5 GHz vector network analyzer
• Matlab, Mathcad, and other engineering software available on all lab computers
• Circuits/signal processing/communications/image processing
• Digital electronics laboratory, including FPGA and microcontroller development boards and digital logic analyzers
• Electronics/computer-controlled instrumentation systems
• Electric machinery/power electronics
• Electromagnetics/optics laboratory
• Large number of high-performance field programmable gate array (FPGA) platforms for teaching and research in custom, high-speed processing applications and reconfigurable computing

The Institute for Leadership in Technology and Management — a joint effort between the College of Engineering and the School of Management — gives selected management and engineering students an opportunity to participate in a two-summer learning experience. The goal of the institute is to provide a holistic process for educating the next generation of technology managers.

Courses Offered

Advanced Control System
Advanced Digital Design
Advanced Electrical Engineering Laboratory
Advanced Electrical Engineering Problems
Biomedical Signal Processing and Instrumentation
Circuit Theory I and II
Communication and Information Systems
Computer Communication Networks
Computer Engineering Design
Digital Image Processing
Digital Signal Processing
Digital Speech and Audio Processing
Digital System Design
Digital VLSI Circuit Design
Electric Power Systems
Electrical Control Systems
Electrical Engineering Analysis
Electrical Engineering Design
Electrical Engineering Fundamentals
Electrical Engineering Honors Thesis
Electrical Engineering Problems
Electromechanical Energy Conversion
Electronics I and II
Fiber Optics Fundamentals
Foundations of Electrical Engineering
Fuzzy Systems and Neural Networks
High Performance Computer Architecture
Introduction to Digital Systems
Introduction to Mechatronics
Linear Systems
Microcontroller System Design
Neural Signals and Systems
Optoelectronic Materials and Devices
Power Electronics
Probability with Applications in Electrical Engineering
Project Planning and Engineering Design
Simulation
Theory and Applications of Electromagnetics
Topics in Wireless System Design

Graduate and Professional School

Electrical engineering majors at Bucknell often go on to pursue graduate degrees in electrical engineering or related fields. Recently, graduates have gone on to the following schools:

• Columbia University
• Cornell University
• Oxford University
• Pennsylvania State University
• Princeton University
• Purdue University
• University of Maryland
• University of Michigan
• Georgia Tech
• University of Texas at Austin
• University of California at Santa Barbara
• University of Colorado at Boulder