All engineering students are required to seek advising from their faculty advisor prior to registering for the Summer and/or Fall 2024 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. 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 the week of March 11-15, 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 March 4, 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 March 4-8, 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

In an effort to improve undergraduate academic advising, students will submit an advisor evaluation at the end of their advising session. Advisor evaluation surveys will be conducted online and are mandatory. The survey takes less than one minute. The results are anonymous. Your advisor will provide the link to the survey. 

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 Fall 2024

The ECE department is offering several special topics courses in Spring 2024. 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 294 – Special Topic
Special Topics in ECE
CRN: 46832 (1), T 4:00-4:50 p.m.
Instructor: Renata Revelo Alonso, revelo@uic.edu

Description: The Early Research Scholars Program is designed to introduce ECE students to research in their first few semesters of undergraduate education at UIC. Students must apply and be accepted into this program. ECE 294 covers the first half of the program, where students will learn about basic research skills including: performing literature searches, data analysis, writing a research proposal, working effectively as a team, and presenting research results. For more information, please see ersp.uic.edu.

ECE 491 – Special Topics
Power System Analysis
CRN: 42804 (3), 42805 (4), MW 3:00-4:15 p.m.
Instructor: Line He, lhe@uic.edu
Prerequisites: ECE 210 or ECE 225

Description: This course will cover the important topics including the introduction of electrical power systems, principles and modeling of electrical power systems, power flow analysis, economic dispatch and fault analysis. It is intended to familiarize students with the fundamental knowledge of power systems and provide them the prerequisite skills to carry out engineering analysis. 

Power Converter Modeling, Analysis, and Control
CRN: 45537 (3), 45538 (4), TR 3:30-4:45 p.m.
Instructor: Mohammad Shadmand, Shadmand@uic.edu
Prerequisites: ECE 342

Description: This course encompasses dynamic modeling of power-electronic switching converters leading subsequently to the analysis and control design from stability and performance standpoints. Several practical examples will be provided to implement such methodologies for real-world applications.

Digital Speech Processing
CRN: 45436 (3), 45437 (4), MW 4:30-5:45 p.m.
Instructor: Ahmet Enis Cetin, aecyy@uic.edu
Prerequisites: ECE 317, programming

Description: This is an introductory course on speech processing. We cover how voice is encoded and transmitted in landlines and cell phones, and how speech is recognized in practical systems. The entire field of digital signal processing was actually started by processing speech signals.  FFT and Cepstrum were developed as tools in speech data processing. The course covers both the theory and practical aspects of speech processing.

Introduction to Quantum Materials and Devices
CRN 47601 (3) 47602 (4), TR 11:00-12:15 p.m.
Instructor: Lucy Shi, lucsyshi@uic.edu
Prerequisites: ECE 346 or consent of the instructor (students from other departments may k be well qualified).

Description: This is an introductory course on the science and engineering of quantum materials and devices. The intended audience are upper-level undergraduate students and first or second-year graduate students in Electrical Engineering, Physics, Materials and Industrial Engineering, Chemistry, and Chemical Engineering. We will start with the basics of electrical and optical properties of electronic materials. Afterwards, we will explore concepts such as quantum Hall effect, superconductivity, topological insulators, qubits, quantum sensors, followed with the state-of-the-art quantum material development, their emergent properties, and the quantum devices they enable. Although very helpful, a background in quantum physics, thermodynamics, or advanced mathematics is not required.

Helpful Links

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

• ECE course catalog page (EE, CE and EP)
• ECE courses page (curricula, flowcharts and other resources)
• ECE tracks
• Student forms (see Forms)
• Degree audit (uAchieve) (formerly Degree Audit Reporting System-DARS): provides an unofficial audit of progress toward the undergraduate degree that reflects courses in progress.