Hamerschlag Hall Walking Tour Guide - Electrical and Computer ...

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INSIDE: Welcome | 1 

Hamerschlag Room Guide | 2 

Undergraduate Laboratories | 3 

Research Centers | 5 

Research Laboratories | 7 

www.ece.cmu.edu 

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W E L C O M E 

Dear ECE Visitor: 

Welcome to the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at Carnegie Mellon. 

As you find your way through the corridors of our buildings, I would like to call your attention 

to some important information: 

1. ECE is the largest department within Carnegie Mellon’s engineering college, 

the Carnegie Institute of Technology. In fact, ECE is one of the largest 

departments on the campus. ECE has over 80 faculty members, including 

research, adjunct, and courtesy faculty. The department serves about 450 

undergraduate and approximately 300 graduate students. 

2. Exciting new research is taking place in ECE. Cutting edge research areas 

include cyber-security, information processing and storage, and nano-enabled 

technologies. Many interdisciplinary research centers and laboratories have a 

home in the ECE Department; this booklet contains a section identifying them. 

3. The ECE Department collaborates with partners from academia and industry 

both locally and worldwide. Although the majority of our work takes place on 

the Carnegie Mellon campus, our collaborations extend far beyond Pittsburgh. We 

are engaging in global collaborative research and teaching efforts through extension 

of our academic programs and research agreements. 

We hope this booklet will provide a useful aid as you become familiar with the department. 

The directory of Hamerschlag Hall will guide you along your way. A section describing ECE 

undergraduate laboratories in Hamerschlag Hall provides a glimpse into the world of our 

undergraduates. The final section defining our many centers and laboratories will give you an 

idea of the range of our commitment to the field. 

Happy touring! 

T. E. Schlesinger 

Professor and Head 

ECE Department 

Carnegie Mellon University 

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H A M E R S C H L A G 

R O O M G U I D E 

Floor Room Description 

4 ------ Graduate Student Lounge; CMU Radio Club 

3 ------ Faculty, Staff, and Student Offices 

2 ------ Faculty, Staff, and Student Offices 

1 ------ Main Entrance 

1107 Undergraduate Computer Cluster 

1108, 1109 ECE Administrative Offices 

1110 Undergraduate Office/Advising 

1113 Undergraduate Student Lounge 

1115 Graduate Office 

1114, 1116 Business Office, Receptionist 

1118 Office of Alumni and Student Relations 

1200 wing Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) 

1301 Tech Electronics Shop 

1303, 1305, 1307 ECE Undergraduate Labs 

A ------ ECE Faculty, Staff, and Student Offices 

A101, 104 ECE Undergraduate Labs 

A108 Machine Shop 

B ------ ECE Faculty, Staff, and Student Offices 

B103, 131 Lecture Halls 

B300 Mechanical Engineering Wing 

C ------ Handicapped Entrance 

C124 Mechanical Engineering Laboratories 

D ------ ECE Faculty, Staff, and Student Offices 

------ Mechanical Engineering Space 

300 

Wing 

Stairway 

100 

Wing 

200 

Wing 

Floor Plan for Hamerschlag Hall floors 

1 through 3 and A through D. ECE has 

additional office and laboratory space 

in Roberts Engineering Hall, Porter Hall, 

and the Collaborative Innovation Center. 

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A B O R A T O R I E S 

HH 1107 - ECE Undergraduate Computer Cluster 

Students entering their sophomore year in ECE receive an account allowing access to cluster 

machines. Except when reserved for a class, this cluster is available to all ECE undergraduates. 

Students can log on to state-of-the-art machines in the cluster at the terminal or remotely. 

The computers are used for courses such as “Introduction to Computer Architecture,” 

“Analysis and Design of Digital Circuits,” and capstone design courses in analog and digital 

integrated circuits. Since these machines contain various industry-standard software packages, 

students do not have to purchase the software for some courses. Cluster computers 

also provide email, word processing, and presentation software for the preparation of lab 

reports and project presentations. 

HH 1303 - Fundamentals of Computer Engineering Lab 

In this required sophomore level course, 18-240, students work in pairs on four or five labs, 

each lasting from one to three weeks. The course introduces basic issues in design and verification 

of modern digital systems. Topics include Boolean algebra, digital number systems and 

computer arithmetic, combinational logic design and simplification, sequential logic design 

and optimization, register-transfer design of digital systems, basic processor organization 

and instruction set issues, assembly language programming and debugging, and a hardware 

description language. Students use computer-aided digital design software and actual hardware 

implementation laboratories to learn about real digital systems. They also write Verilog 

descriptions of circuits. Verilog is a hardware description language used to model logic hardware 

designs. Each student tests his or her description on a software simulator and finally 

downloads the description to the Altera field-programmable gate array (FPGA) board, transforming 

the device into a working hardware system. 

