About the MS and PhD Programmes

Applications to the MS and PhD programme at IIT Madras are done through an online process that is centrally conducted by Institute through the IITM Research web site. Please follow instructions there. On this page you can find a few more details specific to the Electrical Engineering department.

Structure of MS and PhD the Programmes
The MS and PhD programmes include the following:

• Coursework: Minimum of 5 courses for MS and minimum of 4 courses for PhD with good academic performance.
• Thesis: High quality research resulting in publications in reputed international journals such as IEEE Transactions.
  

The PhD programme includes a comprehensive exam in addition to the above.

Research in the EE1 (Communications) group is carried out in the broad areas of Telecommunications, Signal Processing, Networking and Optics.
The Communications Group at the Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT Madras, consists of 16 faculty members and a vibrant group of master's (MS) and doctoral (PhD) students. These pages will give you a brief glimpse of the research and other activities in the group.

Research in the EE2 (Power Systems and Power Electronics) group is carried out in the broad areas of Power Systems, Power Electronics and High Voltage Engineering.

Research in the EE3 (Microelectronics and VLSI) group is carried out in the broad areas of Analog/Digital IC design and Fabrication/Modelling of semiconductor and optoelectronic devices.

Research in the EE4 (Control Systems and Instrumentation) group is carried out in the broad areas of Control Systems, Embedded Systems (including FPGA-based system design), Robotics and Instrumentation.

Research in the EE5 (Photonics) group is carried out in the broad areas of Devices and Components (including Integrated optoelectronics, Fibre Bragg Gratings (FBGs), Plasmonics, Optical MEMS, All optical logic), subsystems (including a combination of optoelectronic devices and mixed signal electronics for metrology and instrumentation) and optical communication networks (both at a physical layer and the implementation of algorithms and protocols at the service layer, and advanced encryption schemes using quantum key distribution).

Prospective students interested in our MS/PhD programme are encouraged to contact individual faculty members with similar research interests.

MS/PhD Selection Process
The selection is a two-stage process for each group - EE1, EE2, EE3, EE4 and EE5. Candidates called for selection should choose one of the three groups for consideration. The first stage is a written test (for syllabus, see below). Candidates selected in the written test will have to appear for an interview in the second stage of the selection process. Final selection will be made based on both the written test and the interview.

Syllabus for EE1

Signals and Systems by Oppenheim and Willsky, Second Edition, Chapters 1 to 10.
Discrete-time Signal Processing by Oppenheim and Schafer, Second Edition, Chapters 1 to 5 and Chapter 8.
Probability, Random Variables and Stochastic Processes by Papoulis and Pillai, Fourth Edition, Chapters 1 to 5.
Field and Wave Electromagnetics by David K. Cheng, Chapters 1-8 (OR)
Engineering Electromagnetics by W.H.Hayt and H.A.Buck, Chapters 1-12.

Solving all example problems and exercises from the above books is strongly recommended as preparation for the entrance exam. Sample questions from the written exams in the previous years can be found here.

Video lectures from NPTEL are available for Signals and Systems, Electromagnetics, and Digital Signal Processing.

Syllabus for EE2
The written examination will contain questions that aim to test the understanding of the fundamental principles that relate to the areas of activity of the EE2 group. These questions will be from

Control engineering
Power electronics
Electrical machines
High voltage engineering
Power System Instrumentation
Power systems

The students will need to answer as many questions as possible. Some sample questions may be found here.

Syllabus for EE3

Microelectronic devices: Ben G. Streetman, *Solid State Electronic Devices*, Prentice Hall, 4th Edition,1995. Chapters 1-7.
Electrical Networks: Hayt and Kemmerly, *Engineering Circuit Analysis*, McGraw Hill, 6/e. Chapters 1-10.
Digital electronics: Morris Mano, *Digital Design*, Prentice Hall, 3rd edition, 2001. Chapters 1-7.
Analog electronics: (a) Sergio Franco, *Design with operational amplifiers and analog ICs*, Tata McGraw Hill. Chapters 1-5, 8-10 OR (b) Sedra and Smith, *Microelectronic Circuits, *Oxford University Press, USA. (various editions). Part I, chapters 1,6 in Part II.

Solving all example problems and exercises from the above books is *strongly* recommended as preparation for the entrance exam.

Syllabus for EE4
The written examination will contain questions that aim to test the understanding of the fundamental principles that relate to the areas of activity of the EE4 group. These questions will be from Circuits (Digital & Analog), Control Engineering (including basics of linear algebra and robotics), and Measurements and Instrumentation. For the controls and Digital Circuits portion the text books to read from include:

K. Ogata, Modern Control Engineering, 4th Ed, Prentice-Hall, 2001
B.C. Kuo, Automatic Control 7th Ed, Prentice-Hall, 1995
M. Mano, Digital Design, 3rd Ed, Prentice-Hall, 2001
C. Roth, Fundamentals of Logic Design, Jaico Publishers, 2002

Syllabus for EE5
The written examination will contain questions that aim to test the understanding of the fundamental principles that relate to the areas of activity of the RF and Photonics (EE5) group. These questions will be from

Electromagnetics
Vector analysis, Static electric and magnetic fields,Poissons, Laplace equations, method of images,steady electric currents,Time varying fields and Maxwells equations,Plane electromagnetic waves in free space,Reflection & transmission off an interface, Snell's law, Waveguides, transmission lines and antennas
Solid State Electronic Devices and Circuits
Holes and electrons, Wave function of an electron, Density of states, Band diagram, Semiconductor Diodes, transistors, Operational Amplifiers (ideal/practical, op-amp circuits), Noise in circuits
Signal Processing
Fourier Series, Fourier Transforms, Frequency Response, Sampling Theorem, Causality, stability, linearity and time invariance of filters, FIR vs IIR filters, group delay in filters

Suggested books include Engineering Electromagnetics by Hayt and Buck, Electronic Devices and Circuit Theory by Robert Boylestead, Solid State Electronic Devices by Streetman and Banerjee, and Louis Nashelsky, and Signals and Systems by Oppenheim and Willsky. We also advise you to view the NPTEL lectures on electromagnetics http://nptel.iitm.ac.in, networks and systems http://nptel.iitm.ac.in, solid state devices and analog circuits.

The students will need to answer as many questions as possible. Sample questions can be viewed here

MS and PhD categories of application
The categories under which you can apply for MS and for PhD are given on pages 6 and 7 of the brochure (attached here for your convenience). Some of the categories require that you fill various forms. These have been collected for your convenience and are available for download here