Department of Electrical Engineering

University of Ottawa
161 Louis Pasteur
Colonel By Hall
Telephone: 564-8213
Fax: 564-6882
E-mail address: gradinfo@trix.genie.uottawa.ca

The Department

Chair of the Department: G.I. Costache

Graduate Program Coordinator: Sethuraman Panchanathan

The Department of Electrical Engineering is one constituent of the Ottawa-Carleton Institute for Electrical Engineering. Consult the Institute entry beginning on page 132 of this calendar for a faculty list, graduate program descriptions, and admission requirements.

Department Facilities

Computing Facilities

(1) A UNIX network consisting of:

(a) Two RISC DecServer 3100s each with 24 MB of RAM and a 1 GB disk

(b) Four RISC DecStation 3100s each with 16 MB of RAM, a 100 MB disk and a 19" colour monitor

(c) Five RISC DecStation 3100s each with 16 MB of RAM, a 100 MB disk and a 19" monochrome monitor

(2) Several other Unix-based workstations in various research laboratories (SUN workstations, Compaq 386, HP386, etc.)

In addition to this, the Department operates dozens of IBM compatible and Apple Macintosh family computers. All of the department's computers are linked together using Ethernet and LocalTalk networks. The department's networks connect to the University of Ottawa's mainframe and the Internet network. The Department is also linked to OCRInet, Canada's first ATM research network, which provides high speed links for various projects (primarily in the Multimedia Communications Research Laboratory) to such industry and government collaborators in the Ottawa region as Bell Northern Research, Newbridge Networks, Telesat Canada, Stentor, Bell Canada, the Communications Research Center and the National Research Council.

Graduate students have access to a RS6000/390 operated by the University of Ottawa's Computer Services for research in Engineering. This UNIX machine is equipped with such software packages as MATLAB, Mathematica, Maple, IMSL, Explorer, MiniTab, SAS, etc.

In addition to these facilities, students in the Department have access to a computer-aided design laboratory operated by the Faculty of Engineering (University of Ottawa). This facility includes 24 networked Silicon Graphics workstations; it is, however, intended primarily for the use of undergraduate students.

Digital Communications Research Laboratory

This laboratory is equipped with a variety of communication system and signal analysis equipment. This includes some of the latest equipment for data source simulation, data error rate monitoring, spectrum analysis, cross and autocorrelation function measurement, probability density function measurement, noise simulation, filtering, etc. It also includes prototype digital modulation and demodulation equipment, and various digital signal processing hardware and software systems based on the TMS320C25 digital signal processor. The laboratory also features a 14/12 GHz satellite earth station and associated terminal equipment for testing prototype equipment on an actual satellite link.

Lightwave Communications Research Laboratory

This laboratory is equipped with many modern optical communications instruments covering wavelengths range of 600nm to 1500nm. The laboratory also has several UNIX workstations, and Macintosh and PC computers interconnected on the department's networks. The computing facilities are equipped with software packages used for computer simulation of various aspects of optical communication systems and networks. The laboratory is also equipped with audio-video equipment for image communication over fibre networks and two bench-top fibre local area networks that use WDM and/or CDM on the physical layer.

Multimedia Communications Research Laboratory

This laboratory is equipped with more than 20 SUN Sparc20, Sparc10, Silicon Graphics Indy, IBM RS/6000 and DEC Alpha workstations, a variety of PC-UNIX hosts and Macintosh computers. While UNIX (Solaris, SCO OTD, AIX, Linux) is the predominant operating system used in the laboratory, Apple System 7 and Windows NT are also available. Software tools available include various C and C++ compilers, ObectSore OODBMS and a variety of multimedia authoring and programing toolkits. The laboratory is also equipped with video cameras, video display/capture boards, audio input/output devices, etc. These resources are complemented with a heterogeneous network consisting of 10 Mbps Ethernet, 16 Mbps Token Ring, 100 Mbps FDDI and 155 Mbps ATM. The laboratory is connected, via OCRInet, to industry and government collaborators in the Ottawa region.

Electromagnetic Research Laboratory

This laboratory is equipped with modern co-axial line and waveguide instruments covering frequencies from 10 MHz to 60 GHz. A computer-controlled frequency domain network analyzer with error correcting capabilities allows reflection and transmission measurements from 5 Hz to 60 GHz. The laboratory is also equipped with a computer-controlled time domain network analyzer and a modern scalar network analyzer (transmission, reflection test set) as well as various frequency counters and spectrum analyzers. A computer controlled three-dimensional scanning system is located in an anechoic chamber and may be used for near-field antenna measurement in both frequency and time domains over the frequency range from 100 MHz to 3GHz. TEM cells at 100 MHz and 3 GHz are available for field probe calibration and EMC/I testing of electronic equipment.

Graduate Courses