HH 1305 - Fundamentals of Electrical Engineering Lab 

T E 

This required sophomore-level course, 18-220, covers fundamental topics that are common 

to a wide variety of electrical engineering devices and systems. Topics include circuit analysis 

techniques, passive and active component modeling, operational amplifiers, energy storage 

elements, power analysis, time-response of first and second-order systems, sinusoidal steadystate 

response, frequency domain analysis, and filters. Other topics may include diodes and 

transistors, basic noise analysis, transformers, pole-zero plotting, and analysis in the complex 

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plane. The laboratories provide students with opportunities to build and operate circuits that 

address concepts covered in the lectures, including circuit and component modeling, amplifiers, 

filters, and signal detection and processing. Students work in pairs on approximately ten 

labs, each lasting one to two weeks. Each computer station contains a signal generator and 

an oscilloscope (used to capture measurements and print graphs). Students test their designs 

on protoboards; when their designs work according to specifications they build them on 

printed circuit boards. 

HH 1307 - Embedded Systems and Capstone Design Course Lab 

During the Fall semester, this room is used as the lab for a junior-level course in embedded 

systems. In the Spring, the room is shared by two capstone design courses. In these three 

courses students work in groups of three to five. The embedded systems course involves a 

series of labs emphasizing core embedded operating system functionality as well as control/ 

debugging features such as timers, interrupts, serial communications, flash memory, device 

drivers and other components used in typical embedded applications. In the capstone design 

courses, students work on a semester-long project. They present design proposals, create 

timetables for accomplishing various milestones, and give class presentations detailing group 

and individual progress. Each group receives a reasonable budget for purchasing additional 

hardware components for their project. Students can access the room around the clock via 

keycards. Past projects have included face and speech recognition systems, music compression, 

and a wireless intercom system. 

HH A101 - Introduction to Electrical and Computer Engineering Lab 

Every department in the college offers an introduction to engineering course that provides a 

preview of further courses in that department. During the freshman year engineering 

students are required to take two introductory courses to help them choose a home department. 

The ECE Department’s introductory course, 18-100, provides fundamental skills in 

circuit analysis and digital design that serve as a foundation to future course work. In the lab, 

students are given an opportunity to better understand basic electrical components by 

constructing and testing an electromechanical system (i.e., a robot). While the robot lab is a 

challenging first-year design project, the course provides clear guidance at every step. Each 

week students construct a single component based on a circuit specification, then test it and 

consider how it operates when the values are changed. 

HH A104 - Signals and Systems Lab 

“Signals,” as it is commonly abbreviated, represents one of the many breadth courses offered 

by the ECE Department. This junior-level course covers a broad area of study that includes 

digital communications, digital signal processing, and multimedia coding. “Signals” teaches 

students how to mathematically model a time-varying signal and ask questions about the 

effects of various transformations. During lab time, students write short computer programs 

that transform small example signals and speech waveforms. This activity provides useful 

insight into the application of course material to model real-world signals, such as audio 

synthesis in MP3 players. 

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R E S E A R C H 

C E N T E R S 

ECE undergraduates have the opportunity to plan and conduct independent engineering 

research, development, or design projects, usually in concert with the research interests and 

programs of faculty members. The research centers in ECE identify some of the thrusts of 

research carried out by ECE faculty. In addition to participating in projects through these 

centers, ECE students take advantage of Carnegie Mellon’s encouragement in interdisciplinary 

exploration and work with faculty in robotics, computer science, physics, and other disciplines 

throughout campus. 

Carnegie Mellon CyLab 

www.cylab.cmu.edu/ 

With increased reliance on advanced information technology comes the need to make 

information systems more secure, trustworthy, sustainable, and available, in the face of both 

intentional attacks and accidental faults. Carnegie Mellon CyLab is a university-wide, multidisciplinary 

initiative involving more than 200 faculty, students, and staff working closely with 

the CERT Coordination Center (CERT/CC), an internationally recognized center of internet 

security expertise. 

Center for Circuit & Systems Solutions (C2S2) 

http://c2s2.ece.cmu.edu/ 

C2S2 develops long-range design solutions for next-generation circuits, systems built from 

circuits, and the software that runs on them. C2S2 is a consortium of America’s best research 

universities funded jointly by the U.S. semiconductor industry MARCO Focus Center Research 

Program and the U.S. Department of Defense. 

Center for Silicon System Implementation (CSSI) 

www.ece.cmu.edu/~cssi/ 

As system sizes head toward trillions of transistors, implementation of an electronic system 

in silicon must consider new forms of design regularity and structure simultaneously with 

advancement in design automation. CSSI, built from the infrastructure of the Center for 

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Electronic Design Automation established in 1982, has strong ties to national and international 

semiconductor, design, and electronic design automation industrial communities. 

