Course Catalog

The following course catalog lists courses that are offered by Engineering Online, the Distance Education department of NC State’s College of Engineering. The list includes course code, title, description, and credit hours. The specific semester the course is offered is determined by the department and instructor availability prior to open enrollment for each semester. To see the list of courses offered for a specific semester, please refer to Courses by Semester.

Department

Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center

BEC 591 606 cGMP Biomanufacturing Operations

This online lecture-based course introduces students to upstream and downstream biomanufacturing for the production of biopharmaceuticals. The course will provide students with key upstream fermentation and cell culture concepts used by biomanufacturing industries including microbial growth, bioreactors, process controls, etc. Downstream concepts include separations, homogenization, chromatography, and ultrafiltration. There will be a specific focus on scale-up and cGMP operations for both upstream and downstream unit areas.

Biomedical Engineering

BME 518 Wearable Biosensors and Microsystems

(also offered as ECE 518)

This course will explore the application of wearable electronics to monitor human biometrics. The first part of the course will introduce the sources of chemical, electrical, and mechanical bio-signals, and the sensing motifs for monitoring each bio-signal. The second part of the course will explore the design, function and limitations of wearable biosensors. Example systems will include wearable electrocardiograms, blood-glucose monitors, electronic tattoos, “smart” clothing, and body area networks. Emphasis will be given to critical comparison of different sensor modalities and how their limitations in realistic applications suggest the selection of one type of sensor over another. This course will provide students with a general overview of wearable biosensors and the necessary technical background to solve basic problems in engineering systems at the interface of biology and electronics.

BME 540 Nanobiotechnology Processing

Topics at the interface of nanoscale science and biotechnology will be discussed. Chemical, physical, and biological properties of nanostructured biomaterials, devices, and systems. Lectures and problem-based learning will be used to present development of nanobiotechnology-enhanced materials and devices.

BME 590 601 Introduction to Nanobiomaterials

Chemical, physical, biological, and engineering aspects of nanostructured materials used in medical implants. Regulatory and legal aspects of nano-enabled medical device development.

Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

CHE 543 Polymer Science and Technology

This course is intended to provide a broad overview of polymer science and engineering. The emphasis will be on the synthesis and structure of polymeric materials, the crystalline and glassy states, solution and melt properties, phase behavior, mechanical and rheological properties.

CHE 548 Bioreactor Design

This course will cover critical aspects of bioreactor design, including design of reactors for enzyme-catalyzed reactions, fermentation of microorganisms, and scale-up considerations for bioreactors. Hands-on experiments involving fermentation of microorganisms and scale-up of bioreactors will be included. Students cannot get credit for both CHE 448 and CHE 548.

CHE 552 Biomolecular Engineering

This course will cover modern methods in biomolecule design, including gene expression regulators, RNA structure, protein structure, and metabolic networks. Current methods in genetic engineering and 'omics-based analysis will be discussed, followed by a critical review of current literature on the applications of these methods to engineering microbes, cells, and multi-species communities. Hands-on assignments involving computational design will be included.

CHE 577 Advanced Biomanufacturing and Biocatalysis

Overview of biomanufacturing using microorganisms (bacteria, yeast, fungi), eukaryotic cells (insect, plant, CHO) and recombinant enzymes focusing on methods used in industry. Course will emphasize media and process design for optimization of heterologous protein expression, metabolic/cell line engineering, metabolomics, protein engineering to alter enzymes and antibodies. Pathway engineering strategies include developing microbes to produce new therapeutic compounds or overproduce primary metabolites, antibiotics, biotherapeutics, therapeutic enzymes, diagnostics, recombinant vaccines, and biopharmaceuticals. Utilization of immobilized biocatalysts, and microbial kinetics are covered.

CHE 596 601 Green Chemical Engineering

This course provides the bottom-line thinking required to design greener, safer chemical synthesis and chemical manufacturing processes. The class focus is to incorporate green chemistry and green engineering principles from the design stage. It also looks beyond factory processes and follows a life-cycle thinking perspective, given the growing importance of eco- and carbon-footprinting in the current business environment. The course is useful for: chemists and engineers who want to incorporate sustainability into process design and retrofitting; environment, health and safety professionals whose jobs may include environmental sustainability, eco-footprinting and environmental improvements; and business practitioners who want to understand how to ‘green’ processes from the design stage.

CHE 596 602 Polymer Rheology

This introductory course is designed to offer a broad overview of rheological principles. Prior knowledge in the subject is not required and participants from any discipline are welcome. The course content will have three components: general principles, experimental methods, and applications. The last part will focus on specific systems (e.g. suspensions, foams, gels, coatings, etc.). Major experimental techniques will be discussed, and, participants having taken this course will be familiar with the peculiar flow characteristics of complex systems, be able to quantify Non-Newtonian fluids and be able to interpret /design rheological experiments. Unlike traditional engineering courses that focus on mathematical solutions, the emphasis will be on interpreting physical situations, analyzing/examining experimental results and designing/proposing methods and experiments to probe fundamental hypothesis.

CHE 596 606 Core Chemical Engineering Concepts I

Core ChE Concepts: I and II is a two-semester online chemical engineering sequence offered in Fall and Spring semesters through the Engineering Online program at NC State. These courses are designed only for students who do not have a previous chemical engineering degree. Students who have an undergraduate degree in chemical engineering may still register for this course but resulting credit will not count towards their MS ChE.

CHE 596 607 Core Chemical Engineering Concepts II

Core ChE Concepts: I and II is a two-semester online chemical engineering sequence offered in Fall/Spring and Spring/Summer semesters through the Engineering Online program at NC State. These courses are designed only for students who do not have a previous chemical engineering degree. Students who have an undergraduate degree in chemical engineering may still register for this course but resulting credit will not count towards their MS ChE.

CHE 596 607 Core Chemical Engineering Concepts II

CHE 596 612 Viscoelasticity and Time-Dependent Mechanics of Polymers and Soft Matter

This is a graduate student level course on viscoelasticity of polymers and other soft matter. The course is designed to give the students a firm grasp of linear viscoelasticity and the importance of viscoelastic measurements for the interrogation of the physics of polymers and other soft matter, such as colloids and small molecule systems. The course will also delve into other time dependent mechanical properties such as fatigue and failure. Nonlinear viscoelasticity will also be discussed for polymer melts and solutions, colloidal systems, and polymer glasses.

CHE 596 622 Introduction to Molecular Simulation

In this course, we will cover the basics of molecular simulation methods, and provide an overview of modeling tools for different problems of interest in science and engineering. The course is geared toward graduate students with an interest in molecular modeling, with or without prior experience in the area. At the end of this course, students should have a general knowledge of the current state-of-the-art in molecular simulation, and be able to design and run simulations of systems of interest.

CHE 596 625 Drug Delivery – Theory and Modern Practices

The course discusses conventional and advanced drug delivery methods and systems.

CHE 596/609 Colloidal Science Nanoscale Engineering

This course begins with an in-depth coverage of the fundamentals of colloidal interactions between surfaces, particles, surfactants and biomolecules, and their relevance to self-assembly. The theory and practice of particle characterization by scattering methods and their manipulation by external fields are presented. In the second part of the course, emerging colloid-related technologies in microfluidics, micropatterning, bioarrays and nanostructured materials are presented. Newly added material this year will discuss the emerging field of soft robotics.

CHE 711 Chemical Engineering Process Modeling

Applications of methods for mathematical analysis to formulation and solution of problems in transport phenomena, process dynamics, and chemical reaction engineering.

CHE 713 Thermodynamics I

In-depth coverage of chemical engineering thermodynamics principles. Application of non-ideal fluid-phase chemical potentials to problems in phase and chemical reaction equilibria. Relations of molecular structure and intermolecular forces to macroscopic thermodynamic properties.

CHE 715 Transport Phenomena

Advanced course in heat and mass transfer and fluid mechanics, including conservation and constitutive equations, scaling and solution methods for handling boundary value problems, and coupling of chemical reaction/adsorption with diffusion and fluid flow.

CHE 717 Chemical Reaction Engineering

Rates and mechanisms of homogeneous and heterogeneous reactions. Design, analysis and scale-up of batch and continuous chemical reactors.

CHE 761 Polymer Blends and Alloys

(Also offered as MSE 761)

Many polymeric systems of commercial relevance consist of multiple polymeric species. As a result, most of these materials are multiphase, in which case the components segregate sufficiently to endow the system with the properties of each component. In this course, we begin with a brief review of some important concepts in polymer thermodynamics and use these concepts to describe equilibrium phase behavior. Methods for calculating, and measuring properties at, equilibrium will be described. Intrinsic limitations on polymer blending will lead to a discussion of physical and chemical methods by which such limitations can be overcome, including emulsification and reactive processing. Another means by which to produce multiphase polymeric materials is through the design of copolymers. This class of materials yields the formation of nanostructures in the same fashion as surfactants, and the ordering phenomena that occur in these systems will be discussed. Thermodynamic models designed to predict the phase behavior of such materials, as well as salient characterization methods (e.g., microscopy and scattering), will be described. Topics related to interfacial characteristics, measurement and modification will likewise be addressed.

Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering

CE 214 Engineering Mechanics – Statics

CE 402/502 Traffic Operations

Highway capacity; traffic control devices and warrants; freeway facilities; intersection treatments; signalized control of junctions and arterials.

CE 403/503 Highway Design

Corridor selection; highway alignment; design of roadsides, intersections and interchanges. Completion of research paper for students taking course for graduate credit. Credit will not be given for both CE 403 and CE 503.

CE 503 Highway Design

CE 505 Railroad System Planning, Design, and Operation

Students will learn about railroad technology and how to plan, design, and operate rail systems especially the design of alignments, track, and terminals; and the operation of freight and passenger services [ranging from transit through commuter rail to intercity and high speed rail].

CE 509 Highway Safety

Methods to reduce collisions and injuries on highways. Identifying promising locations, choosing appropriate countermeasures, and evaluating past projects. Understanding the institutional context and establishing appropriate highway design standards.

CE 515 Advanced Strength of Materials

Fundamentals of stress, strain and deformation, linear elastic theory, elastic bodies: isotropic, anistropic and orthotropic constitutive equations; St. Venant's classical theory of torsion: non-circular bars, thin-walled open sections, thin-walled single-cell tubes, multi-cell thin-walled tubes; unsymmetric bending and transverse shear, shear flow and shear center in thin-walled sections, nonlinear beam, shear deformation of beams, curved beams; stress concentration, beams on elastic foundations, introduction to plasticity theory, and introduction to fracture mechanics.

CE 522 Theory and Design of Prestressed Concrete

Principles and concepts of design in prestressed concrete including elastic and ultimate strength analyses for flexure, shear, torsion, bond and deflection. Principles of concordancy and linear transformation for indeterminate prestressed structures. Application of pre-stressing to tanks and shells.

CE 525 Advanced Structural Analysis

Analysis of beam, 2D and 3D truss, 2D and 3D frame and plane strain structures using the matrix displacement method. Introduction to the finite element method of analysis by deriving the element stiffness matrices using Virtual Work. Beam and frame elements include shearing deformation and geometric stiffness effects. Computer implementation of analysis procedures using MATLAB and commercial structural analysis software. Modeling issues including convergence, symmetry and antisymmetry. Introduction to structural dynamics. Credit not given for both CE 425 and CE 525.

CE 527 Structural Dynamics

Analysis of single and multi-degree-of-freedom structures subjected to various types of excitations and initial conditions. Computational aspects of dynamic analysis. Introduction to approximate methods of analysis.

CE 529 FRP Strengthening and Repair of Concrete Structures

This course emphasizes the fundamental behavior of FRP strengthened/repaired reinforced concrete structures contributing towards sustainable and resilient civil infrastructure by extending the useful life of existing structures using advanced materials. As appropriate, reference is made to ACI440.2R: Guide for the Design and Construction of Externally Bonded FRP Systems for Strengthening Concrete Structures. The course material is applied to a practical strengthening design of a realistic reinforced concrete structure.

CE 530 Properties of Concrete and Advanced Cement-Based Composites

This course consists of three parts. In the first part, basic properties of hydraulic cements, aggregates, mixture proportioning, mineral and chemical admixtures, and placement and curing are discussed. The second part of this course deals with mechanical properties of concrete and covers subjects such as compressive and tensile strength, multi-axial loading, composite models, fracture mechanics of concrete materials, and shrinkage cracking. In the second part of the course, porosity and micro-structural models are also discussed. The third part of this course deals with durability and deterioration mechanisms of concrete materials. This part of the course cover subjects such as corrosion of steel in concrete, mass transport in cementitious materials, and service life prediction. Advanced laboratory techniques are also discussed. This course also covers emerging topics in concrete materials such as internal curing, self-consolidating concrete, fiber reinforced concrete materials, and low carbon footprint materials.

CE 536 Introduction to Numerical Methods for Civil Engineers

This is an entry level graduate course intended to give an introduction to widely used numerical methods through application to several civil and environmental engineering problems. The emphasis will be on the breadth of topics and applications; however, to the extent possible, the mathematical theory behind the numerical methods will also be presented. The course is expected to lay foundation for students beginning to engage in research projects that involve numerical methods. Student will use MATLAB as a tool in the course. Experience with MATLAB is not required. The course will be taught in an interactive setting in a computer equipped classroom.

CE 548 Engineering Properties of Soils I

Significant soil properties in earthwork engineering, including soil elasticity and soil mineralogy, hydraulic conductivity, stress-strain relations and shear strength, compressibility and compaction. Laboratory work including plasticity, triaxial compression, permeability, consolidation and compaction tests.

