Undergraduate Academic Advising Instructions

All engineering students are required to seek advising from their faculty advisor prior to registering for the Spring 2025 semester. An advising hold will be placed on the record of each engineering student that will prevent them from registering until they speak with their faculty advisor and submit an advisor evaluation. Students who intend to transfer into a different program must still meet with their advisor and complete an advising form. There will be no exceptions.

Advising procedures

Faculty will conduct their advising appointments either in person or remotely for 2 weeks, from October 21, 2024, through November 1, 2024. Students will receive instructions from their faculty advisor with details on how they will conduct their advising appointments. See advisor list here. Students who do not receive an e-mail by October 14, 2024, should email their advisor (see faculty directory). If there is no response from the advisor, send email with your UIN to ecestudentaffairs@uic.edu.

Advising appointment sign-up

Students may sign up for advising appointments from October 14, 2024 through October 18, 2024. Students who do not sign up during this week will bear the responsibility of finding a mutually agreeable time with their advisor. Verify the name of your advisor before signing up (see advisor list here). Please keep in mind that you may be reassigned to another advisor if your advisor is unavailable this term.

Advisor Evaluations

Advisor evaluation surveys will be conducted online and are mandatory. The results are anonymous, but completion is recorded. The survey linked will be emailed to students approximately two business days after the advising appointment. Documentation of your advising session and the advisor evaluation survey are required for the hold to be removed. If you do not receive the advisor evaluation link, contact ecestudentaffairs@uic.edu and include your name and UIN.

Preparing for your advising session

Print or download your uAchieve reports which shows you which classes you have, and which are missing. This is your guide for what to take, as long as you have the pre-requisites (can check by clicking on a course). You may also find it helpful to print or download the appropriate curriculum flowchart from the Student Resources page which, together with the uAchieve report, will guide you on what courses to take next. Visit the Student Resources page to see which classes are being offered next semester by the ECE department.

Plan your schedule ahead of your advising session through the “Plan Ahead” tool:

  • Go to: https://my.uic.edu/
  • Sign in with your NetID
  • On the welcome page, click “XE Registration”
  • Click the “Plan Ahead” tool
  • Save a New Plan
  • From here, you can add/drop courses into your schedule to make sure there are no time conflicts.
  • Note: This is just a planner and does not sign you up for courses. You still need to sign up once registration opens.

Degree Audit reports (uAchieve)

Review your online degree audit report (found in the my.UIC.edu portal under uAchieve) prior to attending your faculty advising appointment and have it with you during your appointment. If you have questions about what is on your degree audit report or feel that it is inaccurate, please contact one of the engineering undergraduate advisors so that they can review the report and make any necessary changes. Send an email with your UIN and be as specific as possible about what you believe is wrong with your degree audit report so that they can better understand the problem and get back to you in a timely manner.

Course prerequisites

The College of Engineering has noticed that a large number of students are registering for courses without meeting the listed prerequisites. The prerequisites are listed for a reason, and it is expected that you know the material in these prerequisite courses before moving on to the next level. Instructor permission does not waive course prerequisites.

Students registered in courses for which they do not have the prerequisites will be dropped from these courses after the add/drop deadline and will not be able to add another course to their schedule. Courses dropped in this way will show up as a “W” on a student’s academic record. Students can view the prerequisites for courses in the UIC catalog.

Special topics for Spring 2025

The ECE department is offering several special topics courses in Spring 2025. For ECE undergraduates: special topic courses will count as ECE Technical Electives with a Request for Modification of Major Form. Note: Students are responsible for adhering to the limits allowed for technical electives. See UIC Undergraduate Catalog for details.

Note: Undergraduates must also obtain instructor approval to register for a 500-level course. This is separate from the Major Modification Form (required for technical elective credit).


ECE 394 – Special Topic

Special Topics in ECE

Contextual Mid-Year Design
CRN: 46600 (2), W 2:00-3:50 p.m.
Instructor: Renata Revelo Alonso, revelo@uic.edu
Prerequisites: This course is only open to ECE students who have taken between 8 to 41 credit hours in ECE-only courses. Please contact the instructor for approval.

