Decide Ur Specialization

ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICAL ENGINEERING

The coursework options available in this field include: • • • • • • • • •

Fluids Structural Analysis Guidance and Control Propulsion Spacecraft design and testing Control system design and theory Applied aerodynamics, compressible flow, applied aeronautics Mechanics of composites Classical dynamics and space mechanics

The research options in Aeronautical Engineering that are available in various universities can be classified broadly as below: Development and application of numerical techniques in the design of aerospace products. Methods are developed to solve mathematical models of fluid flow ranging from the linearized Aerospace Computing potential flow equations to the fully non-linear unsteady Navier-Stokes equations. Systems are used to analyze and design vehicles ranging from sailboats to commercial airliners. Involves the study of the interaction of compressible vortices with aerodynamic surfaces, with emphasis on the noise generated by such interactions. Aero Fluid Mechanics

Aerospace Robotics

Also dedicated to basic studies of the fundamental properties of turbulent flow. Areas of interest include measurements of the structure of turbulent flames, direct numerical simulation of free shear flows, and use of topological methods for interpretation of complex three-dimensional vector fields. Involves creation of experimental systems for developing advanced robot systems and new control techniques with applications to free-flying space robots, to undersea and air systems, to mobile ground robots, and to industrial automation. Basically an interdepartmental program, with specific application into aerospace.

Aircraft Aerodynamics and Design

Basic research in applied aerodynamics and aircraft design. Work ranges from the development of computational and experimental methods for aerodynamic analysis to studies of unconventional aircraft concepts and new architectures for multidisciplinary design optimization. Involves studies of unusual aircraft configurations and novel flight control concepts.

Turbulence Simulations

It is a multidisciplinary research field to develop new turbulence models and associated numerical simulation methodologies that will enable a new paradigm for the design of advanced systems in which turbulence plays a controlling role. Research aims to develop simulation technology capable of dealing with systems as complex as a full jet engine and phenomena as complex as the plasma turbulence of a Hall thruster.

GPS & Navigation

Involved is studying and building systems for vehicle navigation and attitude determination. Since the GPS satellite navigation system became operational in 1993, there is increasing interest in an array of applications for this technology.

Guidance and Control includes a wide spectrum of specialized research for making and testing novel instruments and control systems of extremely high precision. Applications include aerospace vehicle guidance and control, sensing instrument Guidance and Control development and applications, internal combustion engine feedback for improved efficiency and reduced pollution, robotics for manufacturing and operations in space, precision engineering and fabrication, and ultraprecision machine tool design and development.

Hybrid Systems

Structures and Composites

Hybrid Systems Research involves designing algorithms for the analysis and control of complex aerodynamic systems. Research ranges from systems design and control for the next generation of Air Traffic Systems, through the development of algorithms for automatic flight-mode switching in flightmanagement systems, to the design and control of a team of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. Research encompasses composite structural design, including vibration, stability, impact damage, and environmental effects; biological applications of composites; grid structures; composites in sports equipment; composite manufacturing; fiber optic and piezoelectric sensors; structural health monitoring; and smart structures.

BIOMEDICAL OR BIOENGINEERING, BIOINFORMATICS Biomedical engineering integrates physical, chemical, mathematical, and computational sciences and engineering principles to study biology, medicine, behavior, and health. It advances fundamental concepts; creates knowledge from the molecular to the organ systems level; and develops innovative biologics, materials, processes, implants, devices and informatics approaches for the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, for patient rehabilitation, and for improving health. There are 2 MS programs of note, one in bioengineering and the other in bioinformatics. The coursework options available in this field include: • • • • • •

Cardiovascular mechanics and biology Biomaterials and tissue engineering Neuro-engineering Biomedical imaging and informatics Cellular and biomolecular engineering Informatics

The research options are very specialized and the most commonly available ones are:

Biomedical Computation

Biomedical Devices

New computational approaches to gathering and analyzing data must be developed to take advantage of our wealth of biological information. Integrating this information into models of biological activity and interaction will increase our predictive capacities, and enable us to control, manipulate, and create biological systems. Researchers working in biomedical design invent new technologies for life sciences research and clinical applications. Bioengineers are helping to translate advances in the life sciences into devices that directly impact human welfare and the future of scientific research. Examples include MEMS and microfluidic devices, synthetic bone materials, neural prosthetic systems, Computer assisted surgery, etc.