CE 550 Professional Engineering Communication

Communicating effectively is central to the success of any engineering project and to advance in your engineering career. In this course you will learn principles of writing clearly and effectively for the wide range of communication activities professional engineers must do for a range of audiences. Topics covered include writing reports, writing proposals, delivering presentations, planning and revising writing, providing feedback, and more.

CE 561 Construction Project Management

Successful Construction Project Management is not only critical to the success of the project engineer, construction manager and the contractor, but reduces overall costs to the owner and society. Modern construction presumes an in depth understanding of the theory and techniques associated with planning, analysis and control. This is a practice oriented, construction project-planning, management and control course emphasizing standard quantitative and qualitative techniques. The Planning, Management, and Control skills necessary to function effectively on complex projects share a common requirement for understanding scheduling, cost control, and their inter-relationship for ensuring successful project performance.

CE 564 Legal Aspects of Contracting

Legal aspects of contract documents, drawings and specifications; owner-engineer-constructor relationships and responsibilities; bids and contract performance; labor laws; governmental administrative and regulatory agencies; torts; business organizations; ethics and professionalism.

CE 574 Chemical Principles of Environmental Engineering

Inorganic and organic environmental chemistry including acid-base equilibria, precipitation, complexation, redox reactions, and natural organic matter. The role of these factors in controlling the fate of contaminants in engineered treatment systems and natural environments.

CE 576 Engineering Principles of Air Pollution Control

Fundamentals of air pollutant formation and control from stationary and mobile emission sources. Chemical kinetics, mass and heat transfer, and thermodynamics affecting gaseous and particle pollutant formation in a variety of emission sources. Study of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, particulate matter, volatile organic compounds, hydrocarbons, and air toxics formation and control. Principles of conventional and advanced flue gas desulfurization, thermal and fuel NOx control, and particle/air toxics emission control will be among the emission topics to be explored.

CE 579 Principles of Air Quality Engineering

The topics covered in this course include air quality management issues, sources of air pollutants, atmospheric physics and chemistry and their relationship to pollutant transport and transformations, air quality meteorology, and air pollutant dispersion modeling. Students will learn about the major types of regulations that motivate the need to estimate and measure atmospheric air quality, the major types of pollutants that are regulated by such air quality standards (e.g., sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides, particulate matter, carbon monoxide, tropospheric ozone, and lead), the major emission sources for such pollutants, the role of anthropogenic and biogenic sources in global chemical cycles, gas and aqueous-phase chemistry in the atmosphere, basic principles of meteorology as applied to air quality (including energy balance, winds, temperature, equations of motion, and atmospheric diffusion), the fundamentals and practical aspects of commonly used air quality models and linkages between air pollution and global climate change.

CE 585 Principles of Surface Water Quality Modeling

This course addresses how human inputs affect natural and engineered aquatic systems through mathematical modeling of system dynamics. Course topics integrate physical, chemical, and biologic processes related to pollutants and lower food-web dynamics. Lectures and assignments cover both theory and application. Applications are relevant to informing management, protection, and restoration of inland and coastal waters.

CE 588 Water Resources Engineering

Extension of the concepts of fluid mechanics and hydraulics to applications in water supply, water transmission, water distribution networks and open channels to include water-supply reservoirs, pump and pipe selection, determinate and indeterminate pipe networks, and analysis of open channels with appurtenances.

CE 592 602 Global Construction Practices

This course includes a series of guest lectures, student presentations on construction practices found in their respective countries, and a collaborative term project. Guest speakers include industry practitioners and academics speaking on topics such as global construction challenges, procurement issues, legal aspects, international finance and public private partnerships, leadership, industry best practices, and lean construction techniques.

CE 705 Intelligent Transportation Systems

Intelligent Transportation Systems [ITS] planning and human factor elements; application of monitoring, communications and information dissemination technologies to transportation systems; advanced traffic management for freeway and arterial systems; traveler information and public transportation systems; automated vehicle and highway systems. ITS evaluation methods and models.

CE 706 Advanced Traffic Control

Advanced signalized traffic control methods at intersections, arterials and networks. Applications of mathematical optimization techniques to signal timing and coordination. Use of traffic simulation and optimization models for signal evaluation and design. Roundabout analysis and design.

CE 721 Matrix and Finite Element Structural Analysis

Advanced topics of Finite Element Analysis including dynamics, wave propagation, emerging methods and nonlinear analysis.

CE 724 Probabilistic Methods of Structural Engineering

This course is intended to provide an understanding of probability and statistics in civil/ mechanical engineering applications. It will focus on common probabilistic models, statistical analysis of observed data, reliability based design and decision making, and modeling of uncertainties that are unavoidable in the design and planning of engineering systems. The major topics include: (1) Fundamentals of probability theory, (2) Common probabilistic models, (3) Statistical analysis of recorded data, (4) Fundamentals of reliability analysis (First and second order reliability methods), (5) Monte Carlo simulation,(6) Development of reliability based design codes, (7) Evaluation of target reliability levels (code calibration), (8) System reliability and risk-based decision making.

CE 725 Earthquake Structural Engineering

Effects of earthquakes on structures and of design of structures to resist earthquake motions; earthquake mechanisms and ground motions; response of structures to earthquake motions; behavior of materials, structural elements and assemblages subjected to earthquakes; principles of earthquake-resistant design practice; soil-structure interaction; and special topics. The course focus extensively on Displacement-Based Seismic Design and will utilize a recently released text on the topic.

CE 741 Geomechanics of Stress Deformation

Concepts of volume change and effective stress, stress-strain behavior of clays and sands, stress path and failure conidtions; mechanistic interaction between solids and water, problems in elasticity and plasticity pertaining to stress distribution, elstic, consolidation and secondary settlements, and tolerance limits to deformation levels.

CE 742 Deformation and Instability of Soils

Mechanics of soils: theoretical framework; failure conditions and shear strength; slope instability; lateral earth pressure; bearing capacity; non-linear deformation of soils; theory of plasticity; critical state model for soil behavior.

CE 746 Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering

This course will benefit graduate students with broader research interests in the area of earthquake engineering. Its overarching goal is to understand and implement fundamental principles, assessment and design procedures related to engineering seismology and geotechnical earthquake engineering. The fundamental theoretical and computational aspects of dynamics are developed for relevant geotechnical engineering problems. This course organization allows for a comprehensive review of ground motion characteristics, dynamic response of soil sites, effect of local site conditions on design ground motion, and liquefaction of soils.

CE 763 Materials Management in Construction

Fundamental concepts and methods; construction specific models for integrated materials management;; vendor analysis and "best-buy;" materials requirement planning and control; management of material waste; automated materials tracking; materials handling; study of current issues; development of a practical solution to a real-world problem.

CE 771 Physical-Chemical Water Treatment Processes

Physical-chemical treatment processes for the treatment of water, including sedimentation, flotation, filtration, coagulation, oxidation, disinfection, precipitation, adsorption, and membrane treatment processes. Current issues in drinking water quality and treatment are discussed.

CE 774 Environmental Bioprocess Technology

Principles of microbiological, biochemical, and biophysical processes used in environmental waste treatment and remediation processes, with particular emphasis on water quality control. This course will prepare students to use fundamental microbiological, biochemical, and biophysical principles in the analysis, synthesis, and evaluation of the major processes used in environmental biotechnology, with particular emphasis on water quality control and water resource recovery processes. While the focus is on fundamental principles, such as kinetics and stoichiometry of biological reactions, the problems and cases are based on real and current challenges in waste treatment and resource recovery.

Computer Science

CSC 116 Introduction to Computing – Java

An introductory course in computer science with an emphasis on basic computer organization, algorithm development, programming techniques, program structure, data representation, debugging, and program verification. Computer solution of both numerical and non-numerical problems will be completed in Java as a means toward teaching these concepts.

CSC 116 Introduction to Computing – Java

CSC 216 651 Software Development Fundamentals

The second course in computing, intended for majors and minors. Emphasis is on exploring encapsulation; polymorphism; composition; inheritance; finite state machines; linear data structures [including array lists, linked lists, stacks, queues, and the tradeoffs in implementation]; and recursion [including recursive linked lists] in the context of the software development lifecycle including the processes and practices for designing, implementing, and testing high quality software.

CSC 216 Software Development Fundamentals

CSC 217 Software Development Fundamentals Lab

Laboratory course to accompany CSC 216 lecture course. Application of the software processes and practices to design, implement, and test the development of software solutions requiring composition; inheritance; finite state machines; and linear data structures, including recursive linked lists.

CSC 226 Discrete Mathematics for Computer Scientists

Propositional logic and predicate calculus. Methods of proof. Elementary set theory. Mathematical induction. Recursive definitions and algorithms. Solving recurrences. The analysis of algorithms and asymptotic growth of functions. Elementary combinatorics. Introduction to graph theory. Ordered sets, including posets and equivalence relations. Introduction to formal languages and automata.

CSC 230 C and Software Tools

Details of C programming as compared with Java; Lexical structure, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics (idioms, common uses) of C; Stages of compliation, linking and execution; Strings, arrays, structures, pointers, and memory management; C libraries;Tools for design, maintenance, and debugging of programs; Separate compliation, modular programming; Integrated development environments.

CSC 230 C and Software Tools

CSC 246 Concepts and Facilities of Operating Systems for Computer Scientists

The history and evolution of operating systems, concepts of process management, memory addressing and allocation, files and protection, deadlocks and distributed systems.

CSC 316 Data Structures and Algorithms

The course will cover the following topics: Abstract data types; abstract and implementation-level views of data types. Linear and branching data structures, including stacks, queues, trees, heaps, hash tables, graphs, and others at discretion of instructor. Best, worst, and average case asymptotic time and space complexity as a means of formal analysis of iterative and recursive algorithms. The course will cover a wide range of data structures and associated algorithms, including:

Properties of programs, running time, and asymptotics
Array and linked-memory implementations of lists, stacks, and queues
Searching using lists, unbalanced tree structures (binary search trees, splay trees) and balanced trees (AVL trees, 2-4 trees, red-black trees)
Up-trees as sets with union-find operations
Graphs and graph algorithms (traversals, shortest paths, minimum spanning trees)
Sorting (including heap sort, merge sort, insertion sort, selection sort, quick sort, counting sort, radix sort)
Hash tables and hashing techniques

CSC 501 Operating Systems Principles

Fundamental issues related to the design of operating systems. Process scheduling and coordination, deadlock, memory management and elements of distributed systems.

CSC 505 Design and Analysis of Algorithms

Algorithm design techniques: use of data structures, divide and conquer, dynamic programming, greedy techniques, local and global search. Complexity and analysis of algorithms: asymptotic analysis, worst case and average case, recurrences, lower bounds, NP-completeness. Algorithms for classical problems including sorting, searching and graph problems (connectivity, shortest paths, minimum spanning trees).

CSC 506 Architecture of Parallel Computers

(also offered as ECE 506)

The need for parallel and massively parallel computers. Taxonomy of parallel computer architecture, and programming models for parallel architectures. Example parallel algorithms. Shared-memory vs. distributed-memory architectures. Correctness and performance issues. Cache coherence and memory consistency. Bus-based and scalable directory-based multiprocessors. Interconnection-network topologies and switch design. B

CSC 506 Architecture of Parallel Computers

CSC 510 Software Engineering

This course will be highly interactive and a proactive participation of the students is expected. This course also will bring a wealth of industrial experiences that the instructor will provide. A detailed discussion on software life cycle models, software project planning and monitoring and control, software requirements development and requirements management, software size and effort estimation, risk management, formal technical and peer reviews, software architecture, software design, software development, verification and validation methods, software configuration management and change control, the Capability Maturity Model Integration, SWEBOK, software process improvement. Emphasis is given on Software Engineering principles and how they are utilized in industry. The course will provide many opportunities to practice Software Engineering principles as they are implemented in industry. A Final project will be required for the course. The project will consist of the development of an architectural software prototype with a demo. In addition to the taped lectures, the instructor will hold live Google Meet weekly meetings with the students to work through the weekly topics, provide extra examples, and answer questions.. I strongly encourage students to participate in the live sessions as topics will be further explained, examples will be given, questions that students have will be answered, and in general good joint discussions typically ensue

CSC 515 Software Security

Software Security introduces students to the discipline of designing, developing, and testing secure and dependable software-based systems.

CSC 517 Object-Oriented Design and Development

(also offered as ECE 517)

The design of object-oriented systems, using principles such as the GRASP principles, and methodologies such as CRC cards and the Unified Modeling Language [UML]. Requirements analysis. Design patterns Agile Methods. Static vs. dynamic typing. Metaprogramming. Open-source development practices and tools. Test-first development. Project required, involving contributions to an open-source software project.

CSC 519 DevOps: Modern Software Engineering Practices

Modern software development organizations require entire teams of DevOps to automate and maintain software engineering processes and infrastructure vital to the organization. In this course, you will gain practical exposure to the skills, tools, and knowledge needed in automating software engineering processes and infrastructure. Students will have the chance to build new or extend existing software engineering tools and design a DevOps pipeline. In this course, you will gain practical exposure to the skills, tools, and knowledge needed in automating software engineering processes and infrastructure necessary for continuous deployment of software. Students will have the chance to build new or extend existing software engineering tools and design an automated deployment pipeline.

CSC 520 Artificial Intelligence I

Introduction and overview of artificial intelligence. Elements of AI problem-solving techniques. State spaces and search techniques, including heuristic search (hill-climbing and A*). Logic (first-order predicate calculus) and theorem proving (unification, resolution theorem proving). Advanced topics in machine learning, reasoning under uncertainty (Bayesian reasoning), and natural language processing as time permits.

