Available Graduate Student Positions

The Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Montana State University is looking for highly qualified Master’s and Ph.D. students to commence studies in Fall Semester 2009. Candidates for the Master’s program should possess a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Physics or other appropriate field.  Candidates for the Doctoral program should possess a Master’s degree as well. It is our intention to support all qualified graduate students with either RA or TA positions (subject to availability of funding).

Presently, funded opportunities exist for Master’s and Ph.D. candidates with experience or interest in the following specific research areas:

Power and energy systems (Prof. H. Nehrir, Prof. S. Shaw)

• Control and diagnostics in fuel cell systems
• Intelligent near optimal energy management of multi-source alternative energy power generation systems in microgrid architecture
• Intelligent residential load control strategies for a smart house for enhancing power system performance

Communications (Prof. R. Wolff, Dr. Y. Huang)

• Wireless communications systems
• Adaptive antennas
• Ad hoc networks
• Optical communications systems

Imaging and optical science (Prof. K. Repasky, Prof. J. Shaw)

• Solar radiometer operation, data analysis and programming to measure optical properties of atmospheric particles
• Low-cost multispectral imager development for carbon dioxide monitoring, including optical, electronic, and mechanical hardware, along with software, data analysis, and field testing
• Optical remote sensing, including high-resolution and differential absorption LIDAR
• Infrared Cloud Imaging – work on developing hardware and software and conducting field experiments for infrared imaging of cloud statistics in support of Earth-space optical communications.

Micro- and nano-structured devices
(Prof. D. Dickensheets, Prof. W. Nakagawa, Prof. S. Shaw)

• Optical MEMS and miniaturized optical systems and optical instrument design
• Development of mirror sensing and control system for MOEMS
• Design, fabrication, and characterization of optical nanostructures for applications in photonic communications devices or chemical/environmental sensing

For more information about these research topics, please contact the indicated faculty members, or the graduate coordinator, Prof. Joe Shaw.

The priority application deadline is January 15, 2009, for all applicants seeking RA or TA support.

Applications from international students received by May 1, 2009, or domestic students received by July 1, 2009, can also be considered for Fall 2009 admission (subject to available funding).