L. C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science

Detailed Information

The L. C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science (LCS) offers programs leading to the following degrees: bioengineering, M.Eng., M.S., and Ph.D.; chemical engineering, M.S. and Ph.D.; civil engineering, M.S. and Ph.D.; computer and information science and engineering (CISE), Ph.D.; computer engineering, M.S. and Computer Engineer; computer science, M.S.; electrical and computer engineering (ECE), Ph.D.; electrical engineering, M.S. and Electrical Engineer; engineering management, M.S.; environmental engineering, M.S.; environmental engineering science, M.S.; manufacturing engineering, M.S.; mechanical and aerospace engineering, M.S. and Ph.D.; and mechanical systems, M.Eng.

In general, the Master of Science degree requires a minimum of 30 credit hours except for the Master of Science degrees in engineering management and bioengineering, which require 36 credit hours. The thesis option requires 24 credits of course work plus 6 hours accounted for by a research-related thesis. Most departments offer a nonthesis option that substitutes 6 hours of course work for the thesis and requires a comprehensive examination. Requirements for the Ph.D. vary among the academic units. In general, a minimum of 78 credit hours beyond the baccalaureate is required, including graduate course work, independent study, and a dissertation.

The College of Engineering and Computer Science is located on the main campus quadrangle and shares space in the Center for Science and Technology. A new Syracuse Biomaterials Institute occupying space on the main campus quadrangle is planned. The Institute for Sensory Research is located just 2 miles away on the South Campus in a facility uniquely suited to sensory research and other advanced research. Each building has modern, fully equipped laboratories for research, as well as study laboratories, classrooms, and seminar rooms. Major research laboratory facilities include a high-performance distributed computing laboratory; distributed information systems laboratory; scalable concurrent processing laboratory; a composite materials manufacturing and testing laboratory; a structural testing lab; a polymer processing lab; geotechnical labs; a microwave laboratory; a printed-circuits facility; a VLSI design laboratory; a signal processing laboratory; a robotics laboratory; two anechoic chambers; low-speed, supersonic, and hypersonic wind tunnels; indoor air quality laboratory; structure/material testing laboratories; and a biomechanics laboratory. In addition, the College maintains biochemical engineering labs; and environmental engineering core labs that include microbiology, soil, analytical, acid wash, and trace metals laboratories; supercritical extraction and absorption and filtration labs.

The College of Engineering and Computer Science maintains excellent computer facilities available for use by graduate students. The College’s Computer Information Technologies Group provides each student with both a Windows LAN account and a UNIX account. Within LCS, there a number of Windows and UNIX clusters. These facilities complement dedicated computer labs maintained by individual faculty members for their research teams. Computer resources at LCS include high-performance Sun Microsystems machines that support file and application services, Web page development and hosting, and a general purpose time-sharing compute server. A rich suite of software that is unique to LCS studies is provided on the respective systems. In addition, students in the College can readily access facilities operated by the University’s central Computing and Media Services (CMS) organization. Detailed information is available via the World Wide Web concerning computer facilities available at the University (http://cms.syr.edu).

Financial assistance is available to highly qualified graduate students, particularly at the doctoral level. Merit-based awards are given in the form of University fellowships, research assistantships, and teaching assistantships, all of which include a stipend/salary and tuition scholarships. Each year, a limited number of additional full or partial tuition scholarships are also made available. Applicants who wish to be considered for these awards should submit all materials by December 1 for admission to the following fall semester.

Tuition for graduate students at Syracuse University is charged per credit hour. In 2008–09, graduate tuition was $1117 per credit hour.

Academic-year living expenses range from about $15,000 to $18,000 for single students.

The graduate community within the College of Engineering and Computer Science is broad and diverse, with students drawn from across the country and around the world. Currently, there are 3,841 full-time students and 1,874 part-time students, about 24 percent of whom are pursuing Ph.D. degrees.

Syracuse is the hub of a metropolitan area of more than 500,000 people. Located in the center of New York State, it lies near the lake and mountain areas of the Finger Lakes, the Thousand Islands, the Adirondacks, and Canada and offers a wide range of cultural and recreational activities. Downtown Syracuse is only a 20-minute walk from the University, yet the campus is spacious and attractive. Winters are snowy; summers are pleasant. An international airport and interstate highways provide easy access to many major cities.

Syracuse University is a major private institution founded in 1870. A member of both the Association of American Universities and the Council of Graduate Schools, Syracuse University is considered one of the nation’s major institutions of higher learning. The academic breadth of the University is particularly notable, with a total of eleven academic schools and colleges enrolling 12,981 full-time undergraduate and 3,841 full-time graduate students. The University has a growing stature in the sciences and engineering and maintains outstanding traditions in music, art, drama, communications, and public affairs.

Most students start their studies in August; however, students may also start in January or May. The verbal, quantitative, and analytical writing tests of the Graduate Record Examinations are required for admission. International applicants are required to take the TOEFL. Applications can be completed or application forms may be obtained online at the College’s Web site. If that is not practical for the applicant, forms may be requested by writing to the College.

