Faculty members and students at the department of Electrical Engineering work together to conduct research across many areas in the field of electrical engineering as well as related fields such as computer science and engineering. These research areas can be divided into three groups.

Communications, Signal Processing and Networking

This group focuses on design and development of advanced communication techniques to provide efficient and robust information transmission over wired and wireless networks.

This group has an extensive collaborative research program with the Computer Science and Engineering Department. Working in concert with academia and industry partners, the group is dedicated to research on:

  • information and communication theory
  • source and channel coding
  • encryption
  • wireless communication and networking

Both undergraduate and graduate levels courses are offered by the faculty members in this group.

  • Applied Electromagnetics Laboratory

    The Applied Electromagnetics Laboratory focuses on the domain of applied electromagnetics with applications ranging from developing biomedical devices to designing antennas for various wireless systems. Research topics include:

    • Microwave ablation and monitoring
    • Self-interference cancellation techniques for in-band full-duplex communications
    • Adaptive phased-array antennas for beam-steering applications
    • Reconfigurable multi-beam antennas for millimeter-wave communications
    Faculty: Hung Luyen
  • Applied Optics Lab

    The Applied Optics Lab aims at:

    1. Optical system (imaging and non-imaging) design and modeling, tolerance analysis, and system optimization to improve design for manufacturability.
    2. Design and fabrication of electro-optic polymer integrated circuits for chemical/biological sensors and optical current sensors (OCS) for smart grid electric distribution system.
    Faculty: Shuping Wang
  • Communications and Signal Processing Laboratory

    The Communications and Signal Processing Laboratory (CSPL) focuses on design and development of advanced communication techniques to provide efficient and robust information transmission over wired and wireless networks. Working in concert with academia and industry partners, CSPL is dedicated to research in coding and information theory; aerial communication and networks; drone system design and applications, especially in emergency response; and wireless sensor networks.

    Faculty: Shengli Fu
  • Embedded Sensing & Processing Systems (ESPS) Laboratory

    The Embedded Sensing & Processing Systems (ESPS) Laboratory focuses on research in the areas of statistical signal processing, machine learning, real-time embedded systems, and wireless sensor networks with applications in wireless localization and tracking, environmental monitoring, cyber-physical systems, Internet of Things, and artificial intelligence. The overarching goal of our research is to solve real-life system-level challenges through theoretical research in signal processing and machine learning, networking protocol design and analysis, and practical system developments with hardware and software implementations.

    Faculty: Xinrong Li
  • Information Theory and Applications Laboratory

    The Information Theory and Applications Laboratory focuses on the application of information theory to communications, networking, privacy, security and storage. Current research interests include private information retrieval, index coding, optimality of treating interference as noise, topological interference management, and interference alignment.

    Faculty: Hua Sun
  • Optimization, Signal Processing, and Control Algorithm Research Lab (O.S.C.A.R.)

    The Optimization, Signal Processing, and Control Algorithm Research Lab (O.S.C.A.R.) focuses on fundamental algorithm development at the forefront of machine learning seeking efficient and accurate solutions based in traditional optimization, signal processing and control theory techniques. Current research topics include:

    • Classification and Identification
    • Image Compression
    • Image Super Resolution
    • PCA Applications
    • STEM Outreach

Systems and Control

This group investigates state of the art research problems in robotics, power systems, and cooperative decentralized systems.

Faculty and students work on autonomous systems including wireless sensor networks, robotic systems, airborne networks, and networks of unattended air vehicles.

Research applications include disaster recovery, search-and-rescue operations conducted by teams of people, surveillance of ground-based targets by fleets of unmanned aerial vehicles and exploration of planetary surfaces by swarms of robots.

  • Autonomous Systems Laboratory

    The Autonomous Systems Laboratory focuses on information assurance, decision making and video communications aspects in autonomous systems, such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). This laboratory consists of infrastructure and simulation tools necessary to develop protocols for autonomous systems and to analyze their performance. The laboratory has several UAVs that are being used to develop and test decentralized decision-making and task-scheduling algorithms. The laboratory's infrastructure includes computing and networking equipment suitable for simulating civilian and military applications.

  • Control Systems Lab

    The Control Systems Laboratory focuses on the advancement of control theory and technology with applications to intelligent and autonomous systems. Current research topics include control systems with time delay, unmanned aerial vehicles, deep reinforcement learning based control, and active magnetic bearings.