Biomedical Imaging

Cell & Molecular Engineering

Imaging enables researchers to track the movements of molecules, cells, fluids, gases, or sometimes even whole organisms. Imaging techniques such as x-ray crystallography and magnetic resonance imaging can also yield information about important biological structures from single proteins to the human brain. The frontiers of biomedical imaging promise to make diagnosis of disease more accurate and less invasive, and to improve our understanding of disease. Molecular and Cellular Engineering uses engineering principles to understand and construct cellular and molecular circuits with useful properties and can also be used to enhance the cellular production of pharmaceuticals, delivery of genes to a particular cell type and tissue production. At the cellular level, metabolic engineering can create cellular biosensors that can monitor the environment for toxins or other specific molecules.

Regenerative medicine seeks to understand how and why stem cells differentiate into specialized tissues and to harness this potential for a wide variety of medical applications. Advances in regenerative medicine have the potential to prevent birth Regenerative Medicine defects, retard damage to diseased tissues, repair injured tissues, enhance the metabolic or biomechanical function of tissues, and manipulate normal and abnormal tissue growth processes. Research in regenerative medicine occurs from the molecular level to clinical applications.

Informatics

Recent advances in molecular biology, genomics and proteomics have resulted in high-throughput technologies that generate vast amounts of data. This data can enable the invention of new drugs and therapies to fight human diseases. Computational methods of bioinformatics are being developed to organize, mine, and interpret these overwhelming amounts of data. Specialized research includes gene finding, gene regulation and protein trafficking to metabolic networks and processes of cell-cell adhesion and cell deformation to blood flow dynamics, atherosclerotic plaque mechanics, bone mechanics, and drug delivery in the eye.

CIVIL AND ENVIRONMENTAL ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING Varying from uni to uni, the various concentrations in this field are either offered as separate programs or as major tracks under the MS in Civil Engineering. or MS in Environmental Engineering. Some schools offer an MS in architecture under the civil dept. also. We have categorized it separately. The major coursework highlights include: • • •

Environmental and Water Studies Construction Engineering and Management Structural Engineering and Geomechanics

Specialized Research areas have been classified as under:

Construction Engineering and management

Environmental planning and management

The program emphasizes managing the close relationship among activities throughout the life-cycle of a project, from initial planning to ultimate disposal, decommissioning and/or rehabilitation. Involves building construction, architecture, and city planning programs. Research opportunities in air, land and water science & engineering. The principal focus areas include: environmental biotechnology; water quality and treatment; wastewater reclamation and reuse; hazardous and solid waste engineering; ground water modeling and treatment; air quality monitoring, pollution control and modeling; environmental sciences; and industrial ecology.

Environmental fluid The focus of the Environmental Fluid Mechanics & Water mechanics and water Resources Program is on water, air, and land systems, with resources emphasis on the science and engineering applications of environmental transport processes and sustainable resource management.

Geosystems Engineering

Structural Engineering, mechanics and materials

Transportation systems engineering

Misc. specialization list under Civil and Environmental engg.