Center for Wireless and Broadband Networking (CWBN) 

www.ece.cmu.edu/~cwbn/ 

CWBN is an interdisciplinary center for research and education in advanced networking 

concepts and systems with an emphasis on industrial relevance. Founded in 2001, the Center 

builds on university strengths in interdisciplinary research, wireless networking, and optical 

devices and signal processing. 

Data Storage Systems Center (DSSC) 

www.ece.cmu.edu/research/dssc/ 

DSSC is an interdisciplinary research and educational organization whose mission is to 

advance information storage technologies with a focus on materials, fabrication, devices, servo 

systems, signal processing, and coding. The Center works closely with industrial partners to 

define projects that will advance beyond the current frontiers of magnetic recording, optical 

data storage, probe based systems, holographic processes, and solid state memory. 

General Motors-Carnegie Mellon Collaborative Research Laboratory (GM/CM-CRL) 

http://gm.web.cmu.edu/ 

The GM/CM-CRL is an interdisciplinary organization formed to foster close collaboration 

between General Motors and Carnegie Mellon researchers working toward making the automobile 

the next information technology platform in our society. The Lab’s work is broadly divided 

into the areas of design methodologies, wireless systems, reliable embedded systems, and 

human vehicle interfaces. 

Parallel Data Laboratory (PDL) 

www.pdl.cmu.edu/ 

The PDL addresses a broad spectrum of data storage-related challenges including secure 

storage, emerging technologies, disk characterization and modeling, efficient storage access, 

storage networking, and network-attached storage clusters. Close ties with industry and the 

government agencies that have a critical need for these technologies is a hallmark of the PDL. 

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R E S E A R C H 

L A B O R A T O R I E S 

Advanced Mechatronics Laboratory (AML) 

www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~aml/ 

Research in the AML focuses on the idea of rapidly deployable intelligent systems. The main 

threads of this research are composition, collaboration, task management, and adaptation. 

Past AML projects have been in distributed information systems, distributed robotics systems, 

distributed design systems, intelligent instruments, sensor-based robotics, reconfigurable 

systems, and adaptive software. 

Computer Architecture Laboratory at Carnegie Mellon (CALCM) 

www.ece.cmu.edu/~calcm/ 

CALCM brings together faculty and students from all branches of computer architecture 

including parallel architecture, reconfigurable architecture, low power architecture, and 

applications of parallel architecture in biotechnology. 

Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) Laboratory 

www.ece.cmu.edu/~mems/ 

The MEMS Laboratory is engaged in research on sensor and actuator systems that comprise 

mechanical features measuring in microns and components numbering from few to millions. 

Areas of interest include nanometer-scale data storage, microsensors and microactuators, 

MEMS design tools, micromechanical component modeling, embedded microinstruments, 

and microrobotics. 

ECE IEEE Spring Barbeque 

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CARNEGIE MELLON STATEMENT OF ASSURANCE 

www.ece.cmu.edu 

Carnegie Mellon University does not discriminate and Carnegie Mellon University is required not to 

discriminate in admission, employment, or administration of its programs or activities on the basis of 

race, color, national origin, sex or handicap in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IX 

of the Educational Amendments of 1972 and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 or other 

federal, state, or local laws or executive orders. 

In addition, Carnegie Mellon University does not discriminate in admission, employment or administration 

of its programs on the basis of religion, creed, ancestry, belief, age, veteran status, sexual orientation or 

in violation of federal, state, or local laws or executive orders. However, in the judgment of the Carnegie 

Mellon Human Relations Commission, the Department of Defense policy of, “Don’t ask, don’t tell, don’t 

pursue,” excludes openly gay, lesbian and bisexual students from receiving ROTC scholarships or serving 

in the military. Nevertheless, all ROTC classes at Carnegie Mellon University are available to all 

students. 

Inquiries concerning application of these statements should be directed to the Provost, Carnegie Mellon 

University, 5000 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, telephone (412) 268-6684 or the Vice President 

for Enrollment, Carnegie Mellon University, 5000 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, telephone (412) 

268-2056. 

Obtain general information about Carnegie Mellon University by calling (412) 268-2000. 

Carnegie Mellon University publishes an annual campus security report describing the university’s 

security, alcohol and drug, and sexual assault policies and containing statistics about the number and 

type of crimes committed on the campus during the preceding three years. You can obtain a copy by 

contacting the Carnegie Mellon Police Department at (412) 268-2323. The security report is available 

through the World Wide Web at http://www.cmu.edu/security/stats.html. 

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