CSC 522 Automated Learning and Data Analysis

Introduction to the problems and techniques for automated discovery of knowledge in databases. Topics include representation, evaluation, and formalization of knowledge for discovery; classification, prediction, clustering, and association methods. Selected applications in commerce, security, and bioinformatics. Students cannot get credit for both CSC 422 and CSC 522.

CSC 533 Privacy in the Digital Age

Privacy is a growing concern in our modern society. We interact and share our personal information with a wide variety of organizations, including financial and healthcare institutions, web service providers and social networks. Many times such personal information is inappropriately collected, used or shared, often without our awareness. This course introduces privacy in a broad sense, with the aim of providing students an overview of the challenging and emerging research topics in privacy.

CSC 540 Database Management Concepts and Systems

Advanced database concepts. Logical organization of databases: the entity-relationship model; the relational data model and its languages. Functional dependencies and normal forms. Design, implementation, and optimization of query languages; security and integrity, consurrency control, transaction processing, and distributed database systems.

CSC 547 Cloud Computing Technology

The students learn the principles of Cloud infrastructure and architect services against common PaaS vendors. Furthermore, students learn how to focus on service decoupling towards microservices and the principles of a Cloud-native enterprise.

CSC 561 Principles of Computer Graphics

Fundamentals of the OpenGL API. 2D and 3D transformations, perspective and orthographic projection, and the mathematical foundations that underlie these concepts. Geometric primitives, clipping, depth buffering, scan conversion, and rasterization. Lighting, shadows, and texture mapping. Curves and surfaces.

CSC 562 Introduction to Game Engine Design

This course is an introduction to advanced graphics techniques used in computer game engines. If you are interested in careers in the film and gaming industries (which are becoming increasingly similar), or simply interested in how the effects wizards do what they do, you should enjoy and be well served by this course. By its end, you should be able to: name the leading game engines, list their capabilities, and describe how they are implemented; detail and implement methods for simulating lighting and reflections in games; describe and use techniques for improving rendering efficiency; compare and implement the ways to simulate collision of virtual objects, contrast and employ animation techniques, especially those for articulated characters.

CSC 565 Graph Theory

Basic concepts of graph theory. Trees and forests. Vector spaces associated with a graph. Representation of graphs by binary matrices and list structures. Traversability. Connectivity. Matchings and assignment problems. Planar graphs. Colorability. Directed graphs. Applications of graph theory with an emphasis on organizing problems in a form suitable for computer solutions.

CSC 570 Computer Networks

(also offered as ECE 570)

General introduction to computer networks. Discussion of protocol principles, local area and wide area networking, OSI stack, TCP/IP and quality of service principles. Detailed discussion, including quantitative treatment, of topics in medium access control, error control coding, and flow/congestion control mechanisms. Introduction to network architecture, wireless networking, network security.

CSC 570 Computer Networks

(also offered as ECE 570)
General introduction to computer networks. Discussion of protocol principles, local area and wide area networking, OSI stack, TCP/IP and quality of service principles. Detailed discussion of topics in medium access control, error control coding, and flow control mechanisms. Introduction to networking simulation, security, wireless and optical networking.

CSC 570 Computer Networks

(also offered as ECE 570)
This class focuses on general introduction to computer networks, including discussion of protocol principles, local area and wide area networking, OSI stack, TCP/IP and quality of service principles. The detailed discussion of topics includes physical-layer communication, medium access control, routing algorithms, transport-layer protocols, wireless networking, and simulations. Based on the key aspects and concepts of computer networks which are already consolidated, the course will also introduce some advanced technology in the new generation networks. In a complimentary direction, the course will introduce the basic use of network simulation tool, e.g., to demonstrate and investigate computer network behavior of different topologies and under a variety of conditions.

CSC 574 Computer and Network Security

(also offered as ECE 574)

This course provides a graduate-level introduction to computer and network security and privacy. Students successfully completing this class will be able to evaluate works in academic and commercial security, and will have rudimentary skills in security research. The course covers four key topic areas: basics of cryptography and crypto protocols, network security, systems security, and privacy. Readings primarily come from seminal papers in the field.

CSC 574 Computer and Network Security

CSC 575 Introduction to Wireless Networking

(also offered as ECE 575)

Introduction to wireless networking. Topics include: introduction to wireless propagation, medium access, cellular networks, metropolitan, local and personal area wireless networks and mobile IP.

CSC 577 601 Switched Network Management

(Also offered as ECE 577 601)

The students learn the principles of cloud infrastructure and architect services against common PaaS vendors. Furthermore, students learn how to focus on service decoupling towards microservices and the principles of a Cloud native enterprise. Students with no CLI experience should contact the TA asap to arrange for a crash course very early in the semester.

CSC 591 603 Quantum Computing

CSC 591 606 Advanced NextG Network Design

This seminar course focuses on advanced technology, modeling, simulation and analysis of networks. The course first presents the key aspects and concepts of the networks which are already consolidated. These technical aspects are the background and then used to motivated many mechanisms in the new generation networks. The course will also be hands on with concepts demonstrated through use/modification of the simulation tool, e.g., to demonstrate and investigate network behavior of a number of different network topologies and under a variety of conditions.

CSC 591 608 LTE and 5G Communications

(also offered as ECE 578)

The course provides an introduction to the theoretical and practical aspects of Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology and beyond. A basic understanding of digital communication systems and radio access networks are required. Six main topics will be studied: 1) Network architecture and protocols, 2) Physical layer for downlink, 3) physical layer for uplink, 4) practical deployment aspects, 5) LTE-Advanced, and 6) 5G communications.

CSC 591 609 Internet of Things: Application and Implementation

(also offered as ECE 592, ECE 792, CSC 791)

This course will focus on advanced topics in Internet of Things (IoT). These topics will include (but are not limited to) challenges in the design of IoT infrastructure, limitations of existing protocols such as HTTP when used with IoT, Security, low power design considerations, applications of machine learning techniques, and existing and emerging IoT standards. The students will be required to read research publications in this area. The course will also include multiple demos, such as for fog computing, using real IoT hardware such as Intel Edison boards and/or other similar devices. The course will also cover one or more of IoT platform such as IBM's Bluemix platform, Microsofts HomeOS and Lab of Things platforms, etc. To enable students to see IoT in action, they will be required to do projects using real IoT devices.

CSC 591 610 Deep Learning Beyond Accuracy

(Also offered as ECE 591 605)

In this course, students read and discuss research papers about deep neural neworks with a focus on not just accuracy but also resource consideration (e.g., FLOPs, parameter counts, time, memory, energy, size, etc.) With that interest, papers about techniques to design an efficient neural network architecture, such as structured/unstructured pruning, knowledge distillation, and quantization, will be read. On top of that, other dimensional metrics of machine learning, such as fairness, privacy, or sustainability, will also be explored. As a seminar course, this course is dedicated to paper reading, presentation, and discussion. Students will conduct a term project and take no exam. Students are expected to have implementation experiences on (convolutional deep) neural networks.

CSC 591 611 Foundation of Real-Time Systems

Design and implementation of computer systems required to provide specific response times. Structure of a real-time kernel, fixed and dynamic priority scheduling algorithms, rate monotonic scheduling theory, priority inheritance protocols, real-time benchmarks, case study of a real-time kernel.

CSC 591 611 Optimizations and Algorithms

(also offered as ECE 592)

This course introduces advances in optimization theory and algorithms with rapidly growing applications in machine learning, systems, and control. Methods to obtain the extremum (minimum or maximum) of a non-dynamic system and the use of these methods in various engineering applications are given.

CSC 591 631 Metaheuristics for Search and Optimization

Nature-inspired metaheuristics use concepts derived from nature to solve computational problems. The course aims to teach students how computational processes can be derived from natural phenomena and how to implement simple nature-inspired algorithms in Julia. We will discuss fundamental algorithms, basic optimization tasks, performance metrics, and applications.

CSC 600 Computer Science Graduate Orientation

Introduction for new graduate students to (a) information about graduate program, department, and university resources, and (b) research projects conducted by CSC faculty.

CSC 791 603 Natural Language Processing

This course is self-contained, and provides the essential foundation in natural language processing. It identifies the key concepts underlying NLP applications as well as the main NLP paradigms and techniques.

This course combines the core ideas developed in linguistics and in artificial intelligence to show how to understand language. Key topics include regular expressions, unigrams, and n-grams; word embeddings; syntactic (phrase-structure) and dependency parsing; semantic role labeling; language modeling; sentiment and affect analysis; question answering; text-based dialogue; discourse processing; and applications of machine learning to language processing.

The course provides the necessary background in linguistics and artificial intelligence. This course is suitable for high-performing students who are willing and able to learn abstract concepts, complete programming assignments, develop a student-selected project, and produce a term paper.

Ordinarily, the term paper would describe a research topic based on the project. The term paper could instead be a substantial review of the literature on some specific aspect of NLP or be an original contribution.

Please discuss (with me and any concerned faculty member) any potential overlap of your project and term paper with your other work; also report any overlap within your project report and term paper. Such overlap is acceptable as long as there is an assurance that the work performed for uniquely for this course is substantial.

CSC 791 607 Advanced Cloud Architecture

(also offered as ECE 792)

This course provides an overview of several advanced topics in the area of Cloud Architecture. The course emphasizes on architecture and the development of Cloud services across many different Cloud environments. The students learn how to work with Hybrid and Multi-Cloud environments. They learn how to apply Infrastructure as a Code, Service Mesh, Observability practices, Autoscaling and Advanced Security policies. Below we show some of the modules offered in this course. The course will also include guest speakers from industry experts.

Electrical and Computer Engineering

ECE 305 Principles of Electromechanical Energy Conversion

Single-phase (1Ø) and three-phase (3Ø) circuits, power flow, analysis of magnetic circuits, performance of single-phase & three-phase transformers, principles of electromechanical energy conversion, and characteristics of AC and DC machinery.

ECE 305 is a perquisite for many Electrical Engineering power courses and is a good foundation for the advanced courses taught as a part of NC State University Master of Science, Electric Power Systems Engineering (MS-EPSE) program.

ECE 506 Architecture of Parallel Computers

(also offered as CSC 506)

The need for parallel and massively parallel computers. Taxonomy of parallel computer architecture, and programming models for parallel architectures. Example parallel algorithms. Shared-memory vs. distributed-memory architectures. Correctness and performance issues. Cache coherence and memory consistency. Bus-based and scalable directory-based multiprocessors. Interconnection-network topologies and switch design.

ECE 506 Architecture of Parallel Computers

ECE 511 Analog Electronics

Analog integrated circuits and analog integrated circuit design techniques. Review of basic device and technology issues. Comprehensive coverage of feedback networks and MOS operational amplifier design including gain, frequency response, common mode feedback, supply independent biasing, input offset, slew rate, settling time, stability, and compensation. Brief coverage of noise, matching, and nonlinearity. Strong emphasis on use of SPICE based computer simulation design tool for homework and project assignments. Students are required to complete an independent design project.

ECE 514 Random Processes

Probabilistic descriptions of signals and noise, including joint, marginal and conditional densities, autocorrelation, cross-correlation and power spectral density. Linear and nonlinear transformations. Linear least-squares estimation. Signal detection.

ECE 515 601 Digital Communications

A first graduate-level course in digital communications. Functions and interdependence of various components of digital communication systems will be discussed. Statistical channel modeling, modulation and demodulation, optimal receiver design, performance analysis, source coding, fundamentals of information theory. The focus of this course is on design and analysis of general communication systems. Specific communication systems will be discussed in class as time permits and addressed in group projects.

ECE 516 Systems Control Engineering

We will cover modern control theory (time domain analysis) for linear systems - including canonical state space representations (controller canonical, observer canonical, etc.), linearization, multi-input multi-outputs systems (including MFDs), and minimal state representations, controllers/observers, and controllability/observability, state transition matrix, Cayley-Hamilton, eigenvalues/eigenvectors, and similarity transformations, with introductions to digital, time-varying and optimal control systems. We will also cover various fundamental linear algebra techniques.

ECE 517 Object-Oriented Design and Development

(also offered as CSC 517)

The design of object-oriented systems, using principles such as the GRASP principles, and methodologies such as CRC cards and the Unified Modeling Language [UML]. Requirements analysis. Design patterns Agile Methods. Static vs. dynamic typing. Metaprogramming. Open-source development practices and tools. Test-first development. Project required, involving contributions to an open-source software project.

ECE 518 Wearable Biosensors and Microsystems

(also offered as BME 518)

This course will explore the application of wearable electronics to monitor human biometrics. The first part of the course will introduce the sources of chemical, electrical, and mechanical bio-signals, and the sensing motifs for monitoring each bio-signal. The second part of the course will explore the design, function and limitations of wearable biosensors. Example systems will include wearable electrocardiograms, blood-glucose monitors, electronic tattoos, “smart” clothing, and body area networks. Emphasis will be given to critical comparison of different sensor modalities and how their limitations in realistic applications suggest the selection of one type of sensor over another. This course will provide students with a general overview of wearable biosensors and the necessary technical background to solve basic problems in engineering systems at the interface of biology and electronics.

ECE 524 Radio System Design

Introduction to communication theory and radio system design. Design and analysis of radio systems, such as heterodyne transceivers, and effects of noise and nonlinearity. Design and analysis of radio circuits: amplifiers, filters, mixers, baluns, and other transmission line and discrete circuits. Students will learn to design, build and test a cell phone radio by hand. Radio can be made at home.