Geosystems engineering merges geotechnics, geophysics, geomechanics, and geology and focuses on the behavior of natural materials in engineered systems. Research includes advanced techniques for site and material characterization; constitutive and micromechanical modeling; natural and manmade hazard mitigation; engineered soils; biotechnology; geotechnical aspects of resource recovery; and foundation design, slope stability, and excavation support. This program offers graduate instruction and research in structural analysis and design, behavior of structural systems, earthquake engineering, engineering science and mechanics, high-performance materials, computer-aided engineering, and intelligent engineering learning environments. The study of transportation, must not only focus on efficient and safe design and operations but also on the link between travel behavior, urban form, and environmental quality. The technical core courses include urban transportation planning, traffic engineering, design of highway and transit facilities, transportation administration, and transportation statistics. • • • • • • • • •

Hazardous substance research Environmental biotechnology Water quality control Building energy – design and management Maintenence systems Earthquake engineering Marine science and technology Particulate media research Oceanography

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING The major coursework options available in Chemical Engineering are: • • • • • • • •

Complex Fluids Environmental studies Biochemistry Materials MEMS-Nano based studies Modeling and simulation Reaction engineering Thermodynamics

The research work options widely available are highly inter-disciplinary. They are: Processes as diverse as chemical production, bioreaction, creation of advanced materials, protein separation, and Thermodynamics and environmental treatment are governed by classical concepts of molecular thermodynamics. Research is involved in predicting material computation properties from molecular structure, applying quantum mechanics to catalyst design, supercritical fluid processing, the behavior of complex fluid structures, etc

Chemical transport processes

The research includes experimental testing and analytical and computational modeling; the applications range among an enormous variety of mechanical, chemical, and biological processes. Related to polymer flow and processing, diffusion in complex fluids, defect formation and evolution in nearcrystalline materials, microfluidics, fluid instability, transport in living tissue, numerical solution of field equations, and many other areas of transport phenomena.

Research focus is mainly in catalyst design, complex chemical Catalysis and reaction synthesis, bioreactor design, surface chemistry, miniature reactors, chemical reaction networks, and many other areas of engineering chemical reaction engineering.

Polymers

Materials related research field with work in polymer kinetics, rheology, processing, compounding, specialized applications, biodegradable polymers, self-assembly and patterning, and many other areas of polymer (material) engineering.

Materials

Surfaces and structures

Misc. specialization list under Chemical Engineering

The inorganic compounds found in nature are the basis for new materials made by modifying molecular composition. Research involved in plasma etching, thin-film chemical vapor deposition, crystal growth, nano-crystalline structure, molecular simulation, scaffolds for bone and soft tissue regeneration, biocompatible polymers and related fields. Structure is the basis for function, and by manipulating tiny length scales, the resulting nanostructure makes available new capabilities, and thus new technologies and products. Related research in colloids, emulsions, surfactants, structured fluids, thin films, liquid crystals, sol-gel processing, surface patterning, nanostructured materials, surface chemistry, and many other areas of nanotechnology and surface science. • • • • • •

Energy and Environmental engineering Chemical systems design and engineering Cryogenics Combustion research Air control and aerosol technology Application of MEMS to chemical sensing devices

ARCHITECTURE The related coursework and project-work options at the Graduate level in M.Arch are: • • • • • •

Structures Modern architecture Architecture design Urban design Contemporary construction Environmental technology

Architecture allows a lot of Co-op opportunities and for students to work on related projects. M.Arch prepares grad students for architectural practice and licensing. An M.S in architecture is also available for people without an undergraduate architecture degree and is basically a theoretical degree. The research concentrations include architectural theory; computer visualization, historical interpretation, human-environment studies, interior design, urban design studies.

ELECTRICAL AND COMPUTER COMPUTER ENGINEERING ECE is one of the vastest fields available in the US, especially at the Graduate level. As specializations are many, please find the coursework tracks and research options listed together. I have tried to categorize all the specializations into 10 broad areas, with details listed next to them.