• Biomedical and Chemical Engineering
• Robert Barlow, Blaire Calancie, Timothy Damron, Andrew Darling, Edward Darling, Bart Farell, Julian Fernandez, John Fieschko, Jeremy L. Gilbert, Theodore Hagelin, Julie M. Hasenwinkel, James Henderson, John C. Heydweiller, Marc Howard, Barry E. Knox, Shannon Magari, Kenneth Mann, George C. Martin, Patrick Mather, Benjamin Milczarski, Brad Motter, Kent Ogden, Nathaniel Ordway, Adam Pack, Arkadii Perzov, Amos Race, Dacheng Ren, Ashok Sangani, Suresh Santanam, Walter Short, Eduardo Solessio, Joseph A. Spadaro, Lawrence L. Tavlarides, Frederick W. Werner, Christian Zemlin.
• The faculty members of the department work together to bring the respective strengths of programs in bioengineering and chemical engineering to bear on research of real-world relevance.
• Faculty are engaged in advanced multidisciplinary research in bioengineering that combines engineering and life sciences in the study of the mechanics and materials of biological systems. Current research interests include biomechanics of extremities and the spine; modeling of bone, joint force, and motion; development and behavior of biomaterials and self-reinforced composites; degradation and corrosion in biological environments; micromechanics of biological tissues; tissue engineering; nerve regeneration; localized drug delivery; bacterial pathogenesis; bacteria-surface interactions; control of biomedical device-related infections; and development of novel medical devices.
• Faculty are also engaged in a broad spectrum of research in chemical engineering. Current research interests are in the areas of biochemical engineering, chemical equilibria and kinetics, supercritical extraction and chemical reaction of hazardous wastes, biofuel production and combustion, process optimization, chemical reaction and transport in biological systems, bioremediation, fluid mechanics in multiphase systems, catalysis and surface chemistry, chemistry-property relations in polymers and polymer-based composites, systems biology, functional genomics, and biofilm engineering.
• Civil and Environmental Engineering
• Riyad S. Aboutaha, Shobha K. Bhatia, Samuel P. Clemence, Charles T. Driscoll Jr., Chris E. Johnson, Swiatoslav W. Kaczmar, Raymond D. Letterman, Eric M. Lui, Belal Mousa, Dawit Negussey, Emmet M. Owens Jr., Suresh Santanam, Andria Costello Staniec, Laura J. Steinberg, David S. Wazenkewitz.
• Major areas of study are environmental engineering, geotechnical engineering, and structural engineering. Current research activities are in the areas of aquatic, soil, and applied surface chemistry; biogeochemistry; water quality modeling; solid-liquid separation processes; problems related to water supply; water-treatment and waste-treatment systems; bioremediation; biotechnology; ecosystem modeling; soil dynamics; geotextiles; geofoams; geotubes; erosion control; soil mechanics and helical anchors; fiber optic sensors; critical infrastructure protection; natural disaster mitigation; damage detection and assessment; analytical and numerical modeling of construction materials; experimental evaluations; structural dynamics; earthquake engineering; structural rehabilitation; failure analysis; computer-aided analysis and design of structural systems; bridge engineering; and performance-based seismic design. (Web site: http://www.lcs.syr.edu/academic/civilenvironment_eng/index.aspx)
• Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
• Ercument Arvas, Howard A. Blair, Stephen J. Chapin, Biao Chen, C. Y. Roger Chen, Hao Chen, Shiu-Kai Chin, Wenliang (Kevin) Du, Ehat Ercanli, Makan Fardad, James W. Fawcett, Prasanta K. Ghosh, Amrit L. Goel, Carlos R. P. Hartmann, Can Isik, Kaveh Jokar Deris, Philipp Kornreich, Andrew C.-Y. Lee, Jay Kyoon Lee, Duane L. Marcy, Roman Markowski, Kishan Mehrotra, James H. Michels, Chilukuri K. Mohan, Ruixin Niu, Jae C. Oh, Susan Older, Lisa Osadciw, Daniel J. Pease, Leonard J. Popyack Jr., James S. Royer, Tapan K. Sarkar, Ernest Sibert, Q. Wang Song, Pramod K. Varshney, Hong Wang.
• Current faculty member research interests include artificial intelligence, communications and signal processing, complex systems, distributed information systems, electromagnetic fields and antennas, high-confidence design, logic in computer science, microelectronics, neural networks, optics and wave phenomena, photonics and optical engineering, programming languages, RF and wireless engineering, software engineering, systems assurance, theory of computation, VLSI.
• Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
• Edward Bogucz, Frederick J. Carranti, Thong Q. Dang, John Dannenhoffer, Barry D. Davidson, Mark N. Glauser, Hiroshi Higuchi, Ezzat Khalifa, Alan J. Levy, Jacques Lewalle, Young B. Moon, Vadrevu R. Murthy, Harish Palanthandalam-Madapusi, Utpal Roy, Eric F. Spina, Jianshun S. Zhang.
• Major fields of study are fluid dynamics, solid mechanics, energy systems, and manufacturing engineering. A major research focus is indoor environmental quality and building energy efficiency. Current areas of research activity include experimental aerodynamics, turbulence modeling, computational fluid dynamics, gas turbine flows, turbomachinery, flow control, mechanics of composite materials, micromechanics, fracture mechanics, biomechanics, manufacturing processes, geometric tolerancing, intelligent manufacturing systems, and helicopter rotor dynamics.

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