ECE 534 Power Electronics

DC and AC analysis of isolated and non-isolated switch mode power supply. Basic converter topologies covered include: buck, boost and buck/boost and their transformer-coupled derivatives. Design of close loop of these DC/DC converters. Power devices and their applications in DC/DC converters. Inductor and transformer design. Fundamentals of dc-ac inverters, ac-dc rectifiers and direct ac-ac converters and their applications.

ECE 535 Design of Electromechanical Systems

(also offered as MAE 535)

A practical introduction to electromechanical systems with emphasis on modeling, analysis and design techniques. Provides theory and practical tools for the design of electric machines (standard motors, linear actuators, magnetic bearings, LVDTs, etc). Involves a “hands on” experimental demonstration and culminates in an industry-sponsored design project. Topics include Maxwell's equations, magnetic circuit analysis, electromechanical energy conversion, finite element analysis, and design techniques. FAQ: How can individual distance students participate in "hands-on" demonstrations and design projects? Answer: Quite easily. Any student with access to basic supplies (wire, batteries, magnets, a video camera, etc.) can participate effectively in experimental demonstration projects (many of the best demonstrations have been submitted by individual distance students with limited resources). Of course, students with access to digital multimeters, oscilloscopes, function generators and similar technologies are encouraged to use them. The design project has no “hands on” component; it utilizes computational tools (MATLAB, Simulink, FEMM, ANSYS, etc.) that can be installed as student versions and through NCSU's Virtual Computing Lab (VCL).

ECE 540 Electromagnetic Fields

This course provides a mathematical foundation to solve advanced electromagnetic problems both analytically and numerically. Students will study wave propagation effects and interactions at boundaries to predict phenomena in both isotropic and anisotropic media. Methods for solving electromagnetic boundary value problems are introduced and applied to waveguide and resonator configurations. Finally, computational methods for both time and frequency domain problems are studied as students create their own computational codes to solve and visualize EM problems using the finite difference method and the method of moments.

ECE 544 Design of Electronic Packaging and Interconnects

A study of the design of digital and mixed signal interconnect and packaging. Topics covered include: single chip (surface mount and through-hole) and multichip packaging technology, packaging technology selection, electrical performance of packaging (Signal Integrity), thermal design, electrical design of printed circuit boards, backplane interconnect, receiver and driver selection, EMI control, CAD tools, and measurement issues. Also included is the design of Power Delivery Systems and Power Integrity for PCBs and on-chip. 3 credit hours.

ECE 546 VLSI Design Systems

Digital systems design in CMOS VLSI technology: CMOS devise physics, fabrication, primitive components, design and layout methodology, integrated system architectures, timing, testing future trends of VLSI technology.

ECE 547 Cloud Computing Technology

ECE 550 Power System Operation and Control

Fundamental concepts of economic operation and control of power systems. Real and reactive power balance. System components, characteristics and operation. Steady state and dynamic analysis of interconnected systems. Tieline power and load-frequency control with integrated economic dispatch.

ECE 551 Smart Electric Power Distribution Systems

Features and components of electric power distribution systems, power flow, short circuit and reliability analysis, basic control and protection, communications and SCADA, new "smart" functionality such as integrated volt/var control, automated fault location isolation and restoration, demand response and advanced metering infrastructure, integration of distributed generation and energy storage.

ECE 552 Renewable Electric Energy Systems

This course focuses on the new renewable energy based electric energy generation technologies and their integration into the power grid. The principals of main renewable energy based generation technologies: solar, wind, and fuel cells. Interconnection of distributed generation sources to power distribution grid. Economic and policy aspects of distributed generation.

ECE 560 Embedded System Architectures

(previously offered as ECE 592)

This course will teach you how to:

Architect and design embedded systems for different application domains
Create multithreaded software with and without a real-time kernel Offload processing to hardware peripherals and direct memory access controllers
Interface with touch display panels, SD flash storage and wireless networks
Develop embedded systems effectively using industry methods

It will help you apply what you may have learned in other courses, such as performing digital signal processing on streaming data, applying digital control systems to power conversion, LED lighting and motor control, and interfacing with analog and digital sensors and other devices.

ECE 561 Embedded System Design

This course will teach you how to analyze and optimize embedded systems in order to improve:

Speed - Raw code speed for a single thread
Responsiveness – Latency in a preemptive, multithreaded system
Power and Energy – Requirements for CPU and peripheral hardware
Memory Use – RAM and ROM requirements

The course addresses both software and hardware considerations. Credit will not be awarded for both ECE 461 and ECE 561. Restricted to CPE and EE Majors.

ECE 563 Microprocessor Architecture

Architecture of microprocessors. Measuring performance. Instruction-set architectures. Memory hierarchies, including caches, prefetching, program transformations for optimizing caches, and virtual memory. Processor architecture, including pipelining, hazards, branch prediction, static and dynamic scheduling, instruction-level parallelism, superscalar, and VLIW. Major projects.

ECE 564 ASIC and FPGPA Design With Verilog

Modern digital design practices based on Hardware Description Languages (Verilog, VHDL) and CAD tools, particularly logic synthesis. Emphasis on design practice and the underlying algorithms. Introduction to deep submicron design issues, particularly interconnect and low power and to ASIC applications, and decision making.

ECE 565 Operating Systems Design

ECE 566 Compiler Optimization and Scheduling

Provide insight into current compiler designs dealing with present and future generations of high performance processors and embedded systems. Introduce basic concepts in scanning and parsing. Investigate in depth program representation, dataflow analysis, scalar optimization, memory disambiguation, and interprocedural optimizations. Examine hardware/software tade-offs in the design of high performance processors, in particular VLIW versus dynamically scheduled architectures. Investigate back-end code generation techniques related to instruction selection, instruction scheduling for local, cyclic and global acyclic code, and register allocation and its interactions with scheduling and optimization.

ECE 570 Computer Networks

(also offered as CSC 570)
This class focuses on general introduction to computer networks, including discussion of protocol principles, local area and wide area networking, OSI stack, TCP/IP and quality of service principles. The detailed discussion of topics includes physical-layer communication, medium access control, routing algorithms, transport-layer protocols, wireless networking, and simulations. Based on the key aspects and concepts of computer networks which are already consolidated, the course will also introduce some advanced technology in the new generation networks. In a complimentary direction, the course will introduce the basic use of network simulation tool, e.g., to demonstrate and investigate computer network behavior of different topologies and under a variety of conditions.

ECE 574 Computer and Network Security

(also offered as CSC 574)

This course provides a graduate-level introduction to computer and network security and privacy. Students successfully completing this class will be able to evaluate works in academic and commercial security, and will have rudimentary skills in security research. The course covers four key topic areas: basics of cryptography and crypto protocols, network security, systems security, and privacy. Readings primarily come from seminal papers in the field.

ECE 574 Computer and Network Security

ECE 575 Introduction to Wireless Networking

(also offered as CSC 575)

Introduction to wireless networking. Topics include: introduction to wireless propagation, medium access, cellular networks, metropolitan, local and personal area wireless networks and mobile IP.

ECE 577 601 Switched Network Management

(Also offered as CSC 577 601)

The students learn the principles of cloud infrastructure and architect services against common PaaS vendors. Furthermore, students learn how to focus on service decoupling towards microservices and the principles of a Cloud native enterprise. Students with no CLI experience should contact the TA asap to arrange for a crash course very early in the semester.

ECE 578 LTE and 5G Communications

(also offered as CSC 591 608)

The course provides an introduction to the theoretical and practical aspects of Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology and beyond. A basic understanding of digital communication systems and radio access networks are required. Six main topics will be studied: 1) Network architecture and protocols, 2) Physical layer for downlink, 3) physical layer for uplink, 4) practical deployment aspects, 5) LTE-Advanced, and 6) 5G communications.

ECE 581 Electric Power System Protection

Protection systems used to protect the equipment in an electric power system against faults, fault analysis methods, basic switchgear used for protection, basic protection schemes, such as overcurrent, differential, and distance protection and their application. To introduce the current industry practice, the course will have a few guest lecturers from industry.

ECE 583 Electric Power Engineering Practicum I

This course will provide general coverage of project management and system engineering principles in a wide range of project management applications from concept through termination. The course will also introduce basic communication skills both oral and writing, and provide practical integration of those skills in project management reports and presentations. Restricted to Master of Science in Electric Power Systems Engineering.

ECE 584 Electric Power Engineering Practicum II

This Capstone course is the culminating course/event for all the other courses and content a student has undertaken to achieve the Masters in Electric Power Systems Engineering (EPSE) degree from North Carolina State University. It is the intent of this course that the student will bring to bear all the learnings and knowledge from the previous courses to show competence in the field of Power Systems Engineering. Specifically, students are expected to complete an industry project in a team format, demonstrating full mastery of the communications, project management and technical skills learned in previous and concurrent courses. In addition, the students will develop fully annotated project reports and PowerPoint presentations, and present these to their corporate sponsor and the NCSU EPSE faculty advisors. Throughout this course, we expect students to participate with their team members, sponsoring companies and faculty advisors, sharing their progress and insights, and helping one another.

ECE 584 Electric Power Engineering Practicum II

ECE 585 Business of Electric Utility

Evolution of the electric utility industry, the structure and business models of the industry, the regulatory factors within which the utilities operate, the operations of the utility industry, and the current policy and emerging technology issues facing the business. The course includes an introduction to engineering economy and the analysis of time-value of money decisions as related to electric utility infrastructure.

ECE 587 Power System Transients Analysis

Review of solutions to first and second order differential equations for electric power circuit transients. Applications to fault current instantaneous, shunt capacitor transients, circuit switching transients and overvoltages, current interruption and transformer transient behavior. Computer solution techniques for transient analysis using PSCAD and Matlab/Simulink. Modeling of utility power electronics circuits including single and three-phase rectifiers and inverters. Applications of power electronics for transmission system control and renewable generation. Distributed line modeling for traveling wave analysis of surge events. Introduction to voltage insulation, surge arrestor operation and lightning stroke analysis.

ECE 589 Solid State Solar and Thermal Energy Harvesting

(also offered as MSE 589 & PY 589)

This course studies the fundamental and recent advances of energy harvesting from two of the most abundant sources, namely solar and thermal energies. The first part of the course focuses on photovoltaic science and technology. The characteristics and design of common types of solar cells is discussed, and the known approaches to increasing solar cell efficiency will be introduced. After the review of the physics of solar cells, we will discuss advanced topics and recent progresses in solar cell technology. The second part of the course is focused on thermoelectric effect. The basic physical properties, Seebeck coefficient, electrical and thermal conductivities, are discussed and analyzed through the Boltzmann transport formalism. Advanced subject such as carrier scattering time approximations in relation to dimensionality and the density of states are studied. Different approaches for further increasing efficiencies are discussed including energy filtering, quantum confinement, size effects, band structure engineering, and phonon confinement.

ECE 591 602 Special Topics for General Electric Students

ECE 591 605 Deep Learning Beyond Accuracy

(Also offered as CSC 591 607)

In this course, students read and discuss research papers about deep neural neworks with a focus on not just accuracy but also resource consideration (e.g., FLOPs, parameter counts, time, memory, energy, size, etc.) With that interest, papers about techniques to design an efficient neural network architecture, such as structured/unstructured pruning, knowledge distillation, and quantization, will be read. On top of that, other dimensional metrics of machine learning, such as fairness, privacy, or sustainability, will also be explored. As a seminar course, this course is dedicated to paper reading, presentation, and discussion. Students will conduct a term project and take no exam. Students are expected to have implementation experiences on (convolutional deep) neural networks.

ECE 591 610 Special Topics for ABB Students

ECE 592 603 Resonant Power Converters

Resonant Power Converters course covers the analysis, modeling, design, and control of high-frequency resonant power rectifiers, inverters, and DC-DC converters. More specific topics are:
• A general overview of the advantages, concepts, and challenges in designing and operating high-frequency resonant converters. Some of the topics include the converters’ classification (half-wave, voltage or current driven, series- or parallel-loaded); survey, selection, and modeling of semiconductor switches for application in resonant converters; loss mechanisms and loss calculation; hard- and soft-switching concepts; zero-voltage and zero-current switching (ZVS and ZCS) notions; modeling of nonideal and nonlinear reactive elements; figures of merit for resonant converters comparison (switch stress, output-power capability), etc.
• Modeling, analysis, and design of Class D and Class E voltage- and current-driven resonant rectifiers. Three types of rectifiers will be studied: the half-wave, bridge, and transformer center-tapped rectifiers. A detailed analysis of the voltage- and current-driven Class D rectifiers and a current-driven Class-E rectifier will be provided.
• Modeling, analysis, and design of Class D and Class E series- and parallel-loaded resonant inverters. Resonant inverters overview, Class D voltage source series resonant inverter, current-driven Class E ZVS resonant inverter, and phase-controlled voltage-and current-source inverters will be studied. An overview of the advanced inverter topologies will be provided, and a brief discussion about the matching circuits will be presented.
• Resonant Power Converters consisting of a cascaded connection of a resonant inverter and a rectifier will be studied. The operation principles will be discussed, and design procedures will be outlined for a selected combination of compatible inverters and rectifiers. A detailed design procedure of the LLC converter will be presented. The principle of operation of quasi-resonant DC-DC converters will be illustrated with an example of a Buck ZVS quasi-resonant converter.
• Resonant converters modeling and control. The Extended Describing Function (EDF) modeling methods of resonant converters will be introduced and discussed in detail. Phase-controlled resonant converters will be introduced and used to illustrate the phase-control concept. Frequency control will be explained and illustrated in the example of an LLC converter.