Bioengineering

• • •

Biosensors/BioMEMS Neuroengineering Medical Imaging and Signal Processing

Computer Engineering

• • • • • •

Computer Architecture Embedded Systems and Software Design Tools, Test and Verification Computer Networks and Internetworking Distributed Systems and Software VLSI Design

Digital Signal processing

• • • • • • • •

DSP Theory Image and Video Signal Processing Multimedia Signal Processing and Networking Signal Processing for Communications and Security Radar and Array Processing Speech and Audio Processing Statistical Signal Processing Hardware/Software Systems for Signal Processing

•

Power System Monitoring, Analysis Protection, Operation and Control Distributed Generation Power System Simulation and Visualization High Voltage Engineering and Power System Components Electric Machine Control, Condition and Monitoring and Protection Power Electronics

Electric power

• • • • •

• • • •

Microwave Circuits Remote Sensing of Obscured Targets Radio Science, Planetary Remote Sensing, and Space Communications Analysis and Design of Antennas Computational Techniques for Electromagnetics Signal Integrity in Digital and Mixed Signal Systems Terrestrial Radio Wave Propagation

Electronic design and technology

• • • • •

MEMs Circuit Technology Analog VLSI Radio Frequency/Wireless Integrated Circuits (RFIC) High Speed Mixed Signal Analog

Microelectronics and Microsystems

• • • • • •

Microsystems and Nanosystems Photovoltaics Microelectronics Systems Packaging Manufacturing and Gigascale Integration Compound Semiconductors Biomedical Microsystems

Optics and Photonics

• • • •

Optical Communication Networks Nonlinear Optics Photonics and optoelectronics Diffractive and holographic optics

Systems and Controls – Robotics application

• • • • • •

Mathematical systems theory Discrete event systems and hybrid system Nonlinear control Computer vision Intelligent control Sensor technologies

• • • • •

Wireless Communications and Networking Communication Theory Information Theory and Adaptive Systems Multimedia Networking Inter-networking, Network Management, and Network Security Optical Networks

• • • Electromagnetics

Telecommunications

•

COMPUTER SCIENCE CS has a wide range of specializations available at the graduate level. Herein I have classified the coursework options into 10 broad categories and the research areas into 12 categories. The research specializations have been listed along each of the broad classifications. The coursework options can be broadly classified as: • • • • • • • • • •

Numerical Analysis/Scientific computation Systems Software theory Theoretical CS Artificial Intelligence Human computer interaction Real world computing Information systems Graphics & visualization Networks, communications and security

Hardware/Computer Architecture

Database Systems

Graphics and visualization

• • • •

High Performance Parallel Architectures Concurrent VLSI Architecture High level design Neural prosthetic systems

• • • • •

Database Systems Implementation Object-Oriented Database Models and Systems Temporal, Spatial, and Active Databases Parallel and Distributed Database Systems Applications Large scale interpolation and composition

• • • • • • •

Basic graphics Visualization techniques 3D modeling techniques and systems Medical imaging and processing Computer vision Animation Virtual Reality

and

Human Computer Interaction

• • • • • •

Mobile and ubiquitous computing Conventional HCI Collaborative computing User interface design GUI design Information visualization

Information security

• • • •

Cryptography Network security Secure computer systems Information security system design

Intelligent systems – AI and robotics

• • • • • • • • • •

Computer vision Pattern recognition Cognitive modeling Machine learning Autonomous systems Mobile Robotics Distributed Control Algorithms Artificial intelligence Knowledge systems Geometric computation

• • • • •

Internetworking architecture and protocol Broadband networking systems Performance evaluation of communication systems Networks in information systems Multimedia networking

Programming language and compilers

• • • • •

Design and implementation of compilers Programming language design Advanced compiler analysis and optimization Object oriented systems and languages Parallel computing

Software methodology and engineering

• • • • •

Program analysis Software generating, testing and maintenance Software architecture and design Software infrastructures Software development – processes and systems

Networking and communications

Systems

• • • •

Advanced operating systems High performance computer architectures CIS circuits and design Reliable computing systems

Algorithms & Theory

• • • • •

Computability, Algorithms, and Complexity Design and Analysis of Algorithms Graph Algorithms Approximation Algorithms Randomized Algorithms

Probabilistic methods and game theoretic methods

•

Theoretical methods and systems