    Faculty: Yusheng Wei
  • Environmental and Ecological Engineering Laboratory

    The Environmental and Ecological Engineering Laboratory integrates environmental modeling, real-time monitoring, and renewable power systems for applications to sustainability. Research topics include food-energy-water nexus, sustainable brackish water desalination systems, land-use change, landscape dynamics, and forest ecology, coupled human-natural systems, watershed and reservoir management, wireless sensor networks and environmental observatories, and global climate change.

  • Optimization, Signal Processing, and Control Algorithm Research Lab (O.S.C.A.R.)

    The Optimization, Signal Processing, and Control Algorithm Research Lab (O.S.C.A.R.) focuses on fundamental algorithm development at the forefront of machine learning seeking efficient and accurate solutions based in traditional optimization, signal processing and control theory techniques. Current research topics include:

    • Classification and Identification
    • Image Compression
    • Image Super Resolution
    • PCA Applications
    • STEM Outreach
  • Power Electronics and Renewable Energy (PERE) Laboratory

    The Power Electronics and Renewable Energy (PERE) Laboratory focuses on developing effective power electronics technologies to improve the generation, conversion, and control of electrical energy in smart cities and sustainable energy applications. Research topics include wide-bandgap semiconductor applications, renewable energy conversion technologies, smart grids, distributed energy systems, and electric vehicle grid integration.

    Faculty: King Man Siu

RF and Circuit Design

Faculty and students of this group are working on a wide variety of fundamental and applied problems in circuits and systems as well as their applications in communications, networking, geolocation, and vision processing.

This group offers many courses in RF/microwave/millimeter-wave circuit and antenna design at both undergraduate and graduate levels.

Designed circuit components will be implemented either on the board-level or on the chip-level.

  • Analog/Mixed-Signal Design and Simulation Lab

    The Analog/Mixed-Signal Design and Simulation Lab focuses on design and simulation of analog/mixed-signal AMS) integrated circuits (ICs) for multimedia and IoT security applications. Research topics include:

    • Surrogate modeling (metamodeling) of complex IC functional design units
    • Hardware/software co-design of secure multimedia digital systems
    • High-level behavioral simulation of AMS ICs
    • Hardware design of Physically Unclonable Functions (PUFs)
    • Embedded system design for the IoT
    Location: Discovery Park F138
  • Emerging Technology and VLSI Research Lab
  • Nanoscale Materials and Devices Lab (NMDL)

    The Nanoscale Materials and Devices Lab (NMDL) focuses on emerging devices from low-dimensionality solid-state materials.  Research topics include but are not limited to:

    • Low-power nanoelectronic devices and circuits
    • Photodetectors and optoelectronic devices
    • Flexible and printed electronics
    • Physical sensors and sensor arrays
    • Synthesis of semiconducting selenides and sulphides
    • Nanofabrication
    Faculty: Anupama Kaul
  • Reconfigurable Computing Laboratory

    The Reconfigurable Computing Laboratory provides infrastructure for electronic design automation, including several workstations with the latest Electronic Design Automation (EDA) software, enabling design and simulation of a range of electronic chip designs. Students have access to EDA software including Cadence, Synopsys, and Xilinx design tool suites. The laboratory supports high quality research activities related to digital design, reconfigurable computing, FPGAs, ASICs, VLSI design, electronic design automation, SoC design, portable computing, and wearable computing.

    Faculty: Gayatri Mehta

Research for Students

Facilities and Equipment Use

UNT's Electrical Engineering labs offer a wide variety of research opportunities and experiences for all of our students.

Institutional labs can be used by any student, with or without faculty supervision, for any projects. As the name suggests, these often double as classrooms.

Research labs are under the direct supervision of a faculty member and usually dedicated to a single research area. They often contain specialized equipment appropriate for study of the research area.

Finding your Research Niche

Both graduate and undergraduate students can work with the three faculty research groups mentioned at the beginning of this page.

Faculty research areas give students the chance to work closely with professors and other students in a variety of projects centered around important engineering subjects.

If you're interested in participating in research in the Electrical Engineering department, it's as easy as knocking on a faculty member's door and asking what opportunities are available.