ECE 592 604 Quantum Computing

ECE 592 606 Advanced NextG Network Design

ECE 592 611 Optimizations and Algorithms

(also offered as CSC 591)

This course introduces advances in optimization theory and algorithms with rapidly growing applications in machine learning, systems, and control. Methods to obtain the extremum (minimum or maximum) of a non-dynamic system and the use of these methods in various engineering applications are given.

ECE 592 625 Internet of Things: Application and Implementation

(also offered as CSC 591, CSC 791, ECE 792)

This course will focus on advanced topics in Internet of Things (IoT). These topics will include (but are not limited to) challenges in the design of IoT infrastructure, limitations of existing protocols such as HTTP when used with IoT, Security, low power design considerations, applications of machine learning techniques, and existing and emerging IoT standards. The students will be required to read research publications in this area. The course will also include multiple demos, such as for fog computing, using real IoT hardware such as Intel Edison boards and/or other similar devices. The course will also cover one or more of IoT platform such as IBM's Bluemix platform, Microsofts HomeOS and Lab of Things platforms, etc. To enable students to see IoT in action, they will be required to do projects using real IoT devices.

ECE 592 651 Pythons for Electrical Engineers

The course is intended to provide a broad exposure to fundamental skills in the use of python in systems engineering, engineering experiments and in other engineering applications.

ECE 600 ECE Graduate Orientation

ECE 600 is a required course designed to introduce new graduate students to two important topic areas: (1) Information about the graduate program, the department, and the university that is relevant to all incoming graduate students (required); (2) A description of the ongoing research and curriculum for technical areas in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department (optional).

ECE 712 Integrated Circuit Design for Wireless Communications

Analysis, simulation, and design of the key building blocks of an integrated radio: amplifiers, mixers, and oscillators. Topics include detailed noise optimization and linearity performance of high frequency integrated circuits for receivers and transmitters. Introduction to several important topics of radio design such as phase-locked loops, filters and large-signal amplifiers. Use of advanced RF integrated circuit simulation tools such as SpectreRF or ADS for class assignments.

ECE 720 Electronic System Level and Physical Design

Study of transaction-level modeling of digital systems-on-chip using SystemC. Simulation and analysis of performance in systems with distributed control. Synthesis of digital hardware from high-level descriptions. Physical design methodologies, including placement, routing, clock-tree insertion, timing, and power analysis. Significant project to design a core at system and physical levels. Prerequisites: knowledge of Object-Oriented Programming with C++ and Register-Transfer-Level design with Verilog or VHDL.

ECE 721 Advanced Microarchitecture

Survey of advanced computer microarchitecture concepts. Modern superscalar microarchitecture, complexity-effective processors, multithreading, advanced speculation techniques, fault-tolerant microarchitectures, power and energy management, impact of new technology on microarchitecture. Students build on a complex simulator which is the basis for independent research projects.

ECE 726 Advanced Feedback Control

Advanced topics in dynamical systems and optimal control. Current research and recent developments in the field.

ECE 734 Power Management Integrated Circuits

Review of modern power management converters and circuits; Review modeling and control of converters; Detail discussion of voltage and current mode controllers; Understanding of power converter losses and optimization method, as well as management of power; Integrated circuit design of various power management chips.

ECE 736 Power Systems Stability and Control

Small-signal stability, transient stability, and voltage stability of power systems. Nonlinear and linear dynamic modeling and control of power systems using differential-algebraic models. Design of Power System Stabilizers. Use of Synchrophasors for oscillation monitoring, control, and stability assessment.

ECE 745 Application Specific Integrated Circuit Verification

This course covers the verification process used in validating the functional correctness in today's complex Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs). Topics include the fundamentals of simulation based functional verification, stimulus generation, results checking, coverage, debug, and assertions. Provides the students with real world verification problems to allow them to apply what they learn.

ECE 748 Advanced Verification with UVM

(previously offered as ECE 792)

The course prepares students to be staff-level verification engineers in today's complex ASIC (application specific integrated circuits) or FPGA (field programmable gate array) devices. Students will learn to architect and implement simulation environments using UVM (Universal Verification Methodology) and will gain an understanding of the issues related to verification reuse and emulation, with a focus on the Universal Verification Methodology base class library.

ECE 753 Computational Methods for Power Systems

This course is designed to introduce computational methods used for power grid operation and planning. The course will help students understand the various computational methods that form the basis of major commercial software packages used by grid analysts, planners, and operators. Students are expected to have some basic understanding of principles of power system analysis including power system models, power flow calculation, economic dispatch, reliable and stability analysis. The course covers the following computational methods commonly used in power grid operation and planning: Locational Marginal Pricing Schemes, Game Theory, Unconstrained Optimization, Linear Programming, Non-linear Constrained Optimization, and Forecasting Methods.

Students want to pursue a career as a power grid planner or operator or PhD students who are interested in research in the following areas: renewable integration, demand response, energy storage, energy management systems, power system economics, should think of taking the course.

ECE 759 601 Pattern Recognition

Image pattern recognition techniques and computer-based methods for scene analysis, including discriminate functions, fixture extraction, classification strategies, clustering and discriminant analysis. Coverage of applications and current research results.

ECE 785 601 Advanced Embedded Systems

In depth study of topics in computer design; advantages and disadvantages of various designs and design methodologies; technology shifts, trends, and constraints; hardware/software tradeoffs and co-design methodologies.

ECE 786 Topics in Advanced Computer Architecture: Data Parallel Processors

In-depth study of processor architectures to exploit data-level parallelism, including general computation on graphics processing units (GPGPU, aka GPU computing architecture) and vector processors; memory subsystems; advantages and disadvantages of various architectures; technology shifts, trends, and constraints. Students undertake major course projects.

ECE 792 610 Routed Network Design

The topics we will cover in this course include:
• OSPF • Policy Based Routing • Route redistribution • BGP primer - emphasis only on its use in data centers (not the Internet) • Switch Fabrics in data centers • Virtualization (NVGRE, VxLAN, GENEVE data planes) • Control planes (EVPN) • Hyperconvergence (if time permits) • Server load balancing  Across data centers  Within a data center • Interconnecting data centers  Single Provider  Multicloud (if time permits) • Virtualization in WAN - SDN solutions (if time permits) • Telemetry (if time permits; guest lecture by Carlos Pignataro, Cisco DE)

Engineering

EED 501 610 Teaching Undergraduate Engineers

This course in engineering education focuses on evidence-based pedagogical methods that improve learning for undergraduate engineering students. Other topics include engineering accreditation, diverse groups, and how to create effective teaching resources. The class will culminate with a micro-teaching module for each student. Topical areas will be supported with readings from the engineering education literature.

EED 502 Engineering Education: Content, Assessment, and Pedagogy

This course in engineering education focuses on course design (or redesign) as an engineering design problem. Areas covered will be writing learning outcomes that link to specific course goals, how to establish course goals (explicit and implicit), ways to assess whether learning outcomes and course goals are being met, and innovative pedagogical approaches, including online and blended learning. Topical areas will be supported with readings from the engineering education literature.

EGR 501 Engineering Leadership and Strategic Change

In any business environment, an understanding of leadership and change management is essential to career success. This course provides practitioners in technical fields the knowledge to lead, align and transform individuals and teams. In addition, students will learn how to best position their teams to achieve organizational performance excellence. The class includes both individual and collaborative (group) learning and assessments.

EGR 505 Managerial Finance for Engineers

Engineers are often called upon to solve many of the company’s biggest problems. These problems typically cross functional boundaries and require a working knowledge not only of the technical considerations but also considerations association with other key areas of the business. One such area, often overlooked by technical professionals is the language of business which often requires a good working knowledge of key principles of accounting and finance. The structure of this course is not to take a traditional finance class and offer it to engineers. The course is structure to use a pragmatic approach to teach engineers the most relevant and significant financial concepts they will need to differentiate themselves in leadership positions in their companies. The class includes both individual and collaborative (team) learning.

EGR 506 Managing New High-Tech Product Launches

This course covers new high-tech product development and launch from the perspective of the technical product manager responsible for developing and launching new products and new lines of business within the high tech firm. Topics cover entrepreneurship and “intranpreneurship”, product management, the entire spectrum of the new products development and launch process starting from concept generation, ideation, concept evaluation, and business case analysis all the way through market testing and product launch. A particular emphasis is placed on the planning and development of a new product for the student’s current employer. Students may also use this course to plan a new start up company if they are not currently employed. Each phase of the new products management process will be covered and illustrated by case studies. Life cycle product management will also be addressed. Students will generate a new product business plan as a course project. This course will be operated as an online asynchronous seminar course. The course covers a wide range of topics and here, they will be addressed through a series of mini case studies. The course consists of 14 weeks. Each week, there will be 2 video lectures. The video should be watched on or about Monday and Thursday, although you can vary this to fit your schedule. You may complete your readings, study and assignments at any time throughout the week. There will be reading every week. After the fourth week of the course, there will be ongoing project work. Twice during the semester, you will be asked to submit a case report.

EGR 507 Product Life Cycle Management

This course covers the management of complex technical products during all phases of the product life cycle. It is a broad survey of all the tools needed by the technical product manager throughout the life cycle of a complex product. The course is taught with a systems approach and from the engineering manager’s viewpoint. The product life cycle includes all aspects of managing products from launch through maturity. The course covers understanding customer needs, product design and packaging, market segmentation, pricing, sales and distribution, technical sales support, training, technical services and support, product evolution and upgrades, and management of disruption. A particular emphasis is placed on the needs of complex high technology products and related engineering services. Business topics are covered as necessary to meet the needs of the engineering manager. Students are expected to learn good communication skills.

EGR 517 601 Introduction to Facilities Engineering Systems

(also offered as CE 590)

This course covers an introduction to the multi-disciplinary facilities engineering functions, such as would be found in a typical municipal public works department, university facilities engineering organizations, medical complexes, various government agencies at the state level, department of transportation and airport and port authorities, and facilities engineering at both the installation level and the headquarters and policy level of certain federal government agencies. Non-governmental organizations such as utilities providers, and operators of plants, both processing and manufacturing, typically engage in facilities engineering and management such as included in this course. Engineering practice in facilities engineering is by nature broad, requiring the engineers in those organizations to understand underlying principles of related engineering disciplines to address the cross-cutting issues in the practice. The range of topics covered in this course includes the planning cycle; buildings, infrastructure, and technology systems; emergency preparedness and disaster recovery planning; installed equipment; select electrical and mechanical systems; sanitation systems including sanitary waste water and industrial waste water; recycling programs; and environmental compliance. Additionally, topics such as sustainability and resilience in planning and design will be discussed from a technical perspective, and related business aspects such as decision making considering life-cycle costs, planning and budgeting are in the content of this course. Presentations and case studies are included, such that students will demonstrate their communication skills.

EGR 518 601 Environmental Compliance for Facilities Engineers

Facilities Engineering is the application of multidisciplinary engineering and management required to effectively manage the technical aspects of a large inventory of physical assets. Practitioners include city engineers, town engineers, university facilities engineering organizations, governmental installations at the federal and state level, port authorities, and manufacturing plants. All of these types of installations and organizations conduct operations, maintenance, repair and construction which are subject to environmental regulation. There are literally thousands of such regulations spread across Federal, State, and local jurisdictions, and the Facilities Engineer must be aware of compliance aspects, and from an engineering perspective, how to comply with the regulations. This may very well be the only aspect of engineering where an individual can be held to not only civil, but criminal liability, for acts committed, or allowed to happen, without willful intent, to be in violation of law and regulation. This course will teach the student the complete gamut of environmental regulation across all the media that can be expected for an owner’s Facilities Engineer, as well as for consultants and engineers who support the owners at their installations. Engineering approaches, equipment and solutions to comply with the various regulations will be presented and explained. Presentations and case studies are included, such that students will demonstrate their communication skills.

EGR 590 606 Sustainable Lean Manufacturing

Purpose of Course: The course will cover generic and specific lean manufacturing concepts and tools focused on sustainability. All these basic concepts will be employed to discuss industry strategy and global competitiveness. People responsible for continuously improving operational performance must develop systems that are fast, flexible, focused and friendly for their companies, customers and production associates. The course will provide the student with an introduction to lean manufacturing describing the background behind its development and how evaluations and assessments of production systems are performed. Lean manufacturing tools and techniques will be described and in some cases demonstrated in simulation exercises. Issues relating to employee involvement, improvement teams, training and culture will be presented. Planning for lean process implementation and the necessity of sustain improvements will be discussed. Finally, sustainability concept will be discussed and integrated with Lean Manufacturing. Conduct of Course: This class will be conducted on-line only. Grading will be based upon performance on a book report, homework, midterm, and a final exam. Students can add to their grade by completing a project as a part of the course.

EGR 590 608 Managing Innovation of New High-Tech Products

The purpose of this course is to cover the best practices and methods for creating and innovating new high-tech product ideas, for management of the design process, and for the management of the development and prototyping of new engineering products. This course if for engineering graduate students aspiring to be product managers, product designers and engineering managers. The course assumes technical competence in an area of expertise equivalent to a graduate engineering student, but the course emphasis is on the management of innovation and design.
The course covers the sources of new product ideas including customer feedback, technology evolution, technology brokering, scenario analysis, customer problem solving, focus groups, and group brainstorming. Next the design process will be addressed. A method known as “design thinking” will be covered in depth, and students will complete a project in an area of interest based on design thinking. The course will cover the methods of intellectual property protection for new products including patent, copyright, trade secret and trademarks. The management of the development of new products, including project management techniques, will also be covered. Several case studies of well-known technology products will be used to illustrate the course concepts.

This course is part of a sequence of three courses on the innovation, design, development, business planning, launch, marketing, and product management of engineering products. The other two courses are EGR 506 Managing New High-Tech Product Launches, and EGR 507, Life Cycle Product Management. Students may take any one, two or all of these courses, ideally in sequential order, however, they may be taken in any order convenient to the student’s program. The purpose of the three-course sequence is to survey and tech methods for managing product design and development, planning, launch and product management over the lifecycle for engineers, product managers, aspiring engineering managers and entrepreneurs. There is an entrepreneurial flavor to the course sequence, and students may use the course content to launch new products for their employers, or in some cases to work for a startup company or applied research institution.

EGR 590 612 Engineering Project Management

The course will cover project management concepts and tools focused on sustainability. All these basic concepts will be employed to discuss industry strategies and global competitiveness. People responsible for project management must develop projects that are focused and friendly for their companies, customers and the sustainability global goals. The course will provide the student an understanding of the main concepts and principles of Project Management (PM), as well as the different tools utilized in project management to support the sustainability and sustainable development theories. Lectures will focus on theoretical and practical discussion of project management and its connection with sustainability. We will also see the practical ramifications of our topics discussed in class during the class activities. Conduct of Course: This class will be conducted on-line only. Grading will be based upon performance on homework, and two examinations.

EGR 590 658 Managing New Product Creation

Engineering Management

EM 675 Engineering Management Project

Individual or team project work with faculty mentorship in engineering management resulting in written report and oral presentation. This is one of the approved courses to fulfill engineering management practicum requirements. Maximum of three (3) credits can be earned for MEM degree with the exception of Professional Practice concentration students who may earn six (6) credits. Practical experience in applying EM knowledge to real-world problems at an industrial site or at NC State. Completely reserved for students enrolled in the Masters of Engineering Management degree.

Integrated Manufacturing Systems

IMS 675 Manufacturing Systems Engineering Project

Individual or team project work in integrated manufacturing systems engineering resulting in an engineering report. Required of all degree candidates in IMSE master's program. Forms the basis for IMSE student's final oral examination.

IMS 680 Master’s Directed Study

Independent study providing opportunity for individual students to explore topics of special interest under direction of a member of the faculty.

Industrial and Systems Engineering

ISE 501 Introduction to Operations Research

(also offered as OR 501)

Operations Research (OR) is a discipline that involves the development and application of advanced analytical methods to aid complex decisions. This course will provide students with the skills to be able to apply a variety of analytical methods to a diverse set of applications. Focus will be on how to translate real-world problems into appropriate models and then how to apply computational procedures and data so that the models can be used as aids in making decisions. Course will introduce students to the use of Julia along with the JuMP modeling language and the Gurobi mathematical programming solver. Applications will include improving the operation of a variety of different production and service systems, including healthcare delivery and transportation systems, and also how OR can be used to make better decisions in areas like sports, marketing, and project management.

ISE 510 Applied Engineering Economy

Engineering economy analysis of alternative projects including tax and inflation aspects, sensitivity analysis, risk assessment, decision criteria. Emphasis on applications.

ISE 515 Manufacturing Process Engineering

Manufacturing process engineering covers the behavior of materials and the processes used to convert raw materials into finished products. The course emphasizes process selection and sequencing, economics, quality and design for manufacture.

ISE 540 Human Factors in Systems Design

Foundational human factors principles and conceptual frameworks, and their application to design of human-machine systems. Consideration of human cognitive and physical capabilities and limitations in design for performance, safety, and comfort. Human factors research methods; experimental design; human sensory channels and capacity; design of display and control; information theory and human information processing; human performance modeling; macroergonomics and sociotechnical systems; design for disability and aging.

ISE 544 Occupational Biomechanics

Anatomical, physiological, and biomechanical bases of physical ergonomics. Strength of biomaterials, human motor capabilities, body mechanics, kinematics and anthropometry. Use of bioinstrumentation, active and passive industrial surveillance techniques and the NIOSH lifting guide. Acute injury and cumulative trauma disorders. Static and dynamic biomechanical modeling. Emphasis on low back, shoulder and hand/wrist biomechanics.

ISE 552 Design and Control of Production and Service Systems

Basic terminology and techniques for the control of production and service systems including economic order quantity models; stochastic inventory models; material requirements planning; Theory of Constraints; single and mixed model assembly lines; and lean manufacturing. Emphasis on mathematical models of the interaction between limited capacity and stochastic variability through the use of queueing models to describe system behavior.

ISE 552 Design and Control of Production and Service Systems

ISE 560 Stochastic Models in Industrial Engineering

(also offered as OR 560)

This course will introduce mathematical modeling, analysis, and solution procedures applicable to uncertain (stochastic) production and service systems. Methodologies covered include probability theory and stochastic processes including discrete and continuous Markov processes. Applications relate to design and analysis of problems, capacity planning, inventory control, waiting lines, and system reliability and maintainability. This course will be taught at the Masters’ level.

ISE 562 Simulation Modeling

(also offered as OR 562 and TE 562)

This course concentrates on design, construction, and use of discrete/continuous simulation object-based models employing the SIMIO software, with application to manufacturing, service, and healthcare. The focus is on methods for modeling and analyzing complex problems using simulation objects. Analysis includes data-based modeling, process design, input modeling, output analysis, and the use of 3D animation with other graphical displays. Object-oriented modeling is used to extend models and enhance re-usability.

ISE 589 656 Probability and Statistics for Engineers

This course introduces fundamental concepts in probability and statistics to engineering students. It covers topics in probability, random variables, discrete and continuous probability distributions, confidence intervals, hypothesis testing, sampling, and introductory linear regression.

ISE 716 Automated Systems Engineering

General principles of operation and programming of automated systems. Automated assembly, automated manufacturing, and inspection systems. Control of automated manufacturing. Industrial logic systems and programmable logic controllers. Computer numerical control, industrial robotics, and computer integrated manufacturing.

ISE 718 Micro/Nano-Scale Fabrication and Manufacturing

Introduction to physical theory, process design, analysis, and characterization of micro/nano scale fabrication and manufacturing. The main focus of the course is on the fabrication/manufacturing of important types of microstructures used in micro/nano devices and the techniques and tools used to fabricate and characterize them.

ISE 748 Quality Engineering

Introduction to basic concepts of quality engineering, statistical process control (SPC) methods, acceptance sampling techniques, concept of parameter design and statistical as well as analytical techniques for its implementation, tolerance analysis and design, components of cost of poor quality and an introduction to quality management.

Materials Science and Engineering

MSE 500 Modern Concepts in Materials Science

MSE 500 covers the fundamental principles that govern the physical properties of materials. This course is designed to prepare students without an undergraduate materials degree for further graduate level materials courses. MSE 500 will cover selected topics from senior-level courses in the undergraduate materials science and engineering curriculum. An emphasis will be placed on developing and applying an understanding of basic materials science concepts: atomic bonding; crystallography; defects and diffusion; thermodynamics, phase diagrams and phase transformations; deformation and failure mechanisms in crystalline and non-crystalline solids. The types of materials covered in this course primarily include ceramics, metals, and polymers.

MSE 509 Nuclear Materials

(also offered as NE 509)

In this course, most of the materials issues encountered in the operation of nuclear power reactors are discussed. The objective of the course is to give students a background in materials for nuclear power reactors and to discuss the unique changes that occur in these materials under the reactor environment, so that students understand the limitations put on reactor operations and reactor design by materials performance. In the first part of the course we review basic concepts of physical metallurgy to develop an understanding of the relationship between microstructure and material properties outside of irradiation. In the second part of the course, we describe the process of radiation-material interaction, present the methods to calculate atomic displacement damage produced by exposure to irradiation, and describe the changes in material properties that results from irradiation exposure. In the third part of the course, special attention is given to property changes affecting the fuel and cladding performance and operational safety such as corrosion of the cladding, hydriding, fuel expansion, Pellet-Cladding Interactions, stress corrosion-cracking; Credit will not be given for both NE/MSE 409 and NE/MSE 509.

MSE 540 Processing of Metallic Materials

Fundamental concepts of solidification and their application to foundry and welding practices; metal forming concepts applied to forging, rolling, drawing, and sheet forming operations; machining mechanisms and methods; powder metallurgy; advanced processing methods including rapid solidification, mechanical alloying, and additive manufacturing. Credit for both MAT 440 and MSE 540 is not allowed.

MSE 555 Polymer Technology and Engineering

This course covers selected topics in rubber elasticity, viscoelasticity, time-temperature superposition, Boltzmann superposition, ultimate properties of polymers, polymer rheology, polymer processing, commercial polymers, and design and selection of polymeric materials.

MSE 556 Composite Materials

Basic principles underlying properties of composite materials as related to properties of individual constituents and their interactions. Emphasis on design of composite systems to yield desired combinations of properties.

MSE 565 Introduction to Nanomaterials

Introduction to nanoparticles, nanotubes, nanowires, and nanostructured thin films, emphasizing their synthesis, structural and property characterization, novel physical and chemical properties, applications, and contemporary literature.

MSE 580 Materials Forensics and Degradation

Materials forensics will describe the principles and prevention of the degradation of materials. The topics will include electrochemical corrosion of metallic materials, oxidation of metals, degradation of polymers, biodeterioration of materials, failure analysis of materials including mechanical failures and failures of electrical devices. The general practice of failure analysis will be applied to a variety of case studies to illustrate important failure mechanisms.

MSE 580 Materials Forensics and Degradation

MSE 589 Solid State Solar and Thermal Energy Harvesting

(also offered as ECE 589)

This course studies the fundamental and recent advances of energy harvesting from two of the most abundant sources, namely solar and thermal energies. The first part of the course focuses on photovoltaic science and technology. The characteristics and design of common types of solar cells is discussed, and the known approaches to increasing solar cell efficiency will be introduced. After the review of the physics of solar cells, we will discuss advanced topics and recent progresses in solar cell technology. The second part of the course is focused on thermoelectric effect. The basic physical properties, Seebeck coefficient, electrical and thermal conductivities, are discussed and analyzed through the Boltzmann transport formalism. Advanced subject such as carrier scattering time approximations in relation to dimensionality and the density of states are studied. Different approaches for further increasing efficiencies are discussed including energy filtering, quantum confinement, size effects, band structure engineering, and phonon confinement.

MSE 591 601 Introduction to Materials Informatics

The 8-week course is designed to introduce hands-on Materials Informatics (MI) concepts, where the students can onboard data science skills and directly see the implications of their analysis on a systematic process of inquiry.
The course consists of 6 interactive modules on data science topics. First three modules cover general Data Science concepts like Data, Big data, Data gathering, handling and Data analysis. The hands-on part allowed to develop skills of data handling in Jupiter notebook, gain basics of Python, familiarize students with working in Anaconda Navigator environment. The second part is dedicated to Machine Learning concepts. Particularly, general overview of Unsupervised, Supervised Learning is accompanied by representative methods (like K-means and SVM) and approaches applied to the sample dataset.
Each module consists of 1-hour lecture on topic materials, paired with a hands-on video and practice module activity. After completing the module, students are offered to work independently on self-learn tasks.

MSE 591 610 Quantitative Materials Characterization Techniques

(also offered as MSE 791)

The class presents an overview of the quantitative materials characterization techniques and their application to surface science and bulk materials studies. The majority of the homework will focus on reading the current primary literature and acquiring the skills needed to understand what was done, why, and how in order to arrive to certain conclusions. The class will teach common characterization methods and introduce the basic instrumentation principles.

MSE 702 Defects in Solids

Starting with introduction to defects and diffusion in solids, the first part is on structure and properties of defects, and the second part is on diffusion and annealing in bulk materials and thin films needed for solid state devices.

MSE 705 Mechanical Behavior of Engineering Materials

The subjects to be covered will include stress, strain and elasticity, plasticity and flow rules, slip and dislocations, defect interactions, strengthening mechanisms, high-temperature deformation, fracture mechanics, toughening mechanisms in advanced materials, fatigue and cyclic deformation. Applications pertinent to engineering materials will be discussed.

MSE 706 Phase Transformation and Kinetics

This course provides a foundation for the advanced understanding of the phenomenological and atomistic kinetic process in materials. It provides a basis for the analysis for the evolution of structure during material processing. The course emphasizes analysis and development of rigorous comprehension of fundamentals. Topics include: irreversible thermodynamics; diffusion; nucleation; phase transformations; fluid and heat transport; and morphological instabilities.

MSE 708 Thermodynamics of Materials

This course is divided into three parts: a review of classical thermodynamics, an introduction to statistical thermodynamics and materials-relevant applications of classical and statistical thermodynamics. Topics include: mathematical background, fundamental laws of thermodynamics, equilibrium and irreversible processes, open, closed and isolated systems, multicomponent systems, partition functions and particle distribution functions, ideal gases, solution thermodynamics, heat capacity of crystals, rubber elasticity, surface and interface thermodynamics and thermodynamics of nanoscale systems.

MSE 721 Nanoscale Simulations and Modeling

The course is designed to assist engineering students in learning the fundamentals and cutting-edge nature of various simulations methods and their application to nanostructures and nanotechnology. The modeling tools range from accurate first principles quantum-based methods to multi-scale approaches that combine atomic and continuum modeling. Systems to be examined include carbon fullerenes and nanotubes, diamond clusters, photonic crystals, quantum dots, ligand stabilized nanoparticles, bio-nanostructures, and bulk nanostructured metals.

MSE 760 Materials Science in Processing of Semiconductor Devices

This course has two components (1) inorganic semiconductors (1-12 Lectures by Dr. Jay Narayan); and (2) organic semiconductors (13-24 by Dr. Franky So). The first part will address control of dopant profiles for the formation of shallow junctions needed for nanoscale devices, microstructural engineering to utilize Ion implantation, defect microstructures, low-resistivity Ohmic contacts, thin oxides with desired electrical properties, and impurity precipitation and electromigration phenomena need a basic understanding of underlying materials science principles and their applications. Physical properties of materials in small dimensions are expected to be frequently quite different from the bulk properties. This course deals with microscopic properties, and correlation of microstructures in nanoscale regions with corresponding physical properties.

The second part will cover the fundamentals of organic semiconductors including the energy band structure, the optical and electronic properties, the charge transport properties and characterization, excitonic processes, optical absorption and emission, organic-organic semiconductor contacts, organic-inorganic semiconductor contacts, metal-organic semiconductor contacts, ohmic contacts. Optoelectronic devices such as organic light emitting diodes, photodetectors and solar cells, fabrication by thermal evaporation and solution processing such as roll-to-roll coating will be covered. Also included in the course are the physics and chemistry of nanocrystals of semiconductors and their related devices.

MSE 761 Polymer Blends and Alloys

(Also offered as CHE 761)

Many polymeric systems of commercial relevance consist of multiple polymeric species. As a result, most of these materials are multiphase, in which case the components segregate sufficiently to endow the system with the properties of each component. In this course, we begin with a brief review of some important concepts in polymer thermodynamics and use these concepts to describe equilibrium phase behavior. Methods for calculating, and measuring properties at, equilibrium will be described. Intrinsic limitations on polymer blending will lead to a discussion of physical and chemical methods by which such limitations can be overcome, including emulsification and reactive processing. Another means by which to produce multiphase polymeric materials is through the design of copolymers. This class of materials yields the formation of nanostructures in the same fashion as surfactants, and the ordering phenomena that occur in these systems will be discussed. Thermodynamic models designed to predict the phase behavior of such materials, as well as salient characterization methods (e.g., microscopy and scattering), will be described. Topics related to interfacial characteristics, measurement and modification will likewise be addressed.

MSE 791 601 Biomaterials Science

The course introduces fundamental aspects associated with synthesis, properties, processing/fabrication and application of materials derived from or associated with bio-entities. The course focuses on biomaterials with broad applications beyond medical or clinical uses. The course emphasizes the biological systems unique machinery and function in the context of desired outcome that utilizes a material or materials’ systems. Fundamental concepts covered in the course include: differences among classes of biomaterials; toxicity vs biocompatibility of biomaterials; bulk vs surface properties of biomaterials; interactions of biomaterials with different environments; biomaterials stability and degradation; biomaterials for sensing and bioelectronics applications; biomaterials for energy, soft robotics and responsive materials applications; biomaterials for drug delivery, multiplexing and theranostic applications.

MSE 791 603 Density Functional Theory

Density functional theory (DFT) is not only a workhorse for the bottom-up design of materials but it is also widely used in industry and central to many existing materials databases. This class will introduce the student to the basic principles of DFT and give exposure of using DFT to predict various properties of materials. As a formal quantum mechanics course is not typical in the MSE curriculum, the class will start with a brief primer on quantum mechanics and other basic important concepts. This will be followed by the students building their own planewave DFT code in Python (guided by examples) and then by use a professionally developed code to explore the prediction of material properties.

MSE 791 605 Nonferrous Alloys

The course highlights several nonferrous alloys of importance. The fundamental principles of developing these alloys for practical applications will be described. Alloy theories will be applied to show how certain phases detrimental to service life can be prevented to form. The emphasis of this course is in understanding the alloys from correlation of microstructure to properties.

MSE 791 610 Quantitative Materials Characterization Techniques

(also offered as MSE 591)

The class presents an overview of the quantitative materials characterization techniques and their application to surface science and bulk materials studies. The majority of the homework will focus on reading the current primary literature and acquiring the skills needed to understand what was done, why, and how in order to arrive to certain conclusions. The class will teach common characterization methods and introduce the basic instrumentation principles.

Mathematics

MA 501 Advanced Mathematics for Engineers & Scientists I

Survey of mathematical methods for engineers and scientists. Ordinary differential equations, series solutions, and the method of Frobenius; Fourier series, Fourier integral, and Fourier transforms; special functions, Sturm-Liouville theory, and eigenfunction expansion; partial differential equations and separation of variables. Applications to engineering and science. Not for credit by mathematics majors.

MA 502 Advanced Mathematics for Engineers and Scientists II

Determinants and matrices; line and surface integrals, integral theorems; complex integrals and residues; distribution functions of probability. Not for credit by mathematics majors.

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

MAE 501 Advanced Engineering Thermodynamics

Classical thermodynamics of a general reactive system; conservation of energy and principles of increase of entropy; fundamental relation of thermodynamics; Legendre transformations; phase transitions and critical phenomena; equilibrium and stability criteria in different representation; Multicomponent systems; Multiphase systems including phase equilibrium; Chemical reactions.

MAE 504 Fluid Dynamics of Combustion I

Gas-phase thermochemistry including chemical equilibrium and introductory chemical kinetics. Homogeneous reaction phenomena. Subsonic and supersonic combustion waves in premixed reactants (deflagration and detonation). Effects of turbulence. Introduction to diffusion flame theory.

MAE 505 Heat Transfer Theory and Applications

Development of basic equations for steady and transient heat and mass transfer processes. Emphasis on application of basic equations to engineering problems in areas of conduction, convection, mass transfer and thermal radiation.

MAE 511 Advanced Dynamics with Applications to Aerospace Systems

Basic topics in advanced dynamics, including rotating coordinate systems, Euler angles, three-dimensional kinematics and kinetics, angular momentum methods and an introduction to analytical mechanics. The advanced dynamics topics presented can be used to model the dynamics of engineering systems undergoing rotation and/or translation, such as aerospace vehicles, land-based vehicles, ships, submarines, wind turbines, biomechanical systems, machine tools, and robotic systems.

MAE 515 Advanced Automotive Vehicle Dynamics

A duel-level course designed for seniors and first year graduate students. This course of advanced automotive vehicle dynamics begins with entire dynamic analysis, including acceleration, braking, aerodynamics, steering, rollover, and extends to vehicle component dynamics, including tire, drive train, steering, suspension, and vehicle vibration.

MAE 517 Advanced Precision Manufacturing for Products, Systems and Processes

This is a graduate level course designed for graduate students and undergraduate seniors. This course examines precision issues for products, manufacturing machines, processes, and instruments. Modern manufacturing technologies are distinct in their multifarious nature in product sizes, materials, energy forms, theories, and information types; however, the key to their success relies on the management of precision. This course discusses issues critical to both existing precision manufacturing and future sub-micron/nano technology. Important topics include fundamental mechanical accuracies; manufacturing systems and processes; geometric dimensioning and tolerancing; process planning, tolerance charts, and statistical process control; principles of accuracy, repeatability, and resolution; error assessment and calibration; error budget; reversal principles; joint design and stiffness consideration; precision sensing and control; precision laser material processing.

MAE 526 Fundamentals of Product Design

The growing body of research in the engineering design community provides approaches for navigating the design of consumer products using interdisciplinary design tools and economic models based on the construct of rational decision making. This course introduces scientific engineering design techniques that are more effective than “ad hoc” tactics. By exploring how engineering principles integrate with “real world” design challenges, students will learn how they can more effectively solve product design problems that encompass heterogeneous markets, multiple disciplines, and complex systems.

MAE 526 Fundamentals of Product Design

MAE 531 Engineering Design Optimization

Nonlinear optimization techniques with applications in various aspects of engineering design. Terminology, problem formulation, single and multiple design variables, constraints, classical and heuristic approaches, single and multiobjective problems, response surface modeling, and tradeoffs in complex engineering systems. Numerical optimization algorithms and computer-based implementation of these optimization techniques. Graduate standing in engineering and general coding skills recommended.

MAE 533 Finite Element Analysis I

This course will provide a general preparation in finite element methods with an emphasis on linear finite-elements and material behavior. The course is intended for graduate engineering, science, and mathematics students who will pursue further work and research in specialized areas such as nonlinear continuum mechanics structural mechanics, elasticity, plasticity, fracture mechanics, mechanical design, heat transfer, and numerical analysis.

MAE 535 Design of Electromechanical Systems

(also offered as ECE 535)

A practical introduction to electromechanical systems with emphasis on modeling, analysis and design techniques. Provides theory and practical tools for the design of electric machines (standard motors, linear actuators, magnetic bearings, LVDTs, etc). Involves a “hands on” experimental demonstration and culminates in an industry-sponsored design project. Topics include Maxwell's equations, magnetic circuit analysis, electromechanical energy conversion, finite element analysis, and design techniques. FAQ: How can individual distance students participate in "hands-on" demonstrations and design projects? Answer: Quite easily. Any student with access to basic supplies (wire, batteries, magnets, a video camera, etc.) can participate effectively in experimental demonstration projects (many of the best demonstrations have been submitted by individual distance students with limited resources). Of course, students with access to digital multimeters, oscilloscopes, function generators and similar technologies are encouraged to use them. The final design project has no “hands on” component; it utilizes computational tools (MATLAB, Simulink, FEMM, etc.) that are readily available to all students through NCSU's Virtual Computing Lab (VCL).

MAE 541 Advanced Solid Mechanics I

Development of principles of advanced strength of materials and elasticity theory leading to solution of practical engineering problems concerned with stress and deformation analysis. Tensor analysis, coordinate transformations, alternative measures of strain, elastic constitutive equations, stress measures, formulation and solution of two and three dimensional elasticity problems. Examples include advanced beam theory for shear deformation and large deformation, contact mechanics, stress concentration, pressure vessels and compound cylinders, thermal stress analysis, and stresses in layered microelectronic devices.

MAE 543 Fracture Mechanics

Concept of elastic stress intensity factor, Griffith energy balance, determination of the elastic field at a sharp crack tip via eigenfunction expansion methods, J integrals analysis, experimental determination of fracture toughness, fatigue crack growth, elastic-plastic crack tip fields. Emphasis on modern numerical methods for determination of stress intensity factors, critical crack sizes and fatigue crack propagation rate predictions.

MAE 544 Real Time Robotics

The course is designed for the first-year graduate program in either mechanical or electrical engineering. The course gives a thorough treatment of the kinematics and dynamics as well as key advances in motion control of robot manipulators. Students will develop proficiency in using homogeneous transformation for complex kinematic structures, in analyzing forward and inverse dynamics of linked mechanisms, and in developing motion control techniques for machines in 6-dimensional space. Along with issues in real-time control, the course covers practical issues related to sensing, feedback control under modeling inaccuracies, and parameter variation. The control techniques treated in the course have a wide range of applications in various industries such as in aerospace, machine tool, and heavy-equipment. The course will conclude with practical applications and emerging topics and future directions in robotics.

MAE 550 Foundations of Fluid Dynamics

Review of basic thermodynamics pertinent to gas dynamics. Detailed development of general equations governing fluid motion in both differential and integral forms. Simplification of the equations to those for specialized flow regimes. Similarity parameters. Applications to simple problems in various flow regimes.

MAE 551 Airfoil Theory

Development of fundamental aerodynamic theory. Emphasis upon mathematical analysis and derivation of equations of motion, airfoil theory and comparison with experimental results. Introduction to super sonic flow theory.

MAE 560 601 Computational Fluid Mechanics

MAE 586 Project Work in Mechanical Engineering

Individual investigation of a problem stemming from a mutual student-faculty interest. Emphasis on providing a situation for exploiting student curiosity. This course is required for all students in the distance MSME or MSAE degree programs and is not available for students in other online programs.

MAE 589 604 Applied Aerodynamics

This recently-developed course titled Applied Aerodynamics is offered both as an undergraduate special-topics elective (MAE 495) and a graduate special-topics course (MAE 589). The course will discuss the effect of aerodynamics on relevant aerospace and non-aerospace applications. The main focus of the course will be the prediction of aerodynamic forces and moments on vehicles and devices, and a discussion of how these forces affect the form and function of the various applications where aerodynamic plays an important role. Applications will include aircraft and non-aeronautical applications like race cars, wind-power devices, propellers, and rotorcraft, and some applications from nature like formation flight, flapping wings, etc. An important feature of the course will be the use of simple performance and system simulations to clearly understand the effects of the aerodynamics on the system behavior. For this, the equations of motion of the system will be simulated using the ODE suite available in the Matlab with functions that include aerodynamic forces acting on the vehicle. The course will be suitable for both AE and ME students. MAE 589 students will be assigned additional assignments and/or problems beyond those assigned to MAE 495 students.

MAE 589 608 Bio-Inspired Surfaces

This course will present and analyze the surfaces of a wide range of biological species, including lotus leaves, rose petals, water striders, arctic spring tails, sharks, desert beetles, and pitcher plant leaves. We will understand the unique surface functionality associated with each of these biological species by examining the roles of surface composition and surface texture. Subsequently, we will discuss how this fundamental understanding can be used to design bio-inspired surfaces for various applications such as spill resistant fabrics, microrobots, stain resistant displays, drag reduction, fog harvesting and de-icing.

MAE 589 609 Advanced Dynamics II

This course is a follow-on course to MAE 511 (Advanced Dynamics I), and will begin with a brief review of MAE 511. The course will then move on to cover Newton-Euler methods for multi-body systems, Lagrange’s equations, Kane’s equations, Hamilton’s equations, quaternions, Liapunov stability analysis of dynamic systems, and additional topics as time permits. Example applications will include planetary rovers, renewable energy systems (e.g. wind turbines and wave energy devices), and aerospace vehicles.

MAE 589 613 Mechanics of Solid Polymers

We encounter plastics continuously throughout our daily lives with an enormous range in applications, from low cost plastic bags to high performance structural plastics used in the auto industry. In this course, we will discuss what makes plastics so ubiquitous and attractive for wide-ranging applications from the perspective of mechanical behavior. The course will cover the molecular structure of polymers as well as solid-state microstructure. The course will then consider a number of mechanical characteristics that make polymer such a unique material including elasticity, viscoelasticity, creep, yielding, and fracture. Finally, the course will look at contemporary topics including composites and block-copolymers. The course is intended to be an introduction to the mechanical behavior of solid polymers that will be accessible to any student with some background in mechanics of materials.

MAE 589 616 Aerodynamics of V/STOL Vehicles

Aerodynamics and performance of vertical and short take-off and landing vehicles. Aerodynamics of propellers and rotors. High lift devices.

MAE 708 Advanced Convective Heat Transfer

This course is designed to be the core graduate course in convection heat transfer. Advanced topics in steady and transient, natural and forced convective heat transfer for laminar and turbulent flow through conduits and over surfaces. Mass transfer in laminar and turbulent flow. Inclusion of topics on biological flow and mass transfer.

MAE 734 Finite Element Analysis II

This course will provide a general preparation in computational solid mechanics for graduate engineering, science, and mathematics students who will pursue further work and research in areas pertaining to phenomena, such as wave and structural dynamic analysis, finite elasticity, plasticity, viscoplasticity, fracture mechanics, nonlinear solution methods for quasi-static and dynamic, plates and shells, and contact.

MAE 787 Structural Health Monitoring

The course will provide the students with in-depth knowledge of technologies in structural health monitoring using smart materials as sensing and actuating elements to interrogate the structures. Damage detection techniques such as wave, impedance, and vibration-based damage detection techniques will be discussed and applied to different types of structures. , Advanced signal processing techniques such as wavelet, neural network, principal component analysis will be used to make the damage more quantifiable.

MAE 789 Advanced Dynamics II

This course will begin with a review of MAE 511 (Advanced Dynamics I), and then will move on to cover Newton-Euler methods for multi-body systems, Lagrange’s equations, Kane’s equations, Hamilton’s equations, and additional topics as time permits. Students taking the course should have a basic knowledge of Newton-Euler methods and basic three-dimensional kinematics. Students should have a Math background which includes Calculus III and Differential Equations.

Nuclear Engineering

NE 500 Advanced Energy Conversion in Nuclear Reactors

Introduction to the concepts and principles of heat generation and removal in nuclear reactor systems. Power cycles, reactor heat sources, analytic, and numerical solutions to conduction problems in nuclear reactor components and fuel elements, heat transfer in reactor fuel bundles and heat exchangers. Problem sets and project emphasize design principles.

NE 501 Reactor Analysis and Design

Elements of nuclear reactor theory for reactor core design and operation. Includes one-group neutron transport and multigroup diffusion models, analytical and numerical criticality search, and flux distribution and calculations for homogeneous and heterogeneous reactors, slowing down models, introduction to perturbation theory. Credit for both NE 401 and NE 501 is not allowed.

NE 502 Reactor Engineering

Thermal-hydraulic design and analysis of nuclear systems. Single and two-phase flow, boiling heat transfer, modeling of fluid systems. Design constraints imposed by thermal-hydraulic considerations are discussed. Credit will not be given for bothNE 402 and NE 502.

NE 504 Radiation Safety and Shielding

Radiation sources commonly encountered in nuclear applications; attenuation of gamma rays and neutrons; simplified methods for radiation transport including point kernel methods and uncollided dose; definitions of dose quantities and response functions; buildup factors and methods for dose computation.

NE 509 Nuclear Materials

(also offered as MSE 509)

In this course, most of the materials issues encountered in the operation of nuclear power reactors are discussed. The objective of the course is to give students a background in materials for nuclear power reactors and to discuss the unique changes that occur in these materials under the reactor environment, so that students understand the limitations put on reactor operations and reactor design by materials performance. In the first part of the course we review basic concepts of physical metallurgy to develop an understanding of the relationship between microstructure and material properties outside of irradiation. In the second part of the course, we describe the process of radiation-material interaction, present the methods to calculate atomic displacement damage produced by exposure to irradiation, and describe the changes in material properties that results from irradiation exposure. In the third part of the course, special attention is given to property changes affecting the fuel and cladding performance and operational safety such as corrosion of the cladding, hydriding, fuel expansion, Pellet-Cladding Interactions, stress corrosion-cracking; Credit will not be given for both NE/MSE 409 and NE/MSE 509.

NE 512 Nuclear Fuel Cycles

Processing of nuclear fuel with description of mining, milling, conversion, enrichment, fabrication, irradiation, shipping, reprocessing, and waste disposal. In-core and out-of-core nuclear fuel management, engineering concepts and methodology. Fuel cycle economics, fuel cost calculation, and discussions of advanced fuel cycles. Computational methods for reactor design and analysis.

NE 520 Radiation and Reactor Fundamentals

Basics of nuclear physics and reactor physics that are needed for graduate studies in nuclear engineering. Concepts covered include, atomic and nuclear models, nuclear reactions, nuclear fission, radioactive decay, neutron interactions, nuclear reactors, neutron diffusion in non-multiplying and multiplying systems, and basic nuclear reactor kinetics.

NE 523 Computational Transport Theory

Derivation of the nonlinear Boltzmann equation for a rarefied gas and linearization to the equation of transport of neutral particles. Deterministic methods for solving the neutron transport equation: Multigroup energy discretization; Discrete Ordinates angular discretization; various spatial discretization methods. Convergence of numerical solutions with discretization refinement. Iterative solution algorithms: inner, outer, and power iterations. Spectral analysis of inner iterations convergence and acceleration. Selection of advanced topics.

NE 531 Nuclear Waste Management

Scientific and engineering aspects of nuclear waste management. Management of spent fuel, high-level waste, uranium mill tailings, low-level waste and decommissioning wastes. Fundamental processes for the evaluation of waste management systems with emphasis on the safety assessment of waste disposal facilities to include nuclear criticality safety, free release and transportation.

NE 533 Nuclear Fuel Performance

In this course we will study the basic role of fuel in reactor operation and understand how the fuel impacts heat generation and transport to the coolant. The course will begin with an overview of different fuels and the fabrication processes required to construct nuclear fuel. This will include various fuel types and geometries, with a focus on light water reactor fuel and cladding. Thermal transport, mechanics, and thermomechanics affecting fuel behavior will be introduced, and methods to solve the governing equations numerically and analytically will be developed. Subsequently, changes in the fuel and cladding material that degrade the performance of the fuel will be examined. Finally, the knowledge gained throughout the course will be utilized to conduct fuel performance simulations with MOOSE.

NE 541 Nuclear Nonproliferation Technology and Policy

Technology and policy challenges and solutions to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons. Topics include: issues of nuclear proliferation inherent to civilian nuclear power development; technologies, processes, and policies for safeguarding nuclear materials and technology; integrating the preceding subjects to strengthen the global nuclear nonproliferation regime.

NE 560 : Probabilistic Risk Assessment and Management (formerly 591-606)

This course is focused on the principles of probabilistic risk assessment and management of complex engineering systems, with a particular focus on nuclear power applications. Topics include fundamental safety and risk concepts, accidents and risk management, a review of major probabilistic risk assessment studies, hazard analysis, qualitative and quantitative systems analysis, human and software reliability, and uncertainty quantification. Emphasis will be placed on the risk-informed and performance-based design and licensing of advanced nuclear reactors under development

NE 590 Health Physics and Radiological Emergency Response

This course will cover advanced health physics topics such as internal and external dosimetry as well as control of radiation fields. Coverage will also include basic interactions and response functions, biological effects, along with descriptions of natural and manmade sources. Topics will also include simple shielding from gamma, alpha and beta fields and final convergence of these topics in radiological emergency response.

NE 591 601 Advanced Reactor Theory & Concepts

Historic overview and current concepts of advanced nuclear reactors. Neutronics, thermal-hydraulics, and fuel performance analysis of advanced reactors. Reactor plant system and basic operations. Technological roadmap and policy issues. Computational methods for advanced reactor design and analysis.

NE 591 607 Spectroscopy

NE 591 607 ST: Mathematical and Computational Methods in NE

Learn the theoretical foundation of mathematical methods that are applied broadly in nuclear engineering and construct algorithms to implement the resulting formalisms on digital computing. Practice the design of computer programs in low-level languages (exclusively Fortran or C++) and their implementation, verification, and testing in NCSU’s Virtual Computing Lab (VCL) Linux environment.

NE 591 611 Advanced Characterization of Nuclear Materials

This course introduces characterization needs of nuclear materials, atomic structure and spectra, X-ray scattering and diffraction, electron scattering and imaging, special topics on nuclear materials sampling, post-irradiation examination, other advanced characterization techniques and their application in nuclear materials studies. While some of these concepts are traditionally covered in materials science and engineering curricula, the primary focus of this course is to equip students with a deep understanding of the principles and practical application of nuclear materials characterization. Upon completion of this course, students will possess the knowledge and skills needed to investigate scientific and engineering questions in nuclear materials science through the utilization of various characterization techniques and methods.

NE 591 615 ST: Multiphysics of Nuclear Reactors

Learn to apply the concepts and principles of multi-physics interactions and time phenomena in nuclear reactor systems. Other topics include: Prompt and Delayed Neutron Behavior; Feedback Mechanisms; Space-Time Multi-Physics Methods; Verification and Validation of Multi-Physics Simulations and Uncertainty Quantification in Multi-Physics Modeling.

NE 591-603 Nuclear Criticality Safety

This course will cover fundamental and advanced topics of nuclear criticality safety and will include a review of basic reactor theory and reactor physics as well as applied methods of criticality safety practice for the handling, storage, and processing of fissile and fissionable materials outside of reactors. The course will also cover a review of criticality accidents, fundamental concepts of establishing subcritical safety limits, the Double Contingency Principle, historical and contemporary methods for performing criticality safety analyses, and evaluations and criticality code and cross section data benchmarking and uncertainty analysis.

NE 693 Master’s Supervised Research (MNE Project)

Individual investigation of a problem stemming from a mutual student-faculty interest. This course is required for all MNE students and is worth three credit hours.

NE 723 Neutron Transport Theory

Advanced theory of neutron transport and computational methods of solving particle transport (linear Boltzmann) equation for reactor physics problems. Principle topics: models of neutron transport; analytic methods for solving transport equation; asymptotic diffusion limit; PN and SPN methods, homogenization methodology; numerical methods for multidimensional problems; computational methods for multiphysics problems. Objective is to enable students to read literature and perform relevant analysis of neutron transport and reactor-physics problems.

NE 724 Reactor Heat Transfer

Consideration of heat transfer and fluid flow in nuclear power reactors. Topics include derivation of the of time dependent flow equations used in simulation of reactor systems, numerical solutions to single and two phase flow problems in flow networks.

NE 765 Verification and Validation in Scientific Computing

Advances in scientific computing have made modeling and simulation an important part of engineering and science. This course provides students with understanding and knowledge of comprehensive and systematic development of concepts, principles and procedures for verification, and validation of models and simulations.

NE 777 Radiological Assessment

Principles of analyzing environmental radiation transport and resulting human exposure and dose and dose management. Source terms of radiation exposure, the radon problem, transport or radionuclides in the atmosphere, effluent pathways modeling, radiation dosimetry, probabilistic models for environmental assessment, uncertainty analysis, and radiation risk management. A laboratory research project report will be developed as an outcome of this course.

NE 795 High Temperature Deformation of Materials

(also offered as MSE 791)

The course is intended to introduce students to theories of high temperature deformation and creep along with their applications in materials design. Various phenomenological models along with creep theories will be dealt with emphasis on high temperature deformation of metals (alloys) and ceramics.

Operations Research

OR 501 Introduction to Operations Research

(also offered as ISE 501)

Operations Research (OR) is a discipline that involves the development and application of advanced analytical methods to aid complex decisions. This course will provide students with the skills to be able to apply a variety of analytical methods to a diverse set of applications. Focus will be on how to translate real-world problems into appropriate models and then how to apply computational procedures and data so that the models can be used as aids in making decisions. Course will introduce students to the use of Julia along with the JuMP modeling language and the Gurobi mathematical programming solver. Applications will include improving the operation of a variety of different production and service systems, including healthcare delivery and transportation systems, and also how OR can be used to make better decisions in areas like sports, marketing, and project management.

OR 504 601 Intro Mathematical Program

Basic concepts from mixed integer linear programming, nonlinear programming, and dynamic programming theory.

OR 560 Stochastic Models in Industrial Engineering

(also offered as ISE 560)

This course will introduce mathematical modeling, analysis, and solution procedures applicable to uncertain (stochastic) production and service systems. Methodologies covered include probability theory and stochastic processes including discrete and continuous Markov processes. Applications relate to design and analysis of problems, capacity planning, inventory control, waiting lines, and system reliability and maintainability. This course will be taught at the Masters’ level.

OR 565 Graph Theory

OR 579 Introduction to Computer Performance Modeling

(also offered as CSC 579 and ECE 579)

This course focuses on the mathematical techniques and procedures required in performance modeling of computer and communication systems. The major mathematical elements of applied probability, stochastic processes, especially Markov chains, and elementary queuing theory, including an introduction to queuing networks, will be discussed. Simulation techniques will also be covered.