Description: In this course, you will learn about the engineering design process through an introspection of various engineering inventions and innovations. Alongside learning of the engineering design process, you will also consider critical consciousness topics that affect design. In engineering design, often the technical considerations are prioritized; however, in this class, we will also prioritize learning of social, cultural, economic, and political considerations (i.e., critical consciousness topics) and understand how design is impacted by these. Throughout the semester, you will also work as a team on a design project working directly with a community organization, ENLACE, in Little Village. ENLACE is a non-profit organization focused on “improving the quality of life of Little Village residents.”

 

ECE 491 – Special Topics

Audio and Acoustic Signal Processing
CRN: 41118 (3), 41119 (4), MW 3:00pm-4:15pm
Instructor: Ryan Corey, corey1@uic.edu
Prerequisites: ECE 317

Description: From smart speakers and hearing aids to teleconferencing and 3D music, audio technology plays an important role in our daily lives. This class introduces fundamental techniques in audio and acoustic engineering, including sound playback and recording, human auditory perception, room acoustics, and short-time Fourier analysis. It then surveys key audio processing applications including audio enhancement, echo and noise control, microphone array processing, hearing assistive technologies, and machine hearing. The course emphasizes hands-on engineering and research skills and is structured around programming exercises covering important audio processing techniques such as audio equalization, compression, noise reduction, and beamforming. Graduate students will also complete a research paper. The course emphasizes non-speech applications and is designed to complement ECE 491: Digital Speech Processing; the two can be taken in either order.


ECE 594 Special Topics

Smart Grid: Modern Distributed Power Systems
CRN: 42438, MW 3:00-4:15 p.m.
Instructor: Lina He, lhe@uic.edu

Description: The increasing integration of renewable energy sources (RESs) into the distribution power systems has required the use of power electronic converters as interfaces to match RES characteristics with power system requirements, such as voltage, frequency, and harmonics. The purpose of this course is to provide students with the ability to model and analyze distributed power systems and explore technical challenges and solutions related to distribution power systems with RES integration.

Introduction to Quantum Information Science and Engineering
CRN: 44918, TR 2:00-3:15 p.m.
Instructor: Zizwe Chase, chase8@uic.edu
Prerequisites: ECE-421 or PHYS-411 and MATH-310, or permission by the instructor

Description: This course will provide an introduction to the theory of quantum computing and information accessible to both graduate and advanced undergraduate students from all QIS-related backgrounds (ECE, PHYS, EP, Math, and CS).  Topics covered in this course include: 1) fundamental elements of quantum information processing (qubits, unitary transformations, density matrices, measurements); 2) entanglement 3) basic quantum algorithms 4) hands-on projects with state-of-the-art near-term intermediate scale quantum hardware and 5) intro to quantum error correction.

Quantum Engineering: Quantum Optics & Devices
CRN: 35505, R 1:00pm-3:50pm
Instructor: Thomas Searles, tsearles@uic.edu
Prerequisite:  ECE 594 Intro to Quantum Info. Sci. & Eng. or permission by Instructor

Description: This laboratory-based course will provide an introduction to quantum optics and devices accessible to both graduate and undergraduate students from QIS-related backgrounds (ECE, PHYS, EP, Math, and CS) through experiential learning performing experiments with current, near-term quantum technologies. It covers main topics in quantum optics, basic quantum information protocols and their implementation using quantum optics, and representative quantum device architectures (e.g., electron on Helium, transmon superconducting qubit and photonic qubits) for quantum information processing.  And the laboratory exercises aim to build skills across many qubit platforms teaching basics in programming of cloud-based quantum computers, FPGA readout of superconducting qubits and manipulation and measurement of photonic qubits.

Helpful Links

Note: See the undergraduate Student Resources page for a